Happy Friday!
I’m very much looking forward to the weekend, because later today my hubby and I are heading out on a little weekend getaway. It’s a place just a few hours away from home that we’ve never been to before….
Palm Springs! Just a couple of days full of what will hopefully be fun: relaxation, hiking, good food and exploring a new area. But first, onto today’s recipe!
This recipe will provide you with a good dose of produce. It’s vegan, gluten free, nutritious, and simple to throw together. Call me a nut, but it seems kind of fancy to me because it involves scooping the salad mixture back into the avocado skins.
And speaking of nuts, recently Blue Diamond sent me a few boxes of their Almond Nut Thins to play around with. They’re gluten free nut & rice crackers, and for some reason I immediately thought of scooping avocado with them. 
I got excited last weekend when I passed a farm stand that had a sign out for ridiculously cheap avocados – it was like 25 avos for $5, got to love California! – but they wound up being closed. I almost gave up on the idea of avocado cups, but instead settled for avocados from my local grocer for like 8x the price. Boo. But still worth it I think!
The recipe is simple and wholesome. We’ve got avocado, chickpeas, celery, red onion, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, fresh lemon juice, sea salt and crackers for scooping. That’s it!
My hubby wasn’t a huge fan of this recipe because he doesn’t love red onion, celery or chickpeas – so ya know, just like half the ingredients! – but I on the other hand was practically shoving this goodness into my mouth as I was photographing it, because 1.) it’s tasty, and 2.) I was in post-workout-gimme-all-the-food mode. If you workout hard, I’m sure you know the feeling!
I know I know, I’m a bad food blogger who plans on making and photographing recipes post-kickboxing session around dinnertime…which is never a good idea, but now that it’s light out late, I keep finding myself doing it. What can I say? I have this syndrome where I try to fix as much as I possibly can into a day!
Think I’m at all joking about eating 1/2 of the recipe as I was snapping pics? Check out the avocado under my finger nails. 🙂
Anyways, I hope that you have a fabulous weekend! I’ll be back next week with recaps of my getaway in the desert.
Avocado & Chickpea Salad Cups
Ingredients
- 2 avocados
- 1 cup canned chickpeas rinsed and drained
- 1 stalk celery
- 1/4 red onion
- 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
- 1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
- Lemon juice from 1/4 medium lemon
- 1/2 TSP sea salt
- Blue Diamond Almond Nut Thins for scooping salad with
Instructions
- Slice the avocados in half. Using a butter knife, carve the avocado halves out into bite-sized chunks, then remove from their skins gently. Place in a medium bowl.
- Chop the celery, onion and cherry tomatoes. Add to the bowl, along with the chickpeas.
- Drizzle the lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt onto the mixture and toss gently to combine well.
- Spoon the fruit & veggie mixture into each avocado skin. You'll have some excess salad that you can place in a small bowl, on the serving dish or set aside to eat another time.
- Use the Blue Diamond nut thins to scoop the avocado mixture out of the cups.
Nutrition
Tell me… Do you consider avocado and tomatoes fruits or veggies? I don’t care about technicalities, they’re veggies in my mind!
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Blue Diamond Nut Thins.
Oooo I love Palm Springs! It is so much fun and very retro. Have an awesome time!
So funny but I was going to make an avocado cup this week but went with a different salad. maybe I’ll try your recipe next!
Palm Springs is an interesting place – a resort town in the middle of the desert! It reminded me a bit of Vegas in that way, only not as built up and like you said, more retro feeling.
Have fun in Palm Springs! We have to check that out at some point.
Love the salad idea on the Nut Thins. I’ll eat your husband’s portion. LOL!
Come on over!! 🙂
This looks so fresh and easy! Love it!
Thank you, Ali!
Oh, these look so good, Nicole! I would pay anything for avocados because I love them so much but 25 for $5 is a pretty sweet deal. I’m glad you got around to making them anyway and I like the idea to scoop out the filling with nut thins!
I hope you have a blast in Palm Springs! I’ve only seen pictures but it looks unbelievably pretty!
I know, sometimes I totally overpay for them but I don’t even care. Got to have my avocados in the house! I throw them on so many things – toast, salads, quesadillas, and on and on!
This looks really good!! I love all of the ingredients and the fact that it is not a hot dish!
Thanks, Kim! Yup, the idea was just a fresh and easy salad mix in avocado cups… great for summertime!
This looks fresh and delicious. I hope you have a great time in Palm Springs – I have always wanted to go. It’s a long way from the UK though haha.
Honestly, I think that there are a lot of other more awesome places in Cali to visit anyways! But I hope that you make it out here sometime.
I love the idea of avocado cups filled with veggie goodness. Pinned.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Meghan!
Yum! These look delicious! I LOVE avocados so this sounds right up my alley! I’ve been using chickpeas in my Greek Salads lately too so this is a perfect addition to my lunchtime recipes.
Chickpeas are my favorite beans – love em! Hope you try it, Kellen!