7 things to do with avocados

The humble avocado has now reached super-food status due to the many health benefits it provides. Now that we know that fats aren’t the enemy, this super-food has been making the rounds on all healthy whole food tables around the world.

The avocado fruit (Persea americana) grows from a tree and is a member of the Lauraceae family. Other notable members of this family are the Bay Laurel, Camphor, and Cinnamon. The shapes vary depending on the type but all of them are green in colour when unripe and then turn into a dark-ish indigo when ripe.

Not just for Guacamole

Many people find the avocado intimidating. Some don’t know how to prepare the fruit or even how to open it (grip it gently and slice around the seed, open the two halves to expose the pit and scoop the seed out , proceed to taking out the flesh). As a result, the mighty avocado is mostly used as an ingredient in guacamole. But avocado has a lot of uses - not just as the base for the very delicious guac!

Here are 7 other uses for avocado:

• Spread on toast - Avocado is nature’s butter. Spread that glorious healthy fat around. Use it on toast, muffins, scones, and tortillas.
• Salad dressing - replace mayonnaise with avocado to make your salads especially nutritious. To prepare: blend an avocado with some honey and lemon or lime juice then season with salt and pepper. Store in an airtight container. This will keep for a week.
• Smoothie - when I was little, my mom used to make this treat for me. To prepare an avocado smoothie place half an avocado, 5 ice cubes and ¼ cup of condensed milk (or coconut milk for a healthier alternative) in a blender. Dilute with about half a cup of water and blend away.
• Sorbet - the same recipe above can be used for an avocado sorbet. Just make a bigger batch and then freeze! Alternatively check out a rich chocolate avocado sorbet recipe on the blog.
• Soup - the internet is chock full of avocado soup recipes. Here’s a traditional Colombian recipe.
• Soft skin - avocados can be used as a way to deeply moisturise your skin. It is an extremely potent source of Vit. E. Use it as a face mask and slather it on for deep moisturising. Simply mash and avocado and slather it on your face. You can add honey - to add antibacterial and antioxidant properties. You can add egg whites - to add collagen.
• Super conditioner - since avocado has super moisturising properties, you can also use it to deep condition your hair. Its high fat and Vits. B and E will help rebuild and deeply condition your hair to restore it to it’s soft and shiny glory.