Yaz's Blog

Making Yaz Salad

[This is a re-post. Was originally found on a tumblelog that never got updated. So I moved it here to make sure I didn’t loose it].

A little history behind this. As a kid I grew with the pickiest eating habits; I didn’t like grains, vegetables, chicken, milk, cereal, tomato sauces, etc. So my mom held onto the things I did like as hard as a lifeline. My diet consisted of a variation of avocados, hearts of palm, tomatoes, steak, potatoes, pasta and mangoes.

And lucky for me, on most Venezuelan steakhouses you can find steaks and a ‘vegetable’ salad made out of sliced avocados, tomatoes and hearts of palm. It was pretty straight forward, just slices not touching each other arranged on a plate drizzled with regular white vinegar and oil.

Fast forward 15 years. I successfully outgrow all most of those pesky habits; mostly because I moved countries. So I am in Canada, and missing some basic homey-childhood flavors. To my surprise, most of my friends love this. Oh and its not called Yaz Salad cuz I’m self-absorbed, its because its too tedious to say “avocado, hearts of palm and tomato salad”, plus nobody else had ever done it, it kinda stuck. heh.

I’ve been making this for a few years, so its evolved in that time. This recipe is to my perfect version of it. This will make a serving for 2 people.

Ingredients:

- 1 can of Hearts of Palm. Generally always impossible to find in a store, ask someone because they’ll have like, 4 cans.
- 2 avocados (best way of choosing: try poking one with your finger, it should give a little, if they don’t, then they are not ready; generally they are also browinish on the outside when they are ready). Also, if its your first time making the salad, by 3, just in case one is not good. You can always save them for later and eat them with a bit of salt. :)
- 1 little basket of grape tomatoes (I find they are the most flavorful).
- Salt & Pepper
- Red Wine Vinegar, balsamic also works, but its best with red wine vinegar.
- Olive Oil

Step 1.

Cut up the hearts of palms in slices. The best hearts of palms are the ones that almost fall apart in the process. If they are hard (and you take a bite of one and its too hard) it will make the texture of the salad kinda weird. I would not add them.

Put in a big bowl when its done.

If you’re only making salad for one, cut up about 2 or 3 of them (depending on the size), and leave the rest on your fridge. You might need to eat them relatively soon though, because the water they ‘soak’ in might start smelling after a week or so.

Step 2.

Grab a handful of tomatoes and cut them up in half. I decided to add yellow ones as well as red ones. But red ones are more than enough, they are very juicy and flavorful. When done, put in the bowl as well. The idea is that the juices from the tomatoes go in the bowl too.

Step 3.

Slice the avocado from top to bottom, going around. Twist both sections against each other to open.

Step 4.

Carefully dig the knife into the pit and twist it clockwise (or whatever way you like) to get it out.

Step 5.

Cut them up in slices. If any sections are brownish, remove them.

Step 6.

With your hand, remove the peel from the back and throw away. Cut them up in little slices after and put in the bowl.

Step 7.

Almost there. Drip some olive oil and mix the ingredients a bit. Add some salt, and mix. Add pepper and mix. And last add red wine vinegar. Mix it all together. Shake it a bit. Taste it, if its a bit too bland it might be missing salt.

Final Result

It goes really well with some pizza (pictured below), or with steaks, chicken…