Grilled Avocado Salad with Flame-Kissed Tomatoes and Corn Recipe

Avocad-oh-yeah! That’s what I exclaimed upon the discovery that avocados can be grilled. Not only can this creamy green fruit be grilled, it should be tossed on the grates from time to time to bring a smoky flavor dimension to dishes that use smashed, sliced or halved avocadoes like guacamole or avocado toast. But, today I’m sharing an easy salad recipe that takes advantage of that sad little empty space when an avocado is cut down the middle and the pit is plucked out — Grilled Avocado Salad with Flame-Kissed Tomatoes and Corn.

Grilling the avocados for this salad (or any other recipe) is amazingly easy. The least messy way to grill avocados is to slice a ripe fruit in half length-wise and remove the large seed, leaving the peel intact. In this method, the avocados are grilled face down and grate marks form only on the flat side. But, by leaving the skin on, they are easier to handle on the grill with tongs and won’t fall apart into a mushy mess. With a firmer fruit, you can peel and grill on both sides, but they can still be fragile to handle.

Smoky taste and a unique presentation aside, another perk of grilling avocados is that leftovers stay good and green for a few days in the refrigerator. That’s because the exposed flesh has been brushed liberally with olive oil before grilling. This creates a seal that prevents both sticking to the grill and oxidization. There is no fate worse than setting an avocado aside for an hour and coming back to brown yuck.