Tame the peppery tousled watercress with the creaminess of the avocado and the distinct umami flavours of the ponzu salad dressing. This Gem Avocado Salad is a crazy easy salad that can be whipped up in under 20 minutes!
Cut the avocado in half, peel off the skin and discard the stone. Slice each half vertically into thin slices.
In a small fry pan, dry toast the nigella seeds for 1-2 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350°F.Coat the pepitas with tamari. Baste a sheet pan with ¼ tsp of olive oil. Spread out the pepitas on the sheet pan and place in the oven for 3 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Salad Dressing
In a small mixing bowl, add the ponzu sauce, rice vinegar, olive oil and sesame oil.Whisk until well combined.
Whisk until well combined.
Assembly
In a medium sized mixing bowl, add the watercress and ½ the ponzu salad dressing. Season with pepper to taste and toss.
Place the watercress on a plate. Let it overflow for a messy, jungle-like look.
Place the sliced avocado on the plate with the inside up.
Sprinkle the nigella seeds and tamari pepitas all over the salad.
Add the rest of the ponzu dressing all over the salad.
Season with pepper to taste.
Serve.
Notes
A good nigella seed substitute is cumin seeds or oregano seeds. You could use black sesame seeds too. The flavours are different but would work perfectly for this salad.
You can substitute pepitas with sunflower seeds.
You can get ponzu sauce and rice vinegar in the Asian section of your supermarket or an Asian grocer. If you have a Japanese grocer nearby, that would be your best bet.