This Green Bean Avocado Salad is a copycat of a popular salad at a charcoal chicken chain in Sydney called Chargrill Charlie’s. Their chicken is ok. But they do really good salads!
This salad is made with soft cooked green beans, tomato and avocado with a sprinkling of chopped capsicum/bell peppers and red onion, then tossed with a creamy avocado dressing. Love the avocado on avocado in this. 🙂
Green Bean Avocado Salad –copycat recipe
Chargrill Charlie’s is a charcoal chicken chain here in Sydney. I don’t really go for their chicken. But they are known for their salads!
This Green Bean Avocado Salad is a copycat of one of their more popular ones which I’m sharing pursuant to a reader request. Green beans, tomato, little bits of capsicum/bell peppers and red onion, and the clincher:double avocado. Avocadoin the salad AND the creamy avocado dressing.
It costs a mighty $7 for a small tub. It didn’t cost much more than $7 to make a giant bowl of it at home!! (Mind you, green beans were on sale for $2.50/kg – that’s 2 pounds! If you’re long on green beans too, head over to myGreen Bean Recipes.)
Avocado on avocado – in the dressing AND in the salad. Because nobody ever said “there’s too much avocado in this!”
What goes in Green Bean Avocado Salad
Here’s what goes in the salad:
Thegreen beans seem raw (or borderline raw) at Chargrill Charlie’s. For this salad, I think it’s nicer cooked (steamed). And not just “tender-crisp” cooked, but fully cooked to soft. Just melds together better with all the other stuff in the salad.
Alternatives to green beans
Haven’t tried, but I imagine asparagus and broccolini would be terrific alternatives to the beans (similar shape and texture).
What goes in the Creamy Avocado Dressing
And here’s what goes in the Creamy Avocado Dressing:
I actually wrote up the dressing as a separate recipe (though I’ve also included it in the recipe card below) because it’s terrific to use for any salad when you want a creamy dressing fix without the guilt! Here’s the Creamy Avocado Dressing recipe – which also includes a bunch of flavour variations (ranch, Caesar, Italian, Mexican, to name a few).
How to make it
No rocket science here. Steam the greens, chop the veg, blitz the dressing them bring it all together!
Heads up: it looks pretty and colourful right up to the point you start tossing. Then it doesn’t look so attractive – I feel like that’s the case with most creamy dressings.
So it might look like a bit of a mess, but it’s mighty tasty!
Serve it as a side or a light meal!
I know the obvious way to serve this is as a side dish but that hasn’t happened once around here! I’ve been having it for lunch, and even as a light supper because it’s got more oomph than most side salads. I’veadded protein in various forms –
cooked chicken (Foolproof Juicy Poached Chicken is my “make every week” standby)
can of tuna (other forms of canned fish would be ideal too)
chopped hardboiled egg
Some crusty breador soft rolls on the side wouldn’t go astray. Or for a faster option, savoury muffins – either these Cheese Muffins or Mediteranean Muffins.
As a side dish, it would go with any protein but I think it would be particularly great with chicken or fish. Here are a few suggestions:
Mains to serve with this green bean salad
Lastly, this recipe will make more creamy Avocado Dressing than you need. It’s a bit hard to make less, from a blitzing perspective. It will keep for 3 days and doesn’t go brown. Use for your next salad, or for dunking (bread, crackers, chips, veg). – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Green Bean Avocado Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing
Author: Nagi
Prep: 20 minutes mins
Side Salad
Western
5 from 20 votes
Servings6 - 8
Tap or hover to scale
Recipe video above. Copycat of a popular salad at a charcoal chicken chain in Sydney called Chargrill Charlie's. I don't go for their chicken. But they do good salads! Love the avocado on avocado in this. 🙂
Haven't tried but I imagine asparagus and broccolini would be terrific alternatives to the beans (similar shape and texture).
Serves 6 to 8 as a side, 3 - 4 as a light meal with crusty bread or soft rolls.
Ingredients
Green Bean Salad
- 500g / 1 lb green beans , ends trimmed, cut into 5cm / 2" pieces
- 3 tomatoes , cut into thin wedges
- 1 avocado (large, or 2 medium) , diced into 1.5cm / 2/3" pieces
- 1/2 red capsicum / bell pepper , diced
- 1/2 red onion , finely diced
Creamy Avocado Dressing:
- 1/2 cup ripe avocado (smush into cup to measure, or estimate - 1/2 medium avo)
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tbsp sour cream or yogurt (Greek or plain, unsweetened) - OPTIONAL (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove, small , minced using garlic crusher (Note 2)
- 4 tbsp water (to thin out, it's very rich!)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Instructions
Dressing:
Place all ingredients into a Nutribullet or small food processor and blitz until smooth (including any Extra Flavouring Options suggested in the standalone Creamy Avocado Dressing recipe).
Use water to thin to just pourable consistency (so it's not super gloopy and thick). Taste and add the following to taste: salt, pepper, lemon, oil.
Salad:
Steam green beans using method of choice until soft (I microwave, 5 minutes on high). Drain then leave to cool and dry.
Place remaining salad ingredients in a large bowl with the beans. Drizzle with half the Dressing. Toss. Serve with remaining Dressing on the side.
Presention note: It looks a bit of a mess once tossed. If you're serving to impress, just drizzle the Avocado Dressing over and take to the table like that (see in post, it's much prettier!).
Recipe Notes:
1. Sour cream or yogurt - adds bit of fresh creaminess to this dressing. Still very tasty without.
2. Garlic - best to use a garlic crusher because it makes the minced garlic "juicy" which is perfect for dressings (rather than minced using a knife - garlic pieces are dry - this is perfect for high heat cooking like stir fries).
3.Serving options -as a side dish, or as a light meal with crusty bread or savoury muffins / quick bread. Try one of these: Easy Crusty Artisan Bread, Soft Dinner Rolls, Cheese Muffins, Mediterranean Muffins, .
4. Storage - keeps for 3 days in the fridge, avocado dressing won't go brown. (Only reason I wouldn't keep for longer is the fresh garlic in the dressing - if you exclude or sub with 1/4 tsp dried garlic powder, it should be good for up to 5 days).
5. Nutrition per serving, assuming 8 servings.
Nutrition Information:
Calories: 144cal (7%)Carbohydrates: 11g (4%)Protein: 3g (6%)Fat: 11g (17%)Saturated Fat: 2g (13%)Cholesterol: 2mg (1%)Sodium: 159mg (7%)Potassium: 441mg (13%)Fiber: 5g (21%)Sugar: 4g (4%)Vitamin A: 1128IU (23%)Vitamin C: 29mg (35%)Calcium: 37mg (4%)Iron: 1mg (6%)
Keywords: avocado recipe, avocado salad, Avocado salad dressing, green bean salad, healthy creamy dressing
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Life of Dozer
I love the way he doesn’t even pretend to be interested if there’s nothing he likes in my lunch.
