by Svetlana Konnikova

Avocado is a vegetable fruit or a New World fruit native to Mexico. It has been known as butter pear because of its consistency, but in Spain it got the name–alligator pear, maybe because of its knobbly skin reminding an alligator’s leathery skin. Even it was discovered by Old World explorers long ago, it did not become a popular food in Europe until 1950s. But farmers in California started to grow avocados in the middle of the nineteeth century. The climate there is beneficial to do that, but the main reason to grow these unusual superfoods was in its rather remarkable properties.

The avocado is nutritious fruit, high in protein and carbohydrate, rich in potassium, Vitamin C, B, and E. It is one of the few fruits containing fat in form of oils, particularly vitamin E. It means that the avocado is not only useful as food, but it is good for our hair and skin. These facts were well known to the Aztecs and Incas a thousand years ago.

Avocado is a great product for babies because of its valuable vitamin and protein content. Kids love it, if it’s prepared right. Here are my recipes:

Baby’s Green Butter Pear (Avocado) Puree

  • Prepare one perfect avocado. It should be ripe with clean, unblemished skin and without any brown or black patches. Peel the skin. Cut on two halves. Remove the stone. Sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent flesh to discolor once exposed to the air. Then blend green part in a blender. It makes very tender puree that small children love for its creamy texture and pleasant flavor. You can add 1/4 of a teaspoon honey to add aroma of wild flowers to it.

I improved Classic Guacamole taste. It is easy and fast, and you have absolutely fabulous, healthy meal for your family or guests.

                                       Green-Red Guacamole

  • Put one pack of Mexican Classic Wholly Guacamole in a glass bowl. Add red onion cut small, and one can of Organic Diced Tomatoes and chopped Italian Parsley. Mix all ingredients well. In 10 minutes you have absolutely delicious and juicy appetizer or snack. Avocado can get darker and loose its bright green color. Squeeze 1/2-1 lemon. It will not discolor (into brown) and stay green until you’ll eat it all. Serve for 4-5 people. The rest keep in fridge.

Gourmet Avocado-Cheese Sandwiches

Eat this delicious guacamole with blue corn chips or with gourmet European cheese. If you don’t want to eat chips or bread, substitute them  with thin sliced good quality cheese like you see on my photo. No worry that cheese has some saturated fat, you balance it with avocados that are loaded with unsaturated fats. It’ll make very special gourmet sandwiches that everybody will eat with great pleasure.   

  • Mama’s Homemade Guacamole:

3 ripe Haas avocados and juice of one lemon, 

1/2 red onion cut small  and a bunch of Italian parsley and dill chopped

Slice avocados around lenghtwise. Open and remove a hard seed and scoop out green avocado “flesh’ into a large bowl. Then mash it. Add lemon juice fast to prevent ozidizing. Add red onion, parsley, dill, and a pinch of organic sea salt. Mix well together until mixture is smooth and creamy.

Gourmet Three Colors Avocado-Bell Peppers Sandwiches

Wash and cut red, green, yellow or orange bell peppers on 4 slices. Clean from seeds. Then put your Mama’s homemade guacamole  on the internal side of each slice and you have four colors delicious sandwiches. It can make very fancy and colorful plate for your holiday parties, too.

Source: California Avocado Commission; http://www.avocado.org

Photos: Green Avocados (public domain); Bowl with Fresh Guacamole and Gourmet Cheese by Svetlana Konnikova; Three Colors by Petr Kratochvil