British Bistro Smoked Salmon Avocado Toast Recipe

Going out to brunch is a wonderful way to spend time with good friends and family over what is possibly the most delicious meal of the day. However, sometimes it can be just as easy, and far more cost-efficient, to bring brunch to your own dining table, and this recipe will help you do just that. This British bistro smoked salmon avocado toast, created by Tasting Table recipe developer Jennine Rye, is exactly the kind of simple yet decadent dish you might find at your local brunch joint or cafe in the U.K. 

Healthy as well as delicious, this dish uses fresh avocados mashed with a creamy and tangy combo of crème fraîche and lemon juice. This is spread liberally on crunchy sourdough toast before being topped with rich yet delicate Scottish smoked salmon. A fancy brunch offering wouldn't be complete without a generous helping of toppings, and this smoked salmon avocado toast is finished off with red onion, a dollop of crème fraîche, toasted mixed seeds, and fresh chives, giving you a super flavorful and nutritious dish that can be on the table in under 15 minutes.

To begin this British bistro smoked salmon avocado toast recipe, first you will need to gather the ingredients. You will want a pair of ripe avocados, lemon juice, crème fraîche, sourdough bread, a garlic clove, smoked salmon, red onion, chives, toasted mixed seeds, salt, and black pepper, as well as fresh salad leaves to serve on the side.

Cut avocados in half and scoop out the flesh, discarding the pits and skin.

Add avocado, lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon crème fraîche to a bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Use a fork to mash the avocado with the other ingredients until it is well combined but still has some chunky texture. Set aside.

Toast bread in a toaster or under the broiler until golden.

Rub each slice of toast with garlic.

Spread mashed avocado mixture onto each slice of toast.

Top avocado with smoked salmon slices.

Add red onion slices and dollops of the remaining crème fraîche.

Garnish toasts with fresh chives and toasted seeds.

Serve with salad greens on the side.

The simplicity of this smoked salmon avocado toast recipe means it's easy to adapt in a variety of ways, whether for dietary restrictions or your personal preferences. To add more variety to this dish, the type of bread used can be substituted for a different kind — try toasted rye bread, Irish soda bread, or even bagels to pair with your avocado and salmon. 

To jazz up the avocado mixture, why not try adding lime juice instead of lemon? This is a great way to use up any citrus fruits you may have lying around. To kick the avocado up another notch, you could consider adding different fresh herbs — such as parsley, basil, dill, or chervil — or incorporating the chives into the mixture as well as using them for a garnish. A pinch of smoked paprika, cumin, or cayenne pepper could also add a delicious smoky or spicy punch to the mashed avocado. 

Roasted cherry tomatoes make a great addition to this meal as a topping, with their tart sweetness complementing the pungent red onion and chives. For a more filling topping, add a poached or fried egg. Finally, drizzling on different kinds of oils can add a refined and flavorful finishing touch to this dish — we recommend chive, dill, or garlic oil. 

It is well-established that smoked salmon and avocado are a match made in heaven, and it's why you'll find this undeniably delicious duo cropping up time and again at every brunch establishment you visit. But what exactly makes smoked salmon, well, smoked salmon?

You may have noticed that there are a variety of types of cured salmon, each considered to be delicacies and each with their own unique processes and resulting flavors. Perhaps the most well known of these are smoked salmon, lox, and gravlax. While smoked salmon and lox are both cured using salt, gravlax, which is of Nordic origins, is instead cured in a mixture of salt and sugar, along with herbs for added flavor. The key difference between smoked salmon and lox is that smoked salmon goes through a smoking process after it has been cured, and it is often cured in salt for a much shorter time than lox. These salmon types have a very similar texture but markedly different flavors; lox is briny, whereas smoked salmon has a smoky finish.

To make things even more complex, there is also hot smoked salmon, which has a similar smoky finish but a meaty and flaky texture, like that of a baked fillet of salmon. Although each of these salmon varieties is delicious, the flavor and texture of cold smoked salmon make it the ideal choice for this particular avocado toast dish.