I suppose I had them when I very little, but I was fifteen when I remember vividly meeting my first avocado, bundled with rice in a California roll. But I was not enamored. It was a fat thing, though I am entirely over that now and I have learned that eating them will not lead to a life lived in elastic waist bands.
I now suffer a pleasant addiction. And it seems I’m not alone. I asked on Facebook for people to share their favorite ways to eat them and got an outpouring of responses!
Ways to eat an avocado
Nearly naked…
- Scooped out with simple sea salt (Many said how much they loved them plain)
- In chunks, drizzled with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pepper, and salt (Carmila V.)
Spread on toast/bread/crostinis and topped with …
- Thin cucumber slices (Yonni W.)
- Sliced kiwi (Eating This Week)
- Red pepper flakes (Alex N.)
- Tomato slices and onion with feta (mix feta into the avocado) (Martha V.)
- Poached egg (Laura Z.)
Or like this…
- Cubed along side shrimp in a salad plus garlic and lemon juice (Nathalie B.)
- Added to coconut milk soup – add when soup’s slightly cooled (Nathalie B.)
- Mixed with edamame puree for a twist on guac (Betsy M.)
- Blended into a smoothie (Fooducopia)
- Mushed up in salad in lieu of dressing (Jessi H.)
- Added on top of spicy black bean omelet (Sally G.)
- With red cabbage, red onion, and jalapeno, dressed with orange juice and olive oil (Carole H.)
- Cubed with grapefruit segments and thin slices of fennel (Emily Y.)
- Cut in chunks and paired with mozzarella, basil and drizzled with olive oil
I also learned that many people eat them as dessert. With chocolate on top, and made into ice cream and whipped up into a cheese cake. Seriously.
Like Nathalie B, I too like love them alongside shrimp, so I grilled up some shrimp (the marinade was olive oil, garlic, honey, red pepper) then I made a simple avocado puree with soy sauce and crushed garlic and dipped each bite of shrimp into it.
I also love them very simply cubed with the soy sauce drizzled over them. Yes, I like salt. Confession here.
What’s so great about them anyway
- By far the fattiest fruit out there (about 75% of the calories are from monounsaturated fat), but good fat is good;we need it to assimilate fat soluble vitamins (A,D,E,K).
- High in several of the Bs (including folate), moderate level of C, and E, and a bit of A
- Super high in potassium (higher than bananas)
- High in insoluble fiber
- Filled with enzymes which help digestion. (Other fruits that bring their own enzymes are bananas, papaya, kiwi, mangos – perhaps this is why we often feed these to children.)
The lesser known stuff
- Unlike most fruit (but like bananas), they mature on the tree but don’t ripen until picked, which is why they’re so often rock hard at the store.
- They ripen from broad-end to stem-end, so if you’re only cutting a small piece, start at the fat-end.
- Avoid excess heating as it releases bitter chemicals (that’s the “one way not to” )
- The actual word avocado comes from the Aztec word “ahuacatl” which means testicle because of the shape. Nothing more to say on that.
How to win them
The only downside to avocados is when you want them ripe, they’re always hard. Enter Wholly Guacamole emergency guac and avocados in a pouch. I rarely promote branded products because I take great pride in pretending that it’s 1890 and I must wait for market day to buy my unbranded farm products. But the other day a box filled with pouches of guacamole (and salsa) arrived on my doorstep. (Yes, it’s one of the perks of the job – some people get a paycheck, I get avocados.) My love for guac is enormous and avocados don’t grow north of the 35th parallel – the avocado cut-off line- so it’s not like I either eat their avocados or buy them locally up the road.
The guac and plain avocado “mush” is delicious (they don’t use chemicals or unnatural anything, including flavors) and it’s still avocado green after being frozen and thawed.
They’ve agreed to give a bunch of products to two people! One winner will be chosen from the commenters on this post and one from friends on The Sweet Beet Facebook page. So to enter, either leave a comment, saying your favorite ways to eat avocados or click here to go to the The Sweet Beet FaceBook page and click LIKE at the top of the page.
If you want to double your chances of winning, do both! If you have avocado addicted friends, pass this along…
Share with us how you eat them! Click here…
Related Posts (More avocado recipes from The Sweet Beet)
Sauteed Cabbage with Avocado
Quinoa with Adzuki Beans and Avocado
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