How to Prepare Avocado

My How to Prepare Avocado guide is my cop out way of not calling avocado toast a recipe! My step-by-step guide shows you how to cut and remove avocado flesh quickly and easily before mashing with lemon and salt. Ready to go in 3 minutes!

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I’ve seen so many people butcher avocados in the most horrific way that I simply had to write a how-to-guide. There is a very simple method to safely extract all of the flesh ready for a good mushing.

I’ve written this guide to extract avocado in little chunks which are perfect for mashing. However, should you wish to extract half an avocado in it’s entirely, simply skip step 4. The flesh will then come out whole providing you are carefully scooping it out with a spoon.

It is also possible to merely slice the avocado in one direction and then remove it in slices.

My guide has prescribed the inclusion of lemon juice and salt. This makes the avocado absolutely ready to pop onto toast or wherever else you’d like to pop it. The lemon juice is essential to ensure that your avocado doesn’t turn instantly grey. The salt stops it tasting like cack!

For a more fully loaded avocado dish, why not try my Guacamole recipe?

Make Avocado into a Feast

I truly believe that you can make any dish into a proper feast! Whether thats a feast for one after work on a Tuesday, a casual feast for four on a Friday evening or a feast for 12 for a special occasion!

Avocado is a great addition to many of my Americana inspired feasts. It is already the main ingredient in Guacamole. Plus sliced avocado makes a brilliant topping for my Vegetarian White Bean Chili. And it is fab smeared on my Breakfast Biscuits. Yum!

How to Prepare Avocado – Ingredients

Avocado

Firstly I only ever buy hass avocados. These are the darker, wrinkly-er skinned variety rather than the smoother green skinned variety. Most places, including the supermarkets stock both.

Most supermarkets also stock a ‘ripe and ready’ pack and a ‘ripen at home pack’. This is essentially the equivalent of selling both yellow and green bananas. They’re dearer but I do tend to buy the ripe and ready versions. Despite their promises, these sometime still need a day or two out of the fridge to reach optimum ripeness.

The others can take weeks although putting them next to some bananas will help them ripen quicker.

So once you’ve decided that your avocado is soft enough to be yielding and ripe, but not too far gone and brown, you can play avocado roulette. Start digging in.

Lemon Juice

Fresh squeezed lemon is always preferable but if I’ve been organised enough to find myself with a perfectly ripe avocado on the day I want one, the chances of my also having procured lemons is slim.

Bottled lemon juice is therefore perfectly acceptable. I also always keep a bottle in my pantry (along with a bottle of lime juice which would also be a great substitute).

Salt

I use Maldon Sea Salt Flakes for everything except salting pasta and boiling vegetable water. But for adding to cooking or baking, I always use sea salt flakes. I think this is especially important where the flavour is prominent such as here or when poaching eggs.

You can use fine sea salt or regular old school table salt. In this case, you will want to halve the quantity as this salt is much stronger in flavour.

Make it Allergy Friendly

My avocado recipe is free from nuts, gluten, dairy and eggs.

Please note that this recipe may contain other allergens not referred to above and any variations suggested have not been tested unless otherwise stated. For more information regarding any dietary information provided on this website, please refer to my Nutritional Disclaimer.

How to Prepare Avocado – Equipment

There is very little equipment needed to mash an avocado and none of it could be considered specialist!

I like to use a small sharp knife when dealing with an avocado. I find a larger knife a little unwieldy and potentially dangerous.

A comprehensive list of the equipment used to make this recipe is included in the main recipe card below. Click on any item to see an example. There are no hard and fast rules so many items can be sensibly substituted to achieve the same results.

How to Prepare Avocado – Step by Step

Step 1

Use a sharp knife to cut 1 Avocado in half length-ways, running the knife around the stone. Twist the two halves in opposite directions until they pull apart.

Step 2

Using a little height and force, hit the stone in its centre with the knife blade.

Step 3

Twist and pull the knife and the stone should come out still attached to the knife.

Step 4

Using the knife tip, score the avocado flesh into small squares. Take care not to cut through the skin. Repeat for the second half.

Step 5

Use a large spoon to scoop the flesh out into a bowl.

Step 6

Add 1 tbsp Lemon Juice and 0.5 tsp Sea Salt Flakes to the avocado.

Step 7

Stir the lemon and salt through the avocado with a fork whilst mushing the avocado against the sides of the bowl.

Step 8

Continue mashing until everything is combined and the avocado is fully smushed.

Step 9

The mashed avocado is then ready to be served or for any other flavourings to be stirred through.

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Instructions in Brief

How to Prepare Avocado

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My How to Prepare Avocado guide is my cop out way of not calling avocado toast a recipe! My step-by-step guide shows you how to cut and remove avocado flesh quickly and easily before mashing with lemon and salt. Ready to go in 3 minutes!

5 from 6 votes

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KEEP SCREEN ON

Prep Time3 minutes mins

Cook Time0 minutes mins

Total Time3 minutes mins

Servings 2

Author Chloe

Equipment

• Sharp Knife – Small
• Mixing Bowl – Small
• Measuring Spoons

Ingredients

 

MetricUSA Measurements

 

0.5x1x2x4x

• 1 Avocado
• 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
• 0.50 tsp Sea Salt Flakes

Instructions

 

• Use a sharp knife to cut 1 Avocado in half length-ways, running the knife around the stone. Twist the two halves in opposite directions until they pull apart.
• Using a little height and force, hit the stone in its centre with the knife blade.
• Twist and pull the knife and the stone should come out still attached to the knife.
• Using the knife tip, score the avocado flesh into small squares. Take care not to cut through the skin. Repeat for the second half.
• Use a large spoon to scoop the flesh out into a bowl.
• Add 1 tbsp Lemon Juice and 0.5 tsp Sea Salt Flakes to the avocado.
• Stir the lemon and salt through the avocado with a fork whilst mushing the avocado against the sides of the bowl.
• Continue mashing until everything is combined and the avocado is fully smushed.
• The mashed avocado is then ready to be served or for any other flavourings to be added.

Nutrition (Approx)

Calories: 162kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 588mg | Potassium: 487mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 145IU | Vitamin C: 13mg | Calcium: 12mg | Iron: 0.6mg

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