Caprese Salad Bowl with Tomato, Mozzarella & Avocado

Juicy ripe homegrown tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, avocado, crisp lettuce and some peppery olive oil. That’s pretty much all this Caprese salad bowl is, but oh my, it sure has a wow factor. And the recipe is perfect for a light summer lunch or side dish.

As I mostly work from home, I often eat lunch alone. Mostly I have an omelette or something on toast, but occasionally it’s nice to make a bit more of an effort. Not that this Caprese salad bowl with avocado and lettuce is much of an effort.

What Is Caprese Salad?

As the name suggests, this famous Italian salad, Insalata Caprese, comes from the Isle of Capri. Other than this known fact, all bets are off.

There’s a story of it dating back to World War I when it was invented by a patriotic mason to represent the colours of the Italian flag; another came about when King Farouk of Egypt asked for an afternoon snack whilst exiled in Capri in the 1950s and received a bun stuffed with mozzarella, tomatoes and basil.

The original Caprese salad was allegedly made with cow’s milk mozzarella, tomatoes, olive oil and garnished with fresh oregano and rocket. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but these days it’s basil that makes up the green element of this colourful dish.

Slices of tomato and mozzarella are laid out on a plate with basil scattered over them and a drizzle of olive oil. It’s usually served as a starter.

As Caprese salad is so simple and has very few ingredients, they all need to be tip top. Get the best ripe and juicy tomatoes you can find. Large or small, it doesn’t matter, it’s the flavour you’re after.

Buffola mozzarella cheese is richer than that made from cows, it’s easy to get hold of fresh basil and the olive oil should be cold pressed and flavoursome.

Homegrown Veg

I used the first of our homegrown tomatoes for this recipe – red ‘Latah’, ‘Indigo Rose’ and golden ‘Ildi”. It’s very exciting to be able to grow tomatoes once again – a few years have elapsed since we’ve produced anything worthwhile.

We also grew the lettuce, basil and chives you can see in this Caprese salad bowl. We’ve only made a small start on the garden this year, but our small harvest has nevertheless been most satisfying.

Caprese Salad Bowl With Avocado And Lettuce for One

Some people can get very sniffy about messing around with this Italian classic, so if you’re one of those, best not go any further. My Caprese salad bowl has additions.

I was served insalata Caprese in a bonafide Italian restaurant once. It had slices of avocado laid out between the mozzarella and tomatoes and was one of the best starters I’ve ever had.

Don’t worry about using half a mozzarella ball. The other half will keep perfectly well in the fridge until the next day as will the remaining avocado, if well wrapped. No salt needed for this zingy summer salad, but you can always add a pinch if you feel you need to.

This gorgeous caprese salad bowl was so good, I ate it just as it was for lunch. The next day I had it again. You can of course double the quantities for two people, which would result in no leftover cheese or avocado.

If you’d like to add even more oomph to the salad, try marinating the cheese for an hour or so first. You can use this recipe for marinated mozzarella balls. Use the marinade for the salad dressing and just add lemon.

For something a bit more substantial, some good bread to mop up the juices would make an excellent accompaniment. In fact CT and I have enjoyed this for supper on many an occasion this summer.

Other Cheese Salad Recipes You Might Like

• Black bean & bulgur wheat salad with feta
• Cottage cheese salad
• Nectarine salad with mozzarella and tomatoes
• Quinoa, watercress, walnut and blue cheese salad with roasted asparagus
• Vegetarian salade Niçoise

And on this very subject, I happen to have a useful recipe collection post for all the summer salad recipes you will ever need.

Keep in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make my Caprese salad bowl, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.

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If you’d like more avocado recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.

Choclette x

Caprese Salad Bowl with Avocado. PIN IT.

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5 from 2 votes

Caprese Salad Bowl with Avocado & Lettuce for One

Juicy ripe tomatoes pair beautifully with mozzarella cheese, basil and avocado to produce this luscious summer caprese salad bowl for one.

Cook ModeToggle to keep screen awake

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Total Time10 minutes mins

Course: Lunch, Side Dish, Starter

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: avocado, easy, mozzarella, quick, salad, summer, tomatoes

Servings: 1 person

Calories: 429kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

• 3 medium tomatoes or 6 to 8 smaller ones – make sure they are ripe and juicy
• ½ mozzarella ball drained
• ½ ripe avocado peeled
• 3-4 crisp lettuce leaves
• 6 basil leaves torn
• 4 chives snipped
• ½ lemon juiced
• extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Instructions

• Tear the lettuce leaves and place at the bottom of a bowl.
  3-4 crisp lettuce leaves
• Cut the avocado and tomatoes into chunks and lay over the lettuce.
  ½ ripe avocado, 3 medium tomatoes
• Tear the mozzarella into pieces and scatter on top of the tomatoes.
  ½ mozzarella ball
• Throw in the herbs then squeeze the lemon juice over everything. Lastly drizzle on a little olive oil.
  6 basil leaves, 4 chives, ½ lemon, extra virgin olive oil

Notes

The unused mozzarella and avocado will keep perfectly well in the fridge until the next day if well wrapped.

No salt needed for this zingy summer salad, but you can always add a pinch if you feel you need to.

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on serving size and exact ingredients used.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories: 429kcal | Carbohydrates: 26.6g | Protein: 15.1g | Fat: 32g | Saturated Fat: 4.2g | Sodium: 23mg | Potassium: 1287mg | Fiber: 11.3g | Sugar: 10.8g | Calcium: 79mg | Iron: 3mg

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below letting us know how you got on and do share a photo on Instagram. Tag @choclette8 or use hashtag #tinandthyme.

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I’m sharing my Caprese salad bowl with #CookBlogShare which is hosted by Gluterama this week.