This rich yet guiltless stone fruit is loved by many and provides good fat and antioxidants, an ingredient that easily completes daily nutrition when incorporated in snacks and meals.
Their warm, earthy taste and incredibly dense and creamy texture make this pulpy green mush so versatile.
You can prepare and eat in different ways.
When cooking Mexican or along Mexican channels, avocados know how to brighten up those bright, peppery tomato-ey and fresh flavors. As a snack it is healthy, energizing and delicious as dip for chips or meat or simply sliced if firm and batter fried. In desserts it could even be a ghost ingredient that replaces the fat content in baking or make it the star by serving avocado shakes, frozen treat version or simply sliced with a sprinkle of brown sugar, sea salt and olive oil. Avocado cakes or soufflés are possible too!
Guacamole is an easy way to go and all you have to do is mush some avocado, salt, pepper, paprika, diced tomatoes grated garlic and cilantro and olive oil to top it off, extra virgin is a better garnishing olive oil. You can add more seasoning if you like. Besides tortilla chips you cam make this a stuffing for a vegan taco that happens to be good. You can even use crispy bacon chips as another dip option, great for parties.or midnights.
Fried avocado is interesting and pretty amazing when pulled off well with good dips. Firmer, less ripe avocados are great for this. Slice them cold and fairly thickly like around ¼ or 1/3 inch thick. Have a plate of seasoned flour and another of bread crumbs. You can have the egg wash in between if you want for a richer, thicker batter. Deep fry on medium high heat, then medium in canola, grapeseed or pomace oil. Serve with a hot sauce like Srirachia, a garlic cream, a mint mayo, it is up to you. I suggest at least 2 dips and at least one is spicy.
It is a superfood!
Avocados are high in the good calories, solid energy your body can fully utilize to sustain and repair. It really helps lower cholesterol and bad fats if you eat avocados to replace some supposed bad fats like processed junk food, sugary stuff and excess pork or beef fat. Of course exercise really, really helps and is as important as diet itself. Exercising helps you access all the nutrients you put in, even good food can get stored as fat if you do not move around.
Imagine that not even a whole avocado, assuming you get big ones, an ounce of that has 150 calories! No panic, as I mentioned earlier it is high in good calories, good fat. Great for exercise use, definitely infinity times better than cake and soda. There is also 3g of carbs in that and 2g of fibre along with a whopping 150mg of potassium. 100 grams of the fruit has around 480 mg of potassium.
Every ounce has 27% of our required folate or vitamin B9. B9 control the levels of homocysteine in the blood which is an amino acid that is broken down into usable, smaller parts with the aid of B vitamins. Too much of this protein and too little vitamin B9 leads to blood complications along with inflamed blood vessels, dizziness and stomach problems. It contains 4% of vitamin B6 which like its B-complex family is held heavily responsible for cell communication and organ function, hormones too of course. Avocados also have 1% of calcium, iron, copper and phosphorous with 9% magnesium.
Storage
Avocados are real fragile, so treat them with respect. Best ways to store:
- Refrain from cutting avocados if you do not need a whole lot. Whole avocados are fine, place them in a clean fridge and they can last up to a week or more if you got them quite raw. You can also freeze them whole if they are really soft and for some reason can’t use them yet.
- If they are already diced or cut just stop and leave those chunks as is. Squeeze lemon juice or white vinegar on the pulp with a coating of olive oil. The acid is needed to sustain color while the olive oil further on protects its condition.
- If your avocados are uneven with dark spots and are starting to get way too soft then you can either consume right away or place in a freezer. Mix in lemon juice and some olive oil in the mush and into a ziplock to be frozen. Ideal for avocado dips.
