Oh So Colson

Why do people think that avocados aren’t good for you and they’re fatty? I actually read a posting recently on a food blog where the writer of the blog said that she’d been throwing out avocados since she didn’t know what to do with them and that she disliked guacamole!!! Ahhh…these fruits are so good for you!! What a massive waste of vitamins and its not as if avocados are cheap!!

Avocados are delicious little bundles of quantities of potassium, vitamin E, the B vitamins, fibre, and mono-unsaturated fatty acids. In fact avocados have more potassium than bananas do..which is great since I’d eat an avocado over a banana any day. They are also cholesterol-free, contain ‘good fat’ as well as being high in unsaturated oil. So, the question is why not put them in lots of foods. They can be eaten not only in guacamole but sliced and put into sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, tomato and even bacon. Mmmmm.

Try slicing them and adding to salad which contains different types of lettuce, olives, sliced tomato, coriander with a simple olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. Or have a different dressing such as lemon juice, olive oil and salt.

Another salad which I learnt from watching my mother make it many times contains: thinly sliced onions (so you get the onion rings), with the flesh of several grapefruits and oranges (take off the white pith and the white layers that surround the flesh of the citrus fruit) and thinly sliced avocados. These are layered in a dish and then she’s made a dressing containing olive oil, lemon juice and fresh dill. What’s the name of this dish? I don’t know since she found a variation of it in a Sunset magazine many years ago and made her own variations of it. I may have some ingredients missing that she puts in missing..I don’t know..I suspect that I may have. I just love this salad.

Yet, avocados can be used as the principal ingredient in desserts and in Brazil avocados are frequently eaten this way. They’re delicious in a cream which consists of milk, a bit of sugar and several avocados. All the ingredients are blended together and eaten as a dessert. They are frequently made into ice-cream which is really delicious. An example of a recipe is to combine the flesh of about four avocados (without pips and skin of course) with 1 pint of whipping cream, a tablespoon of fresh lime juice and a few tablespoons of sugar. Blend the lime juice, sugar and avocado together, then add the cream and mix well. Then you can use your usual method of making ice-cream. Some people put into a freezer until it is almost set, then beat it, and freeze it again…while others have ice-cream making machines. I’ve no idea of how to use one of these highly technical ice-cream machines since I learnt how to make icecream using a freezer when I was a child. I also have an ice-cream maker which involves cranking the crank yourself and watching the liquid mixture become ice-cream in front of your eyes. Given that there are several standard recipes of how to make the mixture to make ice cream I’d follow the method that I’ve given above rather than making a custard and then adding mashed avocados. You don’t need to cook the mixture before you turn into ice-cream because the recipe doesn’t call for eggs.

Try eating sliced avocado with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, or just with salsa or just say who cares about calories and eat it with mayonnaise or even better allioli or aioli (same thing but different language).

So, I don’t want to read or hear of people throwing out avocados since they don’t like guacamole and they don’t know what else to do with these divine green fruits!