ORANGE,JICAMA, AVACADO SALAD

It's way too hot to cook these days.The temperatures are soaring and the air conditioner runs constantly. Even the thought of firing up the BBQ seems to take too much energy. To be truthful, people around here don't have much of an appetite but let's face it, you have got to eat., at least I do. So why not a salad as a main meal?
The original recipe is actually made with watercress, but as you can see I didn't have any, although I did make a special trip to the green grocer especially for it, as luck would have it , they were all out, not a bunch in the entire store, but the jicama was there, something that is usually much harder to obtain...go figure!
I will write the recipe below for the watercress salad, keeping in mind that you can make many substitutions. The salad was refreshing, healthy with a really great, clean tasting vinaigrette .

WATERCRESS SALAD WITH ORANGE,JICAMA,AND AVOCADO
the juice from  2 fresh lime
1 serano chili, thinly sliced
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 navel oranges,sliced, removing the pith and membrane
2 bunches watercress, large stems removed
1 small jicams peeled and finely julienned
1 ripe avocado peeled, pitted and sliced
In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, chile, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste. Pour in the oil in a thin steady stream while whisking constantly and thoroughly emulsified forming a vinaigrette. Set aside.
Prepare salad and orange slices,marinade jicama in extra lime or lemon juice.
Just before serving, drizzle the vinaigrette over the watercress mixture, carefully fold in the avocado slices, Taste and adjust the seasoning ,serve at once.

JICAMA
Is a member of the large legume family,the crunchy,ivory fleshed, brown- skinned jicama is a tuber used throughout Mexico. Its bland taste benefits from being marinated raw in lime juice or from being combined with fruits and vegetables.
Before using, peel away the skin and the fibrous layer beneath it with a sharp knife.(If jicama is hard to find you can substitute apples for it. In Ottawa, I found mine at the Asian store called T&T, Farm Boy carries it occasionally, ask for it.)