Avocado
If you want a sure-fire bet, bet on me eating avocado today. This versatile fruit often gets categorized as a vegetable but regardless of how you classify it, this beauty can be halved, sliced, smashed, diced or dolloped as a side, condiment, or mix-in across each of the meals you eat in a day.
When to eat: Daily
I tend to eat anywhere from ¼ to a whole avocado each day. I stock up on them at the grocery store weekly.
Classification: Non-organic
In part because of their thick skins, pesticides have a hard time making their way into the fruit. At the rate I eat these green gems, I’m grateful to not have to pony up the extra cash for the organic version. Bonus, non-organic avos tend to be larger.
Where to store: Fridge
I tend to buy avocados that give ever so slightly when I squeeze and leave them on my kitchen counter for a day or so until they’re guacamole-ready. Not sure you know what that level of softness means? Pull back the stem, and if the flesh is bright green it’s ripe! From there I store them in a produce drawer in my refrigerator where they’ll stay perfectly ripe for 5-10 days.
Wholeness factor: Best
Straight-from-the-vine, unprocessed avocado is a source of healthy fats (repeat after me: fat does not make you fat) making it incredibly satiating. It’s loaded with B vitamins, folate, magnesium, potassium, vitamins C, E, and K, and helps promote absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.
How I eat it
Not only are avos a delicious, whole food staple but they’re also incredibly, almost jaw-droppingly versatile. Here are some of my favorite ways to serve up these bad boys across the day:
Breakfast
- Throw half an avo in your morning smoothie for a creamy dreaminess you’ll regret not having learned about sooner
- Sliced on eggs scrambled with steamed spinach and drizzled with your favorite hot sauce
- Smashed on a bagel with fat-sliced heirloom tomatoes and sea salt
- Nestled inside egg or tempeh breakfast tacos with beans and chunky salsa
- Diced and baked into omelets with seasonal veg like zucchini, tomato, mushrooms and broccoli
- Tossed into a cast-iron skillet of sautéed veggies and served alongside crusty bread
- Chopped and folded into or perched on top of any homemade or store-bought frittata and quiche
Lunch
- Halved & rolled in seeds (flax, pumpkin, sunflower) and arranged atop a gorgeous salad
- Sliced on deli sandwiches
- Diced into salads
- Smashed on quesadillas
- Tossed into bowls of cheese-based and cold pasta salads
- Alongside a BBQ sandwich
Snack
- Cubed and tossed with strawberries & lime juice
- Eaten with a spoon straight out of a half-shell sprinkled with salt & pep
- Sliced atop crackers with chunks of tomato or red bell pepper
- Smashed and served as a straight dip for corn chips and whatever raw veggies are in your fridge
- Guac, duh
Dinner
- Grilled with other veg. Simply halve, toss in EVOO & balsamic vinegar, and grill over medium-high heat alongside onion and seasonal squashes. Sprinkle with sea salt before serving. The umami-ness of grilled avo will blow your mind.
- Tossed into your salads – experiment with different dicing. Cubes, wedges, slices, smashed…
- Smashed onto your bison, turkey, chicken, bean, beet or tofu burger
- ¼ avocado sliced or diced to pair with any standard dinner plate of protein + grain + greens.
- Chopped and spooned on top of chilis, stews, and veggie soups
Dessert
- Smash a few tablespoons into brownie batter, chocolate cake batter, quick breads like banana and zucchini, or use as a base for creamy chocolate mousse. For cake and quick bread batters, you can normally get away with replacing half of the oil in the recipe with smashed avo, or you can just add a few tablespoons of avo for extra moisture.
