Comments on: Avocados!

Question: Avocados!

i_am_joe's_spleen — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 14:37:28 -0800

Avocadofilter! My Dad has a very productive tree and gave some to us. I have 8 that are all ripe at once. Sick of guacamole, tried pasta sauce, had them on toast - what else can you do with them?

By: dual_action

dual_action — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 14:42:54 -0800

They are yummy sliced on a toasted bagel with tomato and spicy mustard (and mayo if you like). Or is that too much like toast?

By: padraigin

padraigin — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 14:44:02 -0800

Chop them up and put them in gazpacho.

They are quite delicious in salad.

Do you know any babies? They are perfect baby food, just as they are. They're also a fantastic food for pregnant women and nursing mothers--a very healthy fat.

Mashed up, they are lovely as a face mask, or rubbed on dry elbows and knees. Leave it on for a few minutes, then wash it off.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 14:58:11 -0800

face mask, definitely.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 14:58:30 -0800

My favorite avo treat is to mash them up and slather them on corn on the cob instead of butter.

Avos are also a fantastic natural thickener. If you add them to soups or smoothies or puddings or what have you, the other tastes usually overpower them, and you're left with all of that tasty, healthy fat.

My absolute favorite recipe in the whole world is

MOLESTED KALE SALAD

One bunch of dino kale, deribbed and torn up
One or two avo, sliced
One tomato, chopped
A little cayenne
Some salt (I like a lot)
The juice from half of a lemon ( I like more)

Just put it all together in a big bowl. Start picking up the kale and bruising it and smashing it, together with the rest of the ingredients. You're trying to soften the kale, and while you do that, the rest of the ingredients are melding together and making a fantastic salad dressing. Keep kneading and massaging everything for about five minutes. The kale will be nice and soft, and your hands will be a mess. Lick all of the extra bits off of your fingers, and enjoy the salad.

By: Verdant

Verdant — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:01:53 -0800

Add to Mache (lamb's lettuce) and sliced strawberries as a salad. Delicious and all of five minutes to prepare.

By: luriete

luriete — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:12:43 -0800

Guac lasts indefinitely when frozen without any air bubbles to brown it.

By: signal

signal — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:14:05 -0800

Mash up, add salt, grill some chicken, toast some bread and make an awesome sandwich. Extra points if you put roast peppers on it.

By: the fire you left me

the fire you left me — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:24:51 -0800

Enter : Epicurious.

By: jasper411

jasper411 — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:36:30 -0800

Make sushi! Get some fake crab, avocado, sticky rice, nori, and you've got California rolls!

By: silusGROK

silusGROK — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:56:44 -0800

Wow, luriete... I didn't know that: I'm going to have to experiment with that! Of course, I imagine a healthy dose of either lime juice or powdered vitamin C would do the trick vis a vis oxidation.

One of my favorite ways to eat avocado?

As a shake!

A little milk (or soy milk), banana, ice, honey, and ripe avocado... mmm. The shake will taste mostly of banana — the avocado gives it body and a buttery nuance.

By: scody

scody — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 16:06:50 -0800

silusGROK, that's definitely how I keep my guacamole from turning brown -- a little squirt of lemon or lime juice does the trick.

As for me, my favorite summer salad is just a chopped ripe avocado, a chopped ripe heirloom tomato, plus salt & pepper and a simple vinaigrette. Gorgeous. I could eat it all day.

By: lobakgo

lobakgo — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 16:07:50 -0800

Sliced with ruby red grapefruit sections on a bed of bibb lettuce and dressed with poppyseed dressing. Very pretty and very yummy.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 16:11:42 -0800

I'm eating banana/avocado "ice cream" right now. You break up 2 bananas and chop up one avo and put them in a ziplock, then put them in the freezer for about 6 hours. You then throw them in a blender and add just the teensiest bit of oj or pineapple juice or water, a spoon at a time, until it starts to blend. You usually need to add about 4 tablespoons worth. Let it blend for about 30 seconds. You'll end up with a yummy, super creamy, icy cold, pretty, thick (and any other adjectives you want to throw in there) soft-serve, that's all good for you.

By: luriete

luriete — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 16:30:52 -0800

I make a lot of summer salads from my garden this way.

Heirloom tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, avocado. Dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, pomegranate syrup, coarse black pepper and sometimes a little bit of egg if I'm in the mood.

Whoever suggested gazpacho, I second that. Great on a hot day.

By: plinth

plinth — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 16:39:33 -0800

Another avocado ice cream. My ice cream maker came with a more savory recipe, but I can't seem to find it...

By: anathema

anathema — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 16:59:03 -0800

Mmmm guac.

By: O9scar

O9scar — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 19:01:11 -0800

A simple trick is to take an avocado half and and put some soy sauce in the seed hole. Then carve out chunks with a spoon, taking a bit of the soy each time.

By: taz

taz — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 19:38:12 -0800

Two of my favorite recipes:

make a salad of corn kernels, black beans, chopped red pepper, cubed avocado, and (optional) shredded chicken, crab, or shrimp, and serve over a bed of lettuce.

Sautee three chopped green onions with a bit of diced garlic and throw in some bacon or pancetta (optional), then half an avocado, cubed. Mix up 4-6 eggs with some parmesan or regato cheese and a little milk and then scramble gently in the pan with the onion/avocado mixture and serve over toast points.

By: samh23

samh23 — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 19:50:40 -0800

Slice 'em up and deep fry them. Seriously. You can't lose (except, yknow, it's not as healthy as the above suggestions).

By: Secret Life of Gravy

Secret Life of Gravy — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 19:54:42 -0800

Cream of Jalapeno Soup

1/2 TB unsalted butter
5 Jalapeno chilies, minced
1/2 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 C diced tomatoes
1 Avocado, diced
2 Quarts of heavy cream
1 bunch cilantro, stemmed and chopped

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over med. heat. Add the jalapenos, onion, and garlic and saute until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the tomatoes, avocado, and cream.

Bring the soup back to a simmer, watching and stirring on low heat so that cream does not separate. Cook for 30 minutes to reduce by 1/3. Season with salt and pepper. Just before serving, stir in most of the cilantro saving some for garnish.

Worth every calorie!

By: adrober

adrober — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 20:12:35 -0800

There was a recipe on the cover of Gourmet a few months back involving an avocado BLT. If I remember correctly it was bacon, tomato, avacado and sprouts and some kind of homemade mayo. Maybe you can find it on Epicurious... (Oh, and that's another good resource: type avocado into Epicurious.com and I'm sure you'll get a batillion options.) Guac on.

By: armchairsocialist

armchairsocialist — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 22:18:09 -0800

Slice in half, fill the seed hole halfway with balsamic vinegar and halfway with olive oil. Salt and pepper all over.

Or, avacado completment cassé: mashed avacado mixed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil on toast, garnished with chopped scallions, salt, and pepper.

When I am in California, I eat one or the other every day for lunch.

Also, I remember once having a salad at a restaurant: the avacado was spooned out of the skin, mashed up with some sort of sauce, some tomato, whatever, and spooned back into the skin to 2/3 full. Baby cocktail shrimp were then mounded on top. It was pretty yummy.

By: taz

taz — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 23:03:20 -0800

I bet this is fabulous: Avocado and Crab Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms.

And avocado.org has a searchable recipe database. You can view by category, or put some other ingredient in the search field and get avocado recipes with that ingredient, if there are any.

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 23:11:05 -0800

Thank you everyone - it's dinner time, and now the problem is one of too much choice. Yay.

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Sat, 04 Sep 2004 07:26:54 -0800

Sliced in half, pit removed. Sprinkle lightly with Lawry's Seasoned Salt. Eat with a spoon. YUM! Vegetarian food that tastes, I kid you not, like beef steak!

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Sat, 04 Sep 2004 08:11:46 -0800

Salsa!

By: Nelson

Nelson — Sat, 04 Sep 2004 14:32:46 -0800

Lime juice and sugar. Makes a yummy fatty desert.

By: gen

gen — Sat, 04 Sep 2004 20:41:07 -0800

Sliced relatively thinly, served with wasabi and soy sauce for avocado sushi...

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Sat, 04 Sep 2004 22:35:54 -0800

Sick of guacamole

I can only imagine that you have not yet made it with enough garlic, or you could not possibly use such a heretical phrase...

And: iconomy, you are a revelation, as always. It's 1:30 in the morning, I'm on my way to bed, and I now want to go out on the town and find an all-night grocery store to make one of your recipes...