The Avocado

Did you know that you can freeze avocado slices?

OK, so another post about food so early in the game seems unwise, but this is such a great example (a little microcosm of what this is all about for me). I love avocados. I love just a slice or 4 on a turkey burger. You know, lots of creamy, high fat (but GOOD fat) yumminess on what can otherwise be kind of boring. Yea, yea I know there are other ways to sex up a turkey burger, but this is a story about avocados. 

I love them all kinds of ways. Chopped up with tomato, red onion and a dash of champagne vinegar - Yum! I love, love, love guacamole, but I can't eat too much at one time. Too many chips. I could invite someone over for dinner. Too complicated. I could ask my neighbor if she wants the other half but, well, what if she's not home? Her family would think I'm loopy wandering over with a half an avocado. You know it's going to be brown and ugly before she sees it. And then she will laugh at me. Can't have that now...can we?  

What I don't love is watching avocados turn brown because I didn't WANT to eat the whole thing. And if I can't find a way to finish it before it goes brown then I could have...well... avocado guilt. Waste not, want not, children are starving and so on. "You spent a fortune on it so you must eat every last morsel." I could blame those extra pounds on saving money or even better, saving the world.

When Trader Joe's came into town a few months ago I was so excited to buy those little ones that seem to ripen so perfectly. Cute and just about the perfect amount. After all I can easily justify having a bit more than I should because I was able to eat the "whole thing". Problem is - in a bag of four - by the time I get to #4 it's too late! Back to the paragraph above, right? Dinner. My neighbor does have a sense of humor!  

So I went on line looking for ideas on how to use and save avocados. Cover it with plastic. Yea, tried that but don't always want avocado again before it becomes that little gray blob wrapped in plastic. Spray the exposed surface with vegetable oil spray and then wrap it in plastic. Sort of works but adding oil didn't appeal to me. Dip it in water, lemon or lime juice. This also works - sort of - if you are planning on eating it right away. Buy the gizmo that wraps them in air tight plastic. Any of the above, except that none of them seemed to work for me and avocados are too expensive to hope for the best. 

And then I stumbled on this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/10/freezing-avocados_n_1864437.html

The freezer? Really? Yep. My experience was a little different but it's worth a try. 

I sliced up the avocado and spread the slices out on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. I put them in the freezer for about an hour. I do this with fruit as well so that slices, pieces, berries, etc. stay separated and don't become an "ice pick" sort of event when I want to add them to something like a smoothie. Have you tried chopped fresh herbs frozen in olive oil? 

Oops. So easily distracted. Now about those avocados. 

After they're pretty much frozen I put them into a freezer bag - about an hour. I use them up within a few weeks so I can't tell you how much longer they'll keep. When I want to use a slice or more I take them out, let them sit for an hour or so. In the picture below, the slices on the left are just frozen. The slices on the right have been in the freezer for more than a month. A "picture is worth a thousand words", holds true here to make my point. 

If I have no patience (OK, I have no patience), then I might be so bold as to pop them into the microwave for about 5 seconds which hurries up the process. Important to note that I have a quasi microwave I bought at Home Depot for about $30 at least ten years ago. On a power scale from 1 to 10 it's probably a 3. Yours is sure to be different so test it if you want to do this.

I've also mashed up my "avocado leftovers" before freezing. In that case I treat them as if I were making guacamole - mash roughly with a fork until they're somewhere in the neighborhood of a chunky cream. I freeze the mash in ice cube trays before putting my " avocado cubes" in freezer bags. This gives me a lot of control over how much I eat at any given time, which is a really good thing for me. If I only want a small amount (say as an appetizer or on a burger instead of say ketchup or mustard) I can grab one or more slices or cubes. 

Although the article says they change texture I don't agree. I've found that the slices are just a little bit more fragile than when they went into the freezer. They taste great and keep their color. I also figure that if I want fresh avocado slices - that's why I bought it in the first place. For sandwiches, guacamole, avocado cream sauces, most recipes I use, I have just the right amount of avocado whenever I want it. The best possible outcome. 

I wish I'd thought to explore this ages ago.
Perfect in my Nest 4 one - who am I kidding - my kids, who are in their twenties won't even look at an avocado. Won't think of all the avocados I never met because I didn't want to eat the whole thing!