Avocado White Bean Spinach Bowl (Printable)
Creamy avocado and white beans over fresh spinach with a bright lemon zest dressing. Ready in 15 minutes.
# What You’ll Need:
→ Salad
01 - 4 cups fresh baby spinach, washed and dried
02 - 1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced
03 - 1 cup canned white beans (cannellini or navy), drained and rinsed
04 - 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
05 - 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
06 - 2 tablespoons toasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
07 - Zest of 1 lemon
→ Creamy Lemon Dressing
08 - 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
09 - 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
10 - 1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt or plant-based yogurt
11 - 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
12 - 1 teaspoon maple syrup or honey
13 - 1 small garlic clove, minced
14 - Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
# How-To Steps:
01 - In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, yogurt, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, minced garlic, salt, and pepper until smooth and emulsified.
02 - In a large salad bowl, combine the baby spinach, diced avocado, white beans, sliced red onion, and halved cherry tomatoes.
03 - Drizzle the creamy lemon dressing over the salad and toss gently to coat evenly, taking care not to mash the avocado pieces.
04 - Scatter the toasted pumpkin seeds and lemon zest over the top. Serve immediately while fresh.
# Expert Advice:
01 -
- It assembles in the time it takes to queue at a takeout counter, but tastes like you actually tried.
- The creamy lemon dressing is the kind of thing you will start putting on everything from roasted carrots to grain bowls.
02 -
- Once dressed, this salad has a window of about twenty minutes before the spinach starts to wilt and the avocado begins browning at the edges.
- Rinsing canned beans under cold running water until the water runs clear removes up to thirty percent of the sodium and eliminates the slightly metallic taste.
03 -
- Choose an avocado that is perfectly ripe by checking under the stem nub, if it is green underneath the fruit is ready, if it is brown it is past its prime.
- Tossing the avocado cubes in a tiny splash of lemon juice before adding them to the salad creates an invisible shield against browning for at least an hour.