August 20, 2015

Avocado: What’s Been Missing From Your Toast

I personally love breakfast. I will eat it whether it is morning, noon or night.  I decided last night that I would be making breakfast for dinner but I wanted to do something a little different from our norm of eggs, bacon and toast.  After browsing Pinterest I found a great recipe for avocado toast and some of those featured additions like a fried egg.  I know that my husband really enjoys fried eggs but I’ve really never had one or have been successful in making one for him yet.

Did you know that an avocado is a fruit?  According to californiaavocado.com, “Avocados provide nearly 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid.  They also act as a ‘nutrient booster’ by enabling the body to absorb more fat-soluble nutrients.” All the more reason to add avocado to your diet if you can.

As I was telling a friend about my dinner idea, she had a great trick to find out if the avocado is ripe or if it has already gone bad.  I know you all know the struggle of picking a perfect avocado.  You think you find the best one, but when you cut into it at home, it’s already brown.  So I listened intently as she told me that you can remove the top stem from the avocado and if the skin underneath is brown then it’s already bad but if it has a light green tint to it – it’s a good avocado.  EURIKA! I knew that I would have to try this trick out at the grocery store.

The avocado toast itself is reasonably easy to make.  You need the following ingredients:

  • 1 avocado
  • Your choice of bread – we used whole wheat
  • Sea salt
  • Black pepper
  • Lime (optional)

First you want to cut your avocado in half by running a knife along the middle and pulling it in half (it should come apart quite easily) and hopefully you will have a pretty perfect avocado.  Then you can squeeze or scoop the insides into a bowl.  Discard the skin and seed.  After I cut a small section of a lime (probably about 1 Tbsp of juice) and squeezed that into the bowl with the avocado.  Add salt and pepper to your taste.  After you have all of your ingredients in the bowl, mash it with a fork.  I prefer my avocado a little chunky so I didn’t get too squish happy.  But you can mash until you get it to a consistency that you like.  After you toast your bread, spread your avocado mash, and voila avocado toast!

To take it a couple steps further you can top it with a fried egg.  For the fried egg I used:

  • Coconut oil spray
  • 2 eggs
  • Sea salt
  • Black pepper
  • Cheese (optional)
  • Hot sauce (optional)
  • Red pepper flakes (optional)

My first attempt at the fried egg was a fail – both of the yolks broke while they were in the pan.  On my second attempt, the egg was perfect. You want that perfect runny consistency when you stab your fork into the egg.

First, I sprayed my pan with the coconut oil and warmed it.  Then I cracked my eggs carefully into the pan and let them set up a bit.  You can salt/pepper to your taste while they are cooking.  After they have set a bit (about 3-5 minutes) you can then carefully — and I mean carefully–flip the eggs to cook on the other side.  You don’t want to bust your yolk, so you have to do it gently.  I used a pretty small spatula for this process.  Let that cook for about 2-3 minutes and then flip back over carefully.  I then added a little bit of shredded cheddar cheese (next time I’ll probably use goat cheese), let that melt on top and, once it is perfectly melted, I moved it to top the avocado toast.

My husband prefers most of his food quite spicy so he added Sriracha and crushed red pepper flakes.  We both really enjoyed this fun twist on our regular breakfast meal.

For more recipe inspiration check out our Pinterest board here.

http://www.californiaavocado.com/nutrition