Southwest Chicken Salad

I have a special guest arriving today with multiple dietary challenges, including

• gluten free
• soy free
• egg free
• dairy free
• peanut free
• low fat

among other allergies and dietary requirements. She even has an intolerance for iodine; so she can't eat seaweed!

I wanted to make something that we could all enjoy on Shabbat, and that my guest could also eat when she comes. My husband went crazy for this. Inspired by Pressure Perfect by Lorna Sass, I created this festive low-fat chicken salad. I've done lots of gluten-free, egg-free experimenting in the last month. I hope to post some of those ideas this month, so stay tuned!

Homemade Flour Tortilla Wraps

My friend, Tzippy, made these amazing little tortilla wrap appetizers the last time my family was at her home.  I haven't been able to stop thinking about them.  Below is the recipe for the tortillas.  She filled them with avocado, alfalfa sprouts, and smoked salmon.  It was perfect.  She also suggested that it is fun to have lots of fillings out and have each guest fill their own.  Other fillings might include sautéed mushrooms, pesto, sun-dried tomato spread, tehina, omelet, sliced vegetables, avacado spread, chopped parsley, and even meat or cheese.

Avocado

Israeli avocados have very thin skins and large pits.  They are delicious, but if you try to use the usual methods of spooning out the meat or peeling them, the skin breaks apart and makes more work.  Hannah K. of CookingManager.com sent me this avacado video from Risa from Isramom.blogspot.com.  I was very exited to try it!



You can make a quick and delicious avocado salad with 1 to 1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice, one small clove of garlic, and one tomato per avocado.  Below is a video of Hannah making avocado salad in my food processor.  Lesson learned: know your equipment.  I cut out the part where she had to fish out the chunks of tomatoes and cut them by hand before putting them back in the food processor.  Hannah has a Magimix, which I remember hearing excellent things about on the Splendid Table.  If I want to make a non-mushy avocado salad in my low-end processor, I need to start with smaller pieces of tomato.