orange-avocado salad with fish sauce & almonds

Like bacon and eggs, or beans and rice, or chocolate and peanut butter, oranges and avocados just work. It’s an opposites-attract compatibility. Oranges are splashy and tangy; avocados are buttery and rich. You could put them together, dust with salt, and impress anyone. Which reminds me, there’s no added salt in this recipe. It hitches a ride from other places: the fish sauce and crunchy almonds (or any nut you fancy). Fish sauce—known as nước mắm in Vietnam, nam pla in Thailand, and gyoshō in Japan, to name a few—is a big-personality ingredient in many Asian cuisines. Made from salted, fermented fish such as anchovies, it’s invaluable anywhere you want an umami jolt. In this salad, it teams up with just-squeezed orange juice, inspired by Vietnamese nước chấm (fish sauce, water, lime juice, sugar—depending on the recipe) for a two-ingredient, no-oil-needed dressing. If you can, opt for including different-colored oranges (say, navel and Cara Cara). And do make sure to refrigerate them beforehand—it makes the whole dish a million times more refreshing. This is just as welcome in the summer alongside grilled anything as it is in the winter when you’re wanting a little sunshine. not-fish sauce If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, you might, understandably, be tempted to hop over this recipe. But don’t. While there’s no identical substitute for fish sauce, there are salty, umami-laden standbys, perhaps already in your pantry. Try soy sauce, liquid aminos, or a combo of the two.

Great

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Cut one orange in half and squeeze its juice into a glass—¼ cup (60ml) of this will go toward our dressing; the rest you can slurp up as a cook’s treat. Slice off the ends of the remaining four oranges, then stand them upright on the cutting board. Use your knife to remove the peel from top to bottom, getting as much pith as possible. Slice each orange crosswise into rounds and arrange these on a platter.

Step 2

Halve the avocados and discard the pits. Now halve each half and peel away the skin. Cut the avocado quarters into chunks and/or slivers. Distribute the pieces on top of the oranges.

Step 3

Add the fish sauce to the ¼ cup of orange juice and stir. Taste and add more fish sauce if you’d like, then pour over the oranges and avocados.

Step 4

Crush the almonds in a mortar and pestle until some are powdery, some chunky, and some whole (a cutting board and knife also works). Shower all over the salad.