Creamed Avacado and Lime Couscous?

Tonight's blog is another one from Pinterest that caught my eye. Creamed Avocado and Lime Chilled Pasta. It looked really green and creamy and who doesn't love a good avocado? I love avocados so much that I will eat them with just a bit of salt on them, but when cooking I have found limited recipes using avocados. Avocados? How about guacamole? More guacamole? Oh yeah, and you can use avocados for guacamole.  So this sounded like new and fun way to use avocados and wasn't guacamole!
 Now, the down side to this recipe is that it isn't super flavorful. This may be due to the amount of cilantro I used or the fact that I didn't really put any salt in the dish. Once I tried it,  I salted my portion and it was a bit less lack luster, but it was also competing against the really flavorful chicken with sun-dried tomato and basil sauce so I'm pretty sure chili would be lack luster against that dish (YUM!).  So the consensus between myself and sous chef Matt was that it would be the perfect side dish for a bar-b-q.
The upside? Easy to make (if you have a blender or food processor you're golden!), As a chilled dish you can make it ahead of time and have it ready for an afternoon bar-b-q, or make it one night and serve it for dinner the next and it seems pretty light even though it has a nice creamy texture.
Now, silly me got all this ready and cut up and then when I went to grab the pasta for this to go over, I realized I was out of pasta! How this happened in my house, I still have no idea. I'm the girl who usually picks up the gigantic 8 pack of pasta from the big box store or waits until the high fiber whole grain pasta is 10 for $10 at the grocery store, but some how this pasta lovin' princess was OUT. So I did what I always do. I improvised. So let me introduce you to my pasta substitution for the night.

Trader Joe's Harvest Grain Blend. 

This is a blend of Couscous, orzo, baby garbanzo beans and red quinoa. I usually just boil this in chicken stock and put a bit of garlic olive oil over it and it is DELICIOUS. But for this purpose I just boiled it in water. This is Matt's FAVORITE pasta substitute so I usually have plenty on hand.
Here is what this delicious blend looks like after its been cooked.

Now, I only used this because I was out of pasta, so if you don't have a trader Joes near by, fear not! Just use plain ol' pasta or fun shaped pasta and you'll be just fine.

As always, here is the link to the original recipe with much more appetizing pictures of the finished product.
http://norikoburky.com/?p=91

And now for the recipe:

Ingredients

• Pasta of your choice ~1.5-3 cups depending on how "saucy" you like your pasta
• 1 ripe avocado
• handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
• Juice from 1/2 lime (aprox. 1 1/2Tbsp)
• 3Tbsp light mayonnaise
• 1clove of minced garlic (or 1 cube. I love my garlic cubes!)
• salt & pepper
• chopped cilantro and/or jalapeno for garnish

 Cook pasta (or couscous) and run cold water over the pasta to cool it after it has cooked to al dente. Allow to cool further in the refrigerator, or continue to flush with cold water until desired temperature is met.

Peel and quarter avocado and place in food processor. Add cilantro, lime juice, mayo and garlic to the food processor.

Run food processor until the mixture has incorporated fully and is smooth looking.

Mmmmm Smooth and greeny!

Spoon mixture onto pasta/couscous

I know I know, it looks like what that girl from the exorcist spit out at that poor priest, but it was really tasty.

Mix the sauce in with the pasta/couscous until it covers evenly. I used just over 3 cups of couscous so the sauce was much lighter than the original recipe called for.

Its not easy being green, but it sure is yummy!

So, lesson learned is that although this didn't look terribly appetizing, it was really pretty tasty and mild. It would pair perfectly with a nice juicy burger or a grilled portabello mushroom. It may be a bit better with the normal pasta, but even using the harvest blend it was pretty tasty! I think you could try this with some basil and lemon juice, or even oregano, which nearly happened since my sous chef/husband is still learning which fresh herbs are which. We've had a couple lessons on "This is parsley. This is cilantro. They look similar, but smell VERY different." A concept that is hard for a person who doesn't have the greatest sniffer to understand. We're working on it...
Anywho, please try it out and let me know what you think!
Happy Eating!