Learn how to cut an avocado easily with our step by step guide. Once you have learnt the cutting fundamentals, you can experiment with different shapes and styles to enhance the appearance of your favourite avocado dishes, such as salads and on toast. Within this helpful guide, we break down the simple steps to cutting an avocado, as well as teaching the health benefits to these fruits. We even provide you with two delicious recipes to try once you have mastered your new kitchen skill!
How to Cut an Avocado
Before we start cutting an avocado, the kitchen tools you will need are:
- A chopping board
- Large kitchen knife
- Spoon
- Slice the avocado in half lengthways
To open your avocado, place it on its side on the chopping board. Begin to cut lengthways in the middle of the fruit. In the centre, your knife will hit the avocado stone, which it can not cut through. Gently, keeping your knife in the fruit, start to slowly rotate the avocado so that the blade of your knife can cut all the way around the skin and line up with where you began. Be very careful of keeping your fingers away from the blade’s edge as you rotate the fruit.
- Twist the two halves of the avocado
Putting the knife to one side, use both of your hands, on either cut of the avocado, and begin to twist each side in the opposite direction. This motion will help to twist the flesh away from the stone at the core and should come apart in two pieces.
- Remove the stone
Hold the half of the avocado containing the stone in your non-dominant hand. Using your kitchen knife, use your dominant hand to gently tap the back edge of your knife into the middle of the stone. Once the knife is secure, twist the knife to slowly dislodge the stone away from the avocado flesh. Lift the knife straight up to fully remove the stone. Be careful of your hands at this stage as many people can end up in A&E with ‘avocado hand’. This is a medical term used for people who have cut their hands while trying to remove the avocado stone. The more practice you get, the less likely this could happen to you.
- Peel the outer skin off the fruit
To remove the outer skin from your avocado you can use two techniques. The easiest is to simply use your fingers to peel the skin away from the flesh. This may happen in sections but it can be quick to do. The alternative is to use a spoon. Run the spoon all the way around the avocado, as close to the skin as you can. This may be easier for some to perform, but you may also lose some of the avocado if you do not scoop all of the flesh away from the skin.
- Cut
The final step is to cut your avocado into your desired shapes. You can slice, dice into cubes or smash the avocado depending on your meal of choice. The easiest way to cut any of the shapes is to lay the avocado flat side down on your chopping board and cut even strokes lengthways. From here you can lay your slices on top of toast or dice into cubes for a delicious salad. The options are endless.
5 Health Benefits of Avocados
Avocados can provide numerous health benefits and nutrients which can often be lacking in modern diets. Just one half of an avocado can count towards one of your five a day! 5 nutrients this fruit can provide are:
- A soluble source of fibre
- Vitamin E
- Source of iron
- Source of magnesium
- Source of potassium
A combination of these nutrients can contribute to a healthy, balanced diet as well as helping to prevent certain diseases. For example, avocados are an excellent source of potassium and fibre, which could benefit your heart and cardiovascular system. Incorporate this healthy fruit into more savoury dishes with the help of our plant based recipes.
How to Ripen Avocados
To ripen avocados, you either want to leave them on the countertop in your kitchen or pop them in the fridge. Being in a cool environment, such as the fridge, will slow the ripening process down if you are not quite ready to use your avocado yet. On the other hand, if you want to speed the ripening process up, place your avocado in a closed paper bag with a banana or an apple overnight.
These fruits are best eaten at the peak of their ripeness, but this isn’t to say you should throw them away if they are too mushy. You can add them to smoothies or create delicious desserts, like our chocolate avocado mousse.
2 Delicious recipes Including Avocados
Now you have learnt the basics of how to cut an avocado, use your new skills to rustle up a delicious healthy recipe. We have included a main course and dessert using avocados to the best of their abilities. Let us know your thoughts on these recipes by tagging us in your social media posts!
Pestorissa Chickpea, Avocado & Rice Salad
If you are looking for a meal with eye-popping colours, try our pestorissa chickpea, avocado & rice salad. Vibrant red tomatoes, green avocado and golden chickpeas tossed in herby pestorissa. To serve we drizzled pomegranate molasses on top. What’s more, this nutritious salad is ready in just 10 minutes!
- Cook time: 10 mins
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
- Key ingredient: Plump golden chickpeas
Nutritional Information
- Calories: 657
- Protein: 17g
- Carbs: 69g
- Fat: 32g
Perfect as a quick lunchtime meal, our avocado recipe can be served in less than 15 minutes. The portion size for this recipe is for two people but can easily be doubled if entertaining more people.
Why We Love This Avocado Salad Recipe
This avocado salad incorporates steamed brown basmati rice. Brown Rice is full of nutritious elements which can often be missed when compared to traditional white rice. Brown basmati rice contains more fibre and antioxidants than white rice and can be seen to be high in magnesium. Research has shown that if you incorporate whole grains and magnesium regularly into your diet, it helps to lower your blood sugar levels. Ultimately helping to decrease your risk of type 2 diabetes.
Ingredients
To create a healthy avocado salad recipe, you will need these ingredients:
- 1 avocado
- 3 tbsp Belazu pestorissa
- 240g chickpeas (drained)
- 30g Belazu pitted black olives
- 1 handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- 250g steamed brown basmati rice
- 1 roasted red pepper
- 180g baby plum tomatoes
- 70g sweet beets & little leaves
Quick Avocado Salad Recipe Instructions
To get started on creating your Middle Eastern cuisine, follow these easy instructions:
- Drain the chickpeas, rinse, then place into a bowl. Mix with the pestorissa and a pinch of sea salt. Heat a medium pan on a medium heat and cook the pestorissa chickpeas for 5 mins.
- Meanwhile, quarter the tomatoes. Roughly chop the roasted pepper. Slice the olives in half. Roughly chop the parsley.
- Remove the chickpeas from the pan and place in a bowl. Add the rice to the pan the chickpeas were in, warming on a medium heat, then add the olives, roasted pepper, tomatoes and parsley. Season with sea salt and black pepper, then cook for 3 mins, until the rice is hot.
- Meanwhile, peel the avocado, destone and thinly slice.
- Serve the salad mix topped with the veggie rice and scattered with the pestorissa chickpeas. Finish with the avocado slices; drizzle over the molasses.
Social media and our online blog make finding new, healthy recipes easy! It is on this platform that we highlight our favourite dishes from all around the world. From our selection of European cuisines to our shellfish and poultry recipes. We are sure to have something new for you to discover!
Chocolate Avocado Mousse
Our indulgent chocolate avocado mousse is perfect for the whole family as it is gluten-free, and a vegan recipe. As an indulgent dessert, we combine fresh avocados with coconut milk, raw cacao and a drizzle of sticky maple syrup. All that’s left for you to do is try your new avocado cutting skills and create this healthy dessert!
The excellence of this dessert is that within every mouthful you can experience the lightness of the mousse. The ideal portion size for this recipe is two people. When catering for more simply double the quantities to provide enough for a family of four.
Why We Love This Chocolate Avocado Mousse Recipe
Within our chocolate avocado mousse recipe, we incorporate coconut milk. Coconut can be used in several different forms, including: milk, cream, grated and raw. The nutrients this fruit can provide your body is incredible. For one, they are high in manganese, which is an essential mineral for bone health. You may also find coconuts can be rich in iron. Iron helps to form red blood cells, which carry oxygen around your body. To incorporate more coconut into your diet, simply follow our healthy recipes.
Chocolate Avocado Mousse Recipe Ingredients
Our avocado mousse recipe is simple to make at any time of the year. To get started, you will need these ingredients:
- 2 avocados
- 25g raw cacao
- 100ml coconut milk
- 2-3 tbsp maple syrup (to taste)
- 120ml coconut yoghurt
- Handful of fresh berries
Instructions on How to Cook this Avocado Recipe
Dive into a delicious dessert with the help of our healthy avocado mousse recipe:
- Puree the avocado in a bullet or blender.
- Mix the coconut milk with the raw cacao and stir in the avocado. Add the maple syrup to taste.
- Spoon into small ramekins and chill.
- Serve with the coconut yoghurt and berries.
Once you have created this recipe, share with your friends on social media! But don’t forget to tag us in the posts! You can also discover new nutritious meals, use our social media platforms and blog. A selection of our recent posts include: How to make a pasanda recipe, 3 ways to cook sea bass and what is bibimbap & how to make it. Be sure to read them to gain inspiration for your next home cooked meal.
More from Mindful Chef
Discovered a new favourite avocado recipe? Find more to excite your taste buds with the help of Mindful Chef. We have more than 1,000 healthy, delicious recipes available to choose from that you can make each day of the week. Whether you like healthy winter recipes, healthy autumn recipes, healthy summer recipes or healthy spring recipes, we have something delicious for the whole year!
Choosing one of our healthy recipe boxes, makes trying our delicious, avocado recipes covenant and quick. In need of feeding the whole family? Select our family recipe box, alternatively if you want an all vegan selection, our vegan recipe box is the answer. Simply choose your dishes, pick a delivery date and we take care of the rest! The convenient recipe boxes get delivered to your door and inside you will find fresh, responsibly sourced ingredients with an easy recipe card to follow! What’s more, our entire range is gluten free. Try your first box with Mindful Chef today!