Whether you are making guacamole or cutting avocado slices for a salad, it helps to know the easiest way to prepare an avocado. This step-by-step tutorial makes the process as simple as can be!
Just when you thought you could sound the "all clear" horn after weekends of watching football, culminating in Superbowl Sunday, along comes March Madness, the NCAA college basketball tournament. If you are not familiar with this phenomenon, my two boys would be more than happy to educate you on the finer points of filling out a bracket, checking the status of your bracket online, and talking smack to other bracket aficionados. (Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time I heard the word "bracket" in the past week...)
For those of us who are sports lovers, it is an exciting tournament to watch - college "phenoms" battling it out to attain the glory that the championship brings. However, for those who care about March Madness as much as I care about what Lindsay Lohan wore to her last court appearance, this sporting event is just another excuse to cook and indulge in game day snacks.
At the top of the heap, of course, is guacamole. If you are going to be making pounds of guacamole for the sports fans in your house, you will need to know how to cut an avocado. How do you get the pit out and the skin off without mangling the tender fruit?
How to prepare avocado:
Place the avocado on a cutting board and hold gently with one hand. Insert the knife at the base of the avocado and slowly rotate the avocado until it is cut all around the pit.
Holding gently with your fingertips, twist the top half of the avocado until it separates from the bottom half.
Carefully chop the heel of a chef's knife into the avocado pit. Twist the pit until it comes loose. Remove and discard the pit.
Now, you can separate the fruit from the skin in one of two ways. Using the first method (left-hand photo), insert a small spoon between the fruit and the skin, gently working the skin away from the fruit. Carefully lift the fruit out of the skin.
In the second method (right-hand photo), hold the skin between your thumb and the flat side of the knife blade. Peel off the skin in strips. This works particularly well with an avocado that is slightly underripe. If the avocado is ripe, you will be cutting the skin away from the fruit, rather than peeling off the skin.
To prepare the avocado for dishes such as salads, sandwiches and wrapped Mexican dishes (i.e., burritos), cut the avocado in lengthwise slices. If you prefer chunks, or will be mashing the avocado into guacamole, cut the strips crosswise into cubes.
Recipes using avocado
:
Poached Eggs on Toast with Chipotle Mayo, Bacon & Avocado
Spinach Salad with Chicken, Orange & Avocado
Spinach Salad with Persimmon, Jicama & Avocado, & Miso Dresing
How to Prepare Avocado
Ingredients
- 1 avocado
Instructions
- Place the avocado on a cutting board and hold gently with one hand. Insert the knife at the base of the avocado and slowly rotate the avocado until it is cut all around the pit.
- Holding gently with your fingertips, twist the top half of the avocado until it separates from the bottom half.
- Carefully chop the heel of a chef's knife into the avocado pit. Twist the pit until it comes loose. Remove and discard the pit.
- You can separate the fruit from the skin in one of two ways.
First method:
- Insert a small spoon between the fruit and the skin, gently working the skin away from the fruit. Carefully lift the fruit out of the skin.
Second method:
- Hold the skin between your thumb and the flat side of the knife blade. Peel off the skin in strips. This works particularly well with an avocado that is slightly underripe. If the avocado is ripe, you will be cutting the skin away from the fruit, rather than peeling off the skin.
Slices or chunks:
- To prepare the avocado for dishes such as salads, sandwiches and wrapped Mexican dishes (i.e., burritos), cut the avocado in lengthwise slices. If you prefer chunks, or will be mashing the avocado into guacamole, cut the strips crosswise into cubes.
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Amanda
Beautifully demonstrated!! You make it look easy! 😉
Sanjeeta kk
You made it look all oh..so simple!
Sukaina
I'm loving the how to series Dara! Great job 🙂 And I totally agree with another commenter that you should do mangoes next!
Amanda
Guacamole, here I come! Great post!
Laura @ GotChocolate
Yum! Now I want an avocado!
Drick
great photos and precise.... my biggest problem is thinking the avocados are ripe, they look it, feel it, but sometimes they just fool me...
Katrina
Great suggestion. I particularly like your instruction to slowly rotate the avocado until it is cut all around the pit. I will definitely do that next time!
Kay, The Church Cook
Perfectly ripe avocado, perfectly prepped! 🙂
claudia lamascolo/aka pegasuslegend
great job, this is such a wonderful site for intstructions now I love it! I always have but your really teaching us techniques and its so appreciated!
Parsley Sage
This is so incredibly helpful! Do one for mangos next, please! 🙂
Dara (Cookin' Canuck)
I'm glad you find this helpful. Mangos are on my list!