#TPMkitchen: Ways to Enjoy Avocado

It's avocado season! Is anyone here celebrating with me?

Fellow avocado lovers, you have to agree with me that bringing home a beautiful looking one is a good fortune that should be celebrated. When I get my hands on one, I slice them, fan them out to a long line, then turn them into avocado roses. 

 I like to play with them using my sharpest knife and make them into works of art, and show them off.

That's why befriend your fruit vendor to get dibs on the nice ones. Whenever I pass by my suki fruit vendor in the market nowadays, I always include a kilo or two of avocados. From P250/kg a few months ago, P150/kg na lang sya ngayon.

The perfect avocado should neither be too hard nor too soft, should yield a bit to gentle pressure, maintain its shape when sliced, and feels buttery inside our mouth. YUM!

Don't you feel letdown when you slice open an avocado to find the inside mushy, fibrous (ma-ugat) and dotted with dark spots? Paasa lang di ba? 

But not to worry, even the less-than-pretty ones can still be turned into gourmet treats. Just mash them and use as dip, guacamole or spread. I'll be sharing with all of you ways on how we enjoy avocado season.

Ways We Enjoy Avocados

Some of my favorite ways to serve avocados are quite simple.

Slice and put them on ciabattas or baguettes (we prefer crusty bread) with eggs, cold cuts, smoked salmon etc as open-faced sandwiches. Drizzle with caramelized balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt and pepper for extra flavor.

As I've said, if they are not so pretty, then I mash them and spread on top of bread pa din. My family is none the worse for wear.

Having avocados on open-faced sandwiches is a very simple thing to do that my 13-year old son can help himself to one. His version has sliced avocados drizzled with caramelized balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with salt, freshly ground pepper and chili flakes.

We also cut them up and add to our poke bowls

want to make your own poke bowl? I share the how-to's here.

As additional topping for taco nights

Shrimp + Avocado + Quinoa Salad

Shrimp + Avocado + Quinoa Salad with Nachos is even better!

The addition of avocado makes for the creamiest and dreamiest hummus. I will share the recipe in a future post.

Of course, being Pinoys, we tend to eat our avocados as dessert by default. Avocado shake is usually top of mind and the easiest, too!

Ginawa na namin siyang homemade avocado ice cream

Diced avocados drizzled with condensed milk on top of home made gluten free waffles

recipe for gluten free waffles here

Diced Avocados on top of Greek Yogurt and Honey

How To Save An Unripe Avocado That's Been Cut

Avocado-lovers, we've all been down this road. While waiting for an avocado to ripen, it's either we cut it too early that it's still unripe, or we waited too long that it turned into mush.

Unripe avocado is flavorless, hard as stone and the biggest paasa. I used to jsut throw them away. Fortuntely a few months back, I read in an IG post that avocados can still ripen even after they've been cut as long as the pit is still intact.

Simply squeeze calamansi on the halves , put them back together as neatly as you can, and walk away like nothing happened. In a couple of days, the avocado will ripen and be ready for use.

What's you fave way to enjoy avocados?

FOLLOW ME!