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.
Disclosure: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Eugene @ Food and Scent
You can tell a good cook from the knife she's using!
Mary at n00bcakes
Great straight forward how-to on preparing avocados. I love guacamole and easily getting the fruit free of the skin is always top priority.
Sara @CaffeIna
Great post! I love avocado so these tips will turn out useful very soon.
Nancy@acommunaltable
Very good demo on avocados!!! I have never had success using a spoon so I always end up using a paring knife or, if I am lucky, being able to peel off the skin with my fingers!
Belinda @zomppa
It is a busy time of year, eh? Thanks for the wonderful step by step photos!
Eva
Very nice step by step how to. I always have a hard time handling avocados because once some of the flesh gets on my fingers everything becomes slippery and cutting it into neat little slices can get...messy. Next time I will follow these instructions to avoid any difficulties 🙂
Marla
Dara, this is an essential skill over here. We love avocados. I have the technique down fairly well these days. The one you won't see me trying is peeling back the skin with a big chefs knife 😉 xo
Elyse @The Cultural Dish
Thanks for sharing this! I love using avocado's, especially for making a delicious avocado salad!
Ethan
Nothing better than pulling the avocado apart, it's a little surprise each time!
Great step-by-step:)
Linda Makiej
Thank you for making this sound and look so easy!!