Monday, February 27, 2012

Avocado Addiction

 Something very strange happened about 3 months ago.

After not having eaten more than a handful of avocados since the late 90's, I suddenly could not get enough.

At our local farmer's market, there was a stall selling Guacamole and salsa.  The man who made them was American and he told me that his wares had the So-Cal twist to them.

So-Cal (Southern California) guac was awesome!!  I was hooked with one mouthful.  
 I was instantly addicted to avocado.

I went home and started googling guac recipes and So-Cal versions of guac.... and after some playing around, I found the perfect recipe.

In the last few months, most days involve having guac for lunch.  I found these awesome blue corn, organic, corn chips and it's a quick, tasty lunch for a mumma with a baby and kids and no time to feed herself when she is busy feeding everyone else.

not pretty, but very tasty


Here is my quick and easy lunch-time guac recipe-

Ingredients:
1 avocado flesh scooped out 
1 small red onion diced finely (or 1/4-1/2 large red onion)
1 clove garlic crushed or chopped fine
1 small tomato diced into small cubes
red chilli to taste (i usually use about a 1/4 of a long red chilli)
juice of 1/2 lime
small handful of coriander chopped roughly
2 pinched of a really good quality, smoked paprika
3 pinches of ground cumin
salt to taste

Mix all the above ingredients together with a fork and eat with corn chips.

If you get interupted and have to leave your lunch, cover the  guac with glad wrap.  Don't just cover the bowl, but push the glad wrap down into the bowl and have it touching the guac and squish it around til there is no air between the guac and the glad wrap. Then refrigerate.
It will last til the next day and not turn brown and gross if you have it covered like this.


pineapple Salsa - just swap pineapple for avocado










 Another new and exciting lunchtime avocado favourite is a creamy avocado style of sauce for pasta.

I first found this recipe in another blog and then tweaked it a bit for my taste.

Apart from the fact it has avocado in it and that it tastes AMAZING!!!!!  the reason I love this recipe is because it's soooo easy that you can make it with one hand!  like for Realz!!!!  I usually have the baby on one hip and can whip this up with the other hand.

If you are doing the Raw food thing or the vegan thing, this is a great recipe to have in your pocket!
ok, here we go!

Creamy avocado sauce
Ingredients:
1 medium ripe avocado, pitted
½ lime
2 garlic cloves
¼ jalapeno or red long chili
¼ cup parsley
1 cup spinach
1 teaspoon salt (I use Murray River pink salt flakes)
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Put all ingredients into food processor or a jug that you can use the bamix in (or similar blending type contraption) and blend til it makes a lovely green coloured creamy sauce.  That's it!  Soooo easy!!  

You can add the sauce to any type of pasta or noodle and it is super tasty!  My personal fave is either a penne or bucatini 
If you are doing the raw food thing, well..you can add it to all sorts of things.
If you are not doing raw or vegan, you can add Parmesan, either to the ingredients when you blend them or grated on top of the pasta.... or both   :)


bucatini with creamy avocado sauce



VIVA LA AVOCADO!

No comments: