I recently started a new series in my allergy section called gluten free food facts. My goal in my allergy section is to share some food facts about some of the unusual ingredients and flours that we use in gluten free cooking.
I thought it would be fun to carry this idea over to my main site, but focus on regular food, not gluten free food. I love learning new things, especially about food, and I hope you will also.
I am hoping these food facts will allow you to learn some new facts about everyday foods that you may not know.
Now, I don’t plan on sharing food facts every week, but I do hope to share them once a month or so.
Today we are starting with avocados.
I love avocados. My oldest daughter agrees with me and will cut them in half and eat them by the spoonful. I recently found them on sale at Aldi’s for 29 cents and price matched them at Wal-mart. Yes, I said 29 cents. That is a rare find around here, so I bought a few, as in the bowlful pictured above, and they did not last long in our house.
I recently worked with Wholly Guacamole on a campaign and it got me interested in learning more about avocados. So, today I thought I would share some of what I learned.
Here are a few facts about avocados:
- Avocados are a fruit not a vegetable.
- Avocados are high in fiber and potassium. In fact, they have more potassium than a banana.
- They are also contain vitamin B6, Zinc, Vitamin E and C.
- According to avocado.org there are nearly 5,000 avocado growers in California making it the top producer of avocados in the U.S.
- Hass is the most popular variety of avocados.
- Avocados can weigh anywhere from a few ounces to two pounds.
- One serving of avocado is considered to be 1/5 of an avocado. (I guess I can safely say, I rarely eat just one serving of an avocado. 🙂 )
- Avocados do not ripen on the tree. They ripen after being harvested.
- Avocado trees can grow to over 60 feet tall and grow best in a tropical or semi tropical climate.
- You can grow an avocado tree from the seed of one, but it is doubtful that you will ever any fruit because it can take 7-15 years to produce any fruit. And it is not as easy as it may seem to grow an avocado tree.
Need some ideas for using your avocados? That is if you need ideas other then eating them plain, scooped out of the skin.
- We love them in guacamole.
- $5 Dinners has a Creamy Avocado Pasta that looks so good!
- Jessica shows you how to make Avocado Salsa. I need to try this.
- Two Peas and Their Pod have a recipe for Pasta Salad with a Creamy Avocado dressing, YUM! It really looks delicious.
- Tiffany had avocado has her spotlight ingredient earlier this year and twenty nine people shared their favorite avocado recipes, so there are a lot of ideas on her site.
Fry bacon crisp. Make toast from homemade bread. Smoosh up 1/2 avocado (there are 2 avocado eaters in my family). Spread avocado on toast. Grind on some pepper. Break up the bacon and put on top. YUMMY! My mother-in-law (Southern California native) introduced me to this when DH and I got engaged. They had an avocado tree in their yard.
Did you say bacon?! I am going to have to try that. Bacon and avocado would be great together on toast. Thanks for the idea
My fave way is just like your oldest daughter eats it. I cut it in half, remove the pit, sprinkle a tiny bit of salt on both halves and then shovel–I mean scoop–it into my mouth one wonderful spoonful at a time. Yum!
When we were in graduate school, my MIL used to send us care packages including avocados. I mentioned it to my fellow student from the Philippines. She asked how we ate them. I told her about avocado and bacon sandwiches. She said in the Philippines they ate them with cream and sugar for dessert.
Sugar and cream for dessert is one I have not heard of. It sounds interesting, but very different from how we eat them here. Now avocado and bacon I can go for. 🙂
Lately my favorite way has been sliced on a salad with oil and vinegar dressing and just sometimes smashing them in as I eat the salad.
My grandparents had a tree in Florida of the larger smooth-skinned variety. It’s hard for me to think of the small Hass variety as “real” avocados since they are so different in fat content.
My grandmother had a recipe for an avocado salad using chopped avocado, cottage cheese, chopped onion, chopped tomato and ranch dressing. I’ve never seen any other recipe like it. Since I don’t tolerate dairy very well, it’s not in my rotation anymore.
I prefer them just sliced or scooped from the skin, with salt of course. Even above and beyond guacamole. I’m not however a big turkey eater. If it were up to me we’d never have turkey for Thanksgiving. That said, one of the best sandwiches I ever had was a turkey, bacon and avocado sandwich on sour dough bread. The turkey actually added a little something to the normal, BTA sandwich (bacon, tomato and avocado) that we normally have.
I also made an avocado aioli to eat on a blt salad that was to die for.
We love avocados and are fortunate to live on an old avocado orchard in So. Cal. We harvest Fuerte Avocados, so delicious. I hate buying them at the store when ours are out of season. We are the bacon, avocado type, my Filipino friends spread sweetened condensed milk on them.
I put one in every 3 qt. smoothie batch I make and dice one up for taco salad–1/2 an avacado each person. One local restaurante serves a seafood salad in a half. I made my sister-in-law’s recipe many times: 1 avocado to one small jar of Pace Picante Sauce, mix well and enjoy with chips as an easy dip–it’s always devoured. I need to try the bacon sandwich!