Recipe: Avocado Stuffed with Spicy Shrimp

Living in a city where summers are beautiful but fleeting, any sighting of sunshine is reason to celebrate with bright, zingy flavors and simple salads. This lovely, clean recipe epitomizes spring and summer cooking. It can be put together in less than 10 minutes, and it works brilliantly as either an appetizer or a light lunch.

The inspiration for this recipe is my friend, Dani. Dani is Italian, and we met in graduate school when I was a fresh-off-the-boat student from India. Though I’d grown up eating delicious Indian food, I hadn’t been exposed to a lot of other culinary experiences. He introduced me to my first glass of wine (and consequently, my first hangover) and my first real Italian carbonara, and he led me to the realization that food doesn’t necessarily have to be complicated to be delicious.

Dani is a fabulous cook, and being Italian, one could always expect to have amazing food at his house. We cooked and ate a lot with each other, me introducing him to homemade Indian food and him showing me the secrets of Italian cuisine. We even tried some Indo-Italian fusion … though the less said about that, the better.

This recipe is a riff on one that Dani used to make often: avocados stuffed with soft, creamy goat cheese, served on salad leaves drizzled with a balsamic dressing. I totally appropriated the idea and added small sweet prawns, marinated in a fresh, tangy, spicy dressing. This combination works brilliantly, evoking South American ceviche-like flavors that are my go-to for spring and summer cooking. I like to serve it with a mixed baby herb salad with arugula to add sharp, peppery notes, and balance out both the rich creaminess of the avocado and the light sweetness of the mango.

All you need to do to serve is tear up a fresh, crusty baguette with butter, add a glass of chilled wine or sparkling apple cider, and that’s summer sorted.