Switching gears again, this was a lovely dinner. It was a very attractive presentation and wonderfully flavorful It was also pretty quick and makes a great weeknight meal.
Well, we knew the heat was going to come eventually and it has. The weather in DFW has been a real scorcher of late with triple digits the norm. We hit 107 F this week. Weather like this just drains you. You hate cooking inside because the house gets hot. So, you’re always looking for quick, easy, refreshing meals to fix. This is one of those recipes. We simply didn’t know what we wanted for dinner. I had been messing with Quickstep’s car and was pretty drained from the heat. Although a nice bright salad would have been nice and refreshing, I wanted something a little more substantial yet without a lot of work. I had some beautiful salmon steaks in the freezer and a couple of small, ripe avocados along with a variety of fresh veggies from the farmers market. Assessing the situation and food inventory, the wheels began to turn. Now things began to crystalize in my mind. Why not a spaghetti pasta dish with a nice, refreshing sauce with an ancho crusted salmon on top? Oh yah, and a little Serrano chile for a touch of kick for the Baby Lady. A little chipotle chile powder for some smokiness. That’s the ticket.
You see, we had not had a pasta dish in over 4 months. So, a pasta dish was perfect. We really like pasta but don’t eat a whole lot of it because of our diet and expanding waistlines. Nevertheless, pasta is quick, easy and always flavorful. When life is hectic, work is busy, you’re not in the mood for something complex and you’re looking for something for a weeknight meal, pasta always fits the bill and I was in the mood for pasta. So, pasta it was. 🙂
Although this recipe may look complex at first glance, it’s not. You dice a few summer veggies, grill an avocado and puree it, boil some pasta, season and grill the fish. Viola, you’re done. It’s not hard at all. From start to finish, it takes roughly 30 minutes to prepare. Further, we got to use the grill outside so as to minimize heating the inside. Quick, simple, pretty and tasty. How can you beat that? This is what we did.
Ingredients
- 2 small avocado
- 1/4 cup lime infused olive oil, plus some for drizzling at the end (good quality olive oil can be substituted for lime infused olive oil)
- i cup cilantro, rough chop
- 1 lime, juiced
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp Chipotle chile powder
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 cup zucchini, small dice
- 1/2 red onion, small dice
- 1 Roma tomato, small dice
- 1 Serrano chile, small dice (2 if you like it spicy 🙂 )
- 3 salmon steaks, 8 oz each
- ancho chile rub (recipe found here)
Instruction
First things, first. Since this is a pasta dish, fill a large pot with water and a handful of salt. Put on a burner and bring it to a boil.
While the pasta water is heating up, cut an avocado in half, brush with olive oii and place on grill flesh side down.
Grill avocado until soft and you get some nice grill marks,. It’s OK to let it go a little further because you are going to put this in a food processor and no one will see the grill marks.
Scoop out the flesh and put it in a food processor.
Add cilantro,
the lime juice,
salt and chipotle,
and now the garlic.
Process to make a purée.
With the processor running, stream in the olive oil.
Taste and adjust seasoning, as needed. Set aside.
In a separate bowl mix the red onion
serrano chile
salt
zucchini
lime juice
and a drizzle of lime infused olive oil,
Stir gently and let sit to meld the flavors. Do not add the tomatoes at this time because the veggies are going to macerate in the lime/salt mix. Adding the tomatoes at this time will make it too watery.
Liberally season the salmon steaks with the ancho chile rub.
Lightly oil and place on grill and cook 2 – 3 minutes, depending upon how you like your fish.
Turn and cook another 2 – 3 minutes.
While the salmon is cooking, place the spaghetti in boiling water and cook until pasta is al dente. This takes roughly 8 minutes so time this carefully. When done, the salmon should already be done and resting.
Add tomatoes to the other veggies.
Add avocado puree to the vegetables.
Mix until well incorporated.
Drain pasta into a bowl and add the avocado sauce to the spaghetti.
Toss the past to blend the pasta and sauce together. Place a serving of pasta in the middle of the plate.
Place a salmon steak atop the pasta
Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and drizzle with some more lime infused olive oil
Serve & enjoy! If you want a little extra brightness, serve with lime wedges in a bowl on the side.
REMCooks 
Wow that looks AMAZING. Well done for a weekday meal. Im very impressed!
Hi, Laura. Thanks for dropping by and your very nice compliment. It was very tasty, indeed. Hope to see you around. 🙂
This is absolutely fabulous!
Thanks, Rosemary, for the very nice compliment. It was very delicious, indeed. 🙂
Wow. What a great recipe! I still haven’t tried grilling avocado. I never think of it. But I must.
Hi, Virginia. Thanks for the compliment. Grilling avocados is fun and different. Everybody puts avocados in sandwiches, salads, dips, etc. We do, too, but I really like doing different things with them. One of these days I’m going to do a post of a dessert with an avocado ice cream I make. 🙂
That would be interesting!
Great presentation & photos, plus a truly a fabulous recipe. I’m very impressed how you just “whipped this up”!! Pinning it “fer sure” !!
Thanks for the nice compliment, Cecile. This really hit the spot. 🙂
Eerie that in my Dublin Goes DFW series, I am posting something incredibly similar on Tuesday. I did opt for the simple salad. We also cooked outdoors as we enjoyed it during our 2 week heatwave. I love the idea of the avocado sauce mixed through the pasta. Very refreshing, I’m sure.
Hi, Conor. I’m looking forward to seeing what you did. The ancho rub goes so nicely with salmon and the avocado was a very nice accompaniment. 🙂
This is a perfect dinner as far as I am concern. It has created a little sense of urgency for me to run out and get everything I need to recreate this tonight! I really like the pasta with the avocado sauce. Nice!
Thanks for the very nice compliment. 🙂 Everything about this meal was in perfect balance and we really enjoyed it. If you give it a try, let us know what you think.
OH yes!!! Quick, fresh and bright. And definitely a contender for that salmon I plan on catching very soon! OK, fingers crossed on that one.
Hi, Kathryn. Thanks for the compliment. The salmon should be running about now so I expect to hear about that big one soon. 😉 It’s hard to beat freshly caught salmon. When it’s that fresh, I eat it sashimi style. 🙂
This really looks amazing!! Can’t wait to try the avocado sauce…
Hi, Stéphane. Thanks for the nice compliment. The avocado sauce is really nice. and went beautifully with the pasta. 🙂
Wow. An avocado in a sauce. Brilliant idea! What does the grilling add to the avocado? Maybe a dumb question…
Thanks, Mimi. We like to do different things with avocados. Have you ever had avocado ice cream? It’s pretty tasty. One of these days I’m going to do a post on it.
Grilling the avocado softens it and adds a nice grilled/roasted flavor to it.
Hi Richard, four months without pasta would be punishment for us, as we have it about four nights each week! I did cut down on the amount we serve each day though, to 1/2 lb for 3 servings. The sauce reminds me a bit of guacamole. Thanks to you I’ve started grilling avocados, and really like them that way. I finally bought a spice mill (hand cranked!) and am going to make your ancho rub soon!
Hi, Stefan. If we ate pasta 4 nights/wk, I would weigh 500 lbs! We really like pasta but the carbs are just too much. When I was younger I could eat anything. Now, I look at food and gain weight. 😮
The sauce is similar to a guacamole but it is much thinner and guacamole has no added oil. It was a wonderful sauce for the pasta and paired beautifully with the salmon and ancho seasoning.
When you make the ancho chile rub, you need to post a photo of the spice mill. I’d love to see what you purchased.
You can count on me posting a photo of the spice mill 🙂
Really nice! We have some avocados coming in our next Full Circle Farms order and we already have ancho chilies and smoked chipotles on hand, so we’ll give this a whirl!
Hi Barbara and Jack. Thanks for dropping by and posting such a nice compliment. This is a wonderful combination and given you’re in the land of fabulously fresh salmon, this should be an over the top meal. 🙂 If you give it a try, let us know what you think. 🙂 Hope to see you around.
Well, now we know where all the hear has gone. After that stifling stretch of a few weeks ago, we’ve been mired in the 70’s, finally reaching the low 80’s yesterday. You really cooked that salmon to perfection, Richard, and this is the 2nd time in recent days where I’ve seen avocado used in a pasta dish. I bet its creaminess works very well and have to remember to pick one up. I wish I could come up with something like this on the spur of the moment. Thanks for sharing a great dish and meal.
Yah, John, the devil came back to Texas in all of his scorching glory. The summer hasn’t been too bad. They commented on the weather this morning that we have only had 19 triple digit days all summer but I promise you 11 of those days have been in August. When the heat came, it came with a vengeance.
This is a pretty fun meal and was different. We really liked the combination of the salmon with the pasta. You could eat the pasta by itself but the salmon really complimented and accented some of the flavors in the avocado sauce. Truly delightful.