Avocado Jelly Salad

The avocado is a food without rival among the fruits, the veritable fruit of paradise…

David Fairchild

South Africa has an abundance of avocados. I remember, when growing up, when avocado season was upon us you can buy them by the box. We were fortunate enough that my dad works in agriculture so whenever he went out to have meetings with farmers, he will come back with crates of fresh produce – one of which were avocados.

Since South Africa is so rich in produce, we have to find ways to use it all up. I was reading a couple of blogs this morning when I stumbled across this article from Serious Eats: A Social History of Jell-O Salad. It reminded me of the days when us as a family would gather on a Sunday (I am part of a big family and growing up we could easily be 50 people if everyone turned up!). Everyone will be responsible for bringing one salad and one meat dish. Since South Africa’s temperatures are fairly hot, it almost always resulted in someone bringing some form of jelly salad. My most favourite one is the Avocado Jelly Salad. It has a cold, creamy texture and a very tangy taste. It has to be eaten super quickly as it does melt easily!

Here’s one I made the last time I visited home:

Ingredients

• 80g Lemon or lime jelly powder (here in England we don’t have powder so I would probably just use 3/4 of a packet of jelly cubes)
• 125ml boiling water
• 250ml Mashed Avocado
• 125ml Mayonnaise (the South African version of mayo is more like Salad Cream here in England, so that is what I would use)
• 1 small onion, finely grated

Method

1. Melt the jelly in the boiling water. Set aside and allow to cool, but not set.
2. Mix avocado, mayo and onion and then slowly mix the cooled jelly into the avocado mix.
3. Rinse (grease if needed) a jelly mould with cold water (don’t dry) and pour avocado mixture in. Place in the fridge until set, overnight is best.
4. When ready to serve, unmould the salad and decorate with tomatoes, fresh avocado and cucumber. Serve immediately.

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I do love to do a bit of nail art, especially if I can make it food or travel related! So here I’ve stumbled across the MoYou London Hipster 19 Stamping plate. You won’t believe me if I say to you that this took me a good 6 hours to do! Shocking, I know, but I really did love the outcome 🙂

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