If butter were a vegetable, it’d be an avocado. (It’s no wonder I love these little green guys so much.) This sandwich is one of my guilty pleasures. It’s a great, no-hassle lunch or dinner in a pinch. I mean, let’s face it: Sometimes, you just don’t feel like cooking.
This is hardly even a recipe. Mash up a ripe avocado with some lemon juice. Sprinkle with salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Drizzle with a little good olive oil. Kick back and enjoy with a glass or two of wine.
If you cut the bread into smaller squares and toasted them in the oven, this would make a great appetizer or tapas.
This article includes:
+A little info on avocados
+A demonstration of how to open and clean an avocado
+A step-by-step recipe with photos for making an Open-Faced Avocado Sandwich
How to tell if an avocado is ripe
Choose avocados that are soft to the touch, without feeling like they’re totally mushy under the skin. It should be firm-ish, but yield when pressed with a finger. A ripe avocado shouldn’t be hard, like a fresh apple. It should feel more like pressing on a piece of semi-firm cheese, like Fontina.
Some markets also put stickers with the word “Ripe” on them. Talk about taking the guesswork out of shopping.
If you buy your avocados on the harder side, ripen them in a paper bag on the counter until they’re ready to eat. Adding an apple or banana to the bag will help speed the process along.
Most medium-sized avocados have about 320-350 calories and 30 grams of fat. A lot of that fat is monounsaturated, which is the kind of fat that’s good for you. One avocado also has about 30% of your vitamin C for the day, as well as smaller amounts of vitamin A, calcium, and iron.
How to keep mashed avocado from discoloring
Avocados discolor rapidly when exposed to air. Adding lemon or lime juice will help keep your mashed avocado greener longer.
Open-Faced Avocado Sandwich
1 avocado
1/2 a lemon
kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper
olive oil
1 roll or 2 pieces of bread, toasted
Serves 1 lavishly
Open-Faced Avocado Sandwich: Cut and clean your avocado
Toast your bread or roll and set aside to cool.
In case you aren’t sure, here’s an easy way to get into an avocado and get the pit out. Cut your avocado lengthwise down the center. Your knife will hit the pit.
Slide the knife around the avocado, so you’ve cut in a complete circle.
Once you’ve cut completely around the avocado, twist the top half off.
It will unscrew and pivot around the pit.
Whack the pit carefully with a sharp, heavy knife. You want the knife to stick into the pit.
Turn the knife, with the pit attached, and it will pop right out of the avocado.
If you’re a gardening type, you can try to root the avocado pit and grow an avocado tree. More on this in a future post.
Use a large soup spoon to loosen the peel like this:
Pull the peel off gently, and you should be left with the avocado meat. This a good way to do it, particularly if you want to make neat slices.
Repeat with the other half.
Open-Faced Avocado Sandwich: Mash up your avocado
Put the avocado in a medium-sized bowl.
Squeeze half a lemon over it.
With a fork, mash the avocado up. Mix the lemon juice in as you go.
Leave it in larger chunks like this:
Or mash it into more of a guacamole-like paste like this:
Open-Faced Avocado Sandwich: Make your sandwich
Grab your toasted roll or bread.
Divide the avocado between your 2 pieces of toasted bread or both halves of a roll.
Sprinkle with kosher salt.
Crack on some black pepper.
Drizzle with a little good olive oil. Serve and enjoy!
How to grow a tree from your avocado pit: Stay tuned!
Hang tight over the next week or two for detailed instructions on how to try to grow an avocado tree from your pit.
Cheers!
