There comes a moment in everyone’s life when you end up with half an avocado. You have to use it before it turns brown and yucky because avocados are both delicious and pricey – but there’s not enough of it to make guacamole. Apart from standing in the fridge door and eating it with a spoon, what can you make with half an avocado?
There are many tasty ways to use half an avocado:
- Make an avocado-egg boat
- Add to a green smoothie
- Make a salad dressing
- Add to hummus
- Make green deviled eggs
- An avocado BLT sandwich
- BBQ the avocado slices
- Use avocado in your brownies or cakes instead of butter
- Make avocado fudge
- Make an avocado cocktails
Read on for the recipes! Properly stored, a half avocado will stay fresh for three to four days.
Apart from being tasty, avocado packs a nutritional punch – full of fiber, healthy fats, and protein, they help with heart health, weight loss, and healthy aging. You’ll never waste half an avo again after reading these ten tasty ways to use half an avocado.
Know someone who dislikes avocados? See my avocado recipes for avocado haters.
Start The Day With A Baked Avocado-Egg Boat
Get one of your five-a-day veggie portions by adding your half avocado to your breakfast. Put your half avo in an ovenproof dish, break an egg into it, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 425⁰F (220⁰C) until set. Use your imagination to add to the dish: crumbled bacon, fresh herbs, and cayenne pepper are all tasty additions.
If you’re in a hurry – or you’re not mad about cooked avo – chop your avocado into scrambled eggs just before serving. They add a wonderful cool creaminess to your morning scramble.
Drink A Green Machine Smoothie
Avocado makes a wonderful addition to smoothies, adding some creamy, bulky thickness to green smoothies. For a quick Green Machine smoothie to give you a boost, blend half an avo, half a banana, a cup of milk, half a cup of yogurt, and a big handful of spinach. Add ice to taste. Yum!
If you’re a regular avocado smoothie drinker, try a vanilla avo smoothie: leave out the banana and spinach, and consider adding a teaspoon of maple syrup, some vanilla extract, and a scoop of protein powder. It tastes like a vanilla milkshake, without the unhealthy bits.
Check out California Avocados for some excellent breakfast smoothie ideas.
Create A Salad Dressing
Avocado makes a gloriously smooth salad dressing that’s so much healthier than mayonnaise. Whisk up your usual vinaigrette (use lemon or lime juice instead of vinegar), chuck it in the blender, and add your half avocado. Voila! Gorgeous, light salad dressing that will lift your leaves into a new level of deliciousness.
Adding yogurt or buttermilk to an avocado salad dressing is good if you want a creamy-style sauce.
Use Avocado Instead of Butter In Bakes
If you’re a vegan or want to cut down the fat in your baked goods, you can use avocado to substitute eggs, oil, or butter in cookies, brownies, muffins, and loaf cakes.
Although the avo can leave a slight green tinge, the taste is almost impossible to detect – instead, the avocado leaves your baked goods moist and luscious. If the lingering taste does put you off, use avo in chocolate-flavored bakes, as the chocolate hides the avo completely.
To replace your fat with avocado, use a one-to-one substitution: one cup of butter equals one cup of avocado (or part thereof). To replace an egg, use two to four tablespoons of avocado, depending on the desired batter consistency.
Upscale Your Hummus
Hummus is a delightful and nutritious Middle Eastern chickpea dip with an earthy flavor that goes with avocado. Blend or chop your half avo into a bowl of hummus, spike it with a squeeze of lime and add some chopped cilantro for a creamy treat.
Another delicious dip option is British cooking writer Nigella Lawson’s brocamole, where you replace all (or most) of the avocado in guacamole with steamed broccoli. Use your half avocado in this dip to add some smoothness.
Make Green Deviled Eggs
Replace a portion of the mayonnaise in your favorite deviled egg recipe with your half avocado. These unusual creations are called Green Devils. Or you could call them green eggs and serve them with ham.
You can also make an uber-nutritious egg salad by replacing some mayonnaise with avocado in your usual egg salad recipe. The combination of avocado’s healthy fats and eggs’ protein and vitamins will keep you going for hours after one of these sandwiches.
Grill it on the BBQ
Any time you’re firing up the grill, you can throw on your sliced avocado. Brush the sliced avo with a bit of olive oil and grill for just a couple of minutes. Serve the grilled avo on your burger, next to your steak, or with some spicy chicken. For some reason, grilled avo is perfect on turkey burgers.
Throw some grilled avocado on top of a warm salad to add texture – the avo’s bulk is a handy choice if you’re making a main meal salad, especially when entertaining vegetarians and vegans.
Whip up a BLAT
You may think you can’t improve on the classic BLT, but adding a layer of avocado transforms even this old favorite into a magical BLAT. Use the avocado instead of butter and/or mayo for a healthier fat option. (Using avo instead of butter is a healthy habit for any savory sandwich – I know fans of the avo and peanut butter toast combination!)
The iconic Martha Stewart makes a version of the BLAT that replaces the lettuce with peppery radish greens and pepper-crusted bacon to sing in your mouth.
Avocado and bacon are best friends, with the delicate, soft avocado highlighting the bright saltiness of the bacon. Try grilled halloumi cheese for a vegetarian version of the legendary BLT, which also pairs beautifully with avo. Vegans should substitute grilled eggplant or tofu.
Make Chocolate Fudge
If you’re a vegan or have a vegan friend over for dinner, use your half avocado to make chocolate-almond fudge. Apart from your avo, all you need is some sliced almonds, 60% cocoa solids, vegan chocolate (so that the fudge sets), maple syrup, almond butter, and some cocoa powder. Once you’ve melted your chocolate, blend the mixture in the blender and refrigerate for an hour. It turns out decadently sweet and softy caramel-textured.
Make An Avocado Cocktail
If you’d like to take in your vegetable portions in alcoholic form, then these cocktails are for you. Tasting rather like smoothies with a kick, these avocado cocktail beverages are pretty filling and can take the place of a dessert – especially an avocado martini that includes condensed milk. Try an avocado daiquiri, an avocado margarita, or a smashed avo and vodka concoction. Dubbed the Year of the Avocado, 2018 saw avocado cocktails taking off – like this great selection of seven avocado cocktails you need to try.
How Long Is Half An Avocado Good For?
Once you’ve opened an avocado, it begins to brown quickly, and so you need to take care when storing it. Keep the pit in your half avocado, sprinkle the exposed flesh with lemon or lime juice, and wrap the avo tightly in cling film before storing it in the fridge.
Correctly stored, a half avocado will last for three or four days in the fridge – unless it is excessively ripe, in which case you should eat it immediately.
Discard any avocado that looks or smells bad or has mold growing on it.
Conclusion
Although you can always make avocado toast, there’s a world of tasty things you can do with half an avocado. Avocado’s gentle creaminess makes it a match for almost every food, from eggs to brownies and salad to cocktails. And you’re always adding a healthy boost, so get creative with your leftover avocado.
Have any questions? Ask me in the comment section below and I’ll get back to you.
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