How to eat avocado: the tips for choosing it and how to use it in your recipes

Avocado is a delicious fruit to eat raw, simply with salt and lemon, or to use in the kitchen for different recipes; excellent in salads, thanks to its delicate flavor and buttery compactness, main ingredient for the preparation of the famous guacamole sauce and not only. Avocado is considered a superfood, an exotic fruit that is widespread all over the world and that is able to better absorb the nutrients we introduce with food, and which also reduces cholesterol. So let's find out how to eat avocado, how to choose it at the right degree of ripeness and how to taste this fruit so loved by bloggers and sportsmen and all over the world.

How to tell if an avocado is ripe and how to store it

Avocado is a fruit with a smooth or wrinkled green skin and a light yellow flesh with a large central stone. It is grown mainly in Central and South America and harvested when it is still unripe, as its ripening continues after harvest. How to choose it? To understand the state of ripeness of the avocado you have to press the peel lightly; if it is very hard, then the avocado is unripe. In this case, let the avocado ripe outside the refrigerator for a couple of days, checking it from time to time. If pressing on the peel it feels soft, but you don't leave fingerprints, then the avocado is ripe and ready to be eaten or used for your preparations. Alternatively, you can store the avocado in the refrigerator for a maximum of 2 days. If the peel gives way under the pressure of the fingers, then the avocado is in an advanced state of ripeness; use it for the preparation of sauces or mousses. You can store the avocado pulp in the refrigerator, wet with lemon juice, so as not to make it black.

How to eat avocado

Avocado is eaten raw, as with cooking it becomes bitter, and moreover cooking deteriorates most of the fatty acids it is rich in. Only the pulp of this fruit can be eaten, and it is obtained by cutting the avocado in half lengthwise, paying attention to the central stone. To open it, rotate the two halves, so as to separate them. Then remove the stone with a teaspoon and remove the pulp, if you have to use it to blend it or to prepare mousse and sauces, or make wedges, which you can enjoy simply seasoned with salt and lemon, ideal for an afternoon snack.

How to use avocado

How to combine raw avocado for your recipes? This delicious exotic fruit can be eaten at any time of the day; for an American breakfast you can enjoy it with toasted bread and poached egg, for lunch you can cut it into chunks and consume it in fresh salads, vegan salads with only vegetables, or fish salads (with tuna or shrimps). Or you can enjoy avocado paired with salmon, perhaps for a brunch, making for example exquisite avocado toast, with the addition of Greek yogurt, pink pepper and cucumbers. Alternatively, you can use raw avocado as a base for sauces, such as the famous guacamole sauce, in which to dip nachos; excellent to be enjoyed as an appetizer. The soft and buttery compactness of avocado, and its delicate flavor, make it an excellent ingredient also for the preparation of smoothies, to be enjoyed for a healthy and nutritious snack.