Walnut Guacamole and Spinach and Orange Salad

It's warm enough now to have lunch outside on the deck some days. A loaf of good bread, a couple of salads and you're done! We spread the guacamole on the bread and serve the spinach salad alongside.

The spinach and orange  salad is ridiculously easy using only these two ingredients and a generous splash of extra virgin olive oil. Baby spinach leaves would be best for this salad but we had larger leaves in the garden that needed picking and surprisingly they tasted just fine. But I would avoid using a bunch of elderly supermarket spinach leaves.Our own New Zealand oranges were lovely and sweet, nice to be able to use locally grown fruit. A sliced avocado and some toasted and coarsely chopped macadamia nuts made a nice addition when we ate it again the following day.

Walnut Guacamole:

Ingredients:
1 large or 2 medium  avocados mashed
A handful of chopped flat leaf parsley and coriander
1/2 cup of roughly chopped walnuts
2 medium tomatoes (squeezed to remove seeds and some of the liquid) then chopped
1/2 small red onion  peeled and chopped
Juice of a lime
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil ( I used Two Black Dogs extra virgin olive oil)


Mix together and season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Spinach salad.

This is one of the easiest salads you could possibly make . The oranges provide sufficient acidity so there is no need for vinegar in the dressing. A tasty extra virgin olive oil does make all the difference!
To make it simply peel some oranges and slice. Arrange some baby spinach leaves and orange slices in a shallow bowl. Dribble over plenty of extra virgin olive oil ( I used Two Black Dogs extra virgin olive oil). Add some salt if you must!