Ingredients
The following ingredients have 4 Servings
- Avocado
- Cutting board
- Sharp knife
- Spoon
- Fresh lemon (optional)
Instruction
- Before slicing open your avocado, use this quick trick to test for ripeness. Gently remove the stem and check the color of the avocado flesh beneath. A yellowish green is unripe, bright green is perfect and brown means your avocado is probably past its prime. It should yield to gentle pressure but not feel overly soft when squeezed.
- Start by inserting the blade of your knife into the avocado. Then, very carefully with the knife still in place, turn the avocado around the blade so that you make a circular cut all the way around.
- Use your hands to twist and separate the two halves of the avocado.
- Now you have 2 avocado halves. The pit will be left in one half. The pit can easily be removed by very carefully and gently inserting the point of your knife into the surface of the seed, then lifting it out. A gentle twisting motion sometimes helps.
- At this point, there are two ways you can go about slicing the avocado. The first method is my favorite. Turn the avocado halves flat side down against your cutting surface. Slice the halves in half again through the peel, so you have four quarters of avocado.
- Pull the peel gently off of each quarter; if the avocado is ripe the peel will release easily from the slices.
- Continue slicing or dicing the quarters depending on what you need.
- Alternatively, you can slice the avocado in the peel. This method is a bit faster, but won't produce the neatest slices. Slice through the avocado flesh while the avocado is still in the peel, without slicing through the peel.
- If you like, you can also cut the avocado into chunks by slicing vertically and then horizontally across.
- Remove the sliced or diced avocado by scooping out the flesh with a spoon.
- If you don't plan to eat the avocado immediately, have a lemon on hand to squeeze fresh lemon juice on the slices. This will help to keep them from browning.
