Vegan Greek salad with avocado

Greek salad is a winner every time. It's SO easy to throw together and gives a really summery feeling. Although it's good to have a version that doesn't always rely on the feta cheese. I love feta - but we know that dairy needs to be a rarer treat given its impact on the environment.

So I've swapped out the feta here and added in avocado, chickpeas and green leaves. You may be thinking, but aren't avocados bad for the environment too? Well here are some stats for you:

Carbon footprint (kg CO2 eq / kg) : Feta = 14.8, Avocado = 0.92

Land use (m2 / kg): Feta = 17.5, Avocado = 1.3

Water use (L / kg): Feta= 1,370, Avocado = 367

So you can see that the environmental impact of feta is much higher than avocados. The same is true for almost any dairy product vs plant, which is why reducing the amount of meat and dairy you eat is one of the best things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.

Serves 2

Ingredients

(The measurements are approximate as you can use whatever ratios you enjoy)

Handful tomatoes

1/2 red onion

1/4 cucumber

1 avocado

Handful black olives

Good quality olive oil

Approx. 250g cooked drained chickpeas. If you can get jarred ones, they taste so much nicer.

Approx. 60g bag salad - I like spinach, rocket and watercress as it holds dressing better. The bitter flavour of these varieties indicates a higher polyphenol level - which means it's even better for you than milder varieties like ice-berg.

If your serving this as a main, I'd add a dollop of hummus or tahini dressing.

(Tahini dressing: Whisk the juice of 1 lemon with 1.5 tbsp high quality tahini until smooth. Season with salt and pepper)

Method:

1. Chop the tomatoes, slice the cucumber and onion, and peel and cut the avocado.

2. Put it all in a bowl with the olives, chickpeas, 2 tbsp olive oil and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Give it a good mix and check the seasoning. Without feta you may need a little more salt.

3. Add the leaves, toss again, then serve.