Avocado
233 recipes found
Pan-Seared Chicken With Mujdei Green Beans
Easy to make and deeply satisfying, mujdei is a cornerstone sauce in Romanian cuisine. Just a quick glance at the amount of garlic in the ingredient list explains its potency. Crushed fine and whisked with salt, oil and water, the garlic blend makes an evocative pairing for vegetables, seafood or meat. Here, it's a lovely coating for blistered green beans and avocado to eat with skillet brown chicken thighs. Whenever mujdei finds its way onto your fork, it will leave a nice light tingle on your lips.
Shrimp Aguachile
Aguachile, the bright and punchy seafood dish from coastal Sinaloa, Mexico, gets its name (which translates to “chile water”) from the vibrant blend of chiles, lime juice and salt that transform the sweet flesh of raw shrimp into tender, tart flavor bombs. Unlike ceviche, where seafood marinates in citrus until it's fully “cooked,” aguachile hits the table soon after the shrimp meets the zesty chile water. While the aguachile is on your plate, the lime juice continues its work on the sweet, delicate shrimp, so each bite offers a slightly different texture without ever turning rubbery. Use as many serranos as your heart desires and your palate can handle.
Tomato, Bacon and Corn Salad
This super-summery salad is all about big, bold bites — juicy tomatoes, sweet corn, creamy avocado and crispy bacon. It’s tossed with nothing more than a generous squeeze of lime and a little reserved bacon fat for extra richness and smokiness. Plenty of cilantro (or another herb of your choice) keeps it fresh. It’s hearty enough to be dinner, but also plays well with anything grilled, roasted or just eaten outdoors. Some thick toast on the side could make this a full meal.
Aguacate Ahumado (Spicy Avocado Salsa)
Many salsas are fresh, raw and bright. But this pico de gallo turns a corner. A smoky corner. Finely chopped chipotles in adobo end up glazing the soft pieces of avocado, and it tastes deep and charred, even though it takes all of five minutes to make. It shouldn’t taste this good. But it does. Serve on sandwiches or tostadas, or with a bowl of plantain chips.
Avocado, Edamame and Yuzu Dip With Furikake
This voluptuous dip “couldn’t be simpler,” wrote Ravinder Bhogal, the chef of Jikoni in London, in her cookbook “Comfort and Joy” (Bloomsbury, 2023). Tumble avocado in a food processor with ginger, for a subtle sweetness and restorative sting; soy sauce, standing in for salt but rounder and deeper; toasted sesame oil, earthy and plush, making everything it touches more intensely itself; and edamame, for body (and protein). Then stir in yuzu, a citrus that’s sweeter and gentler than lemon, lending a sherbety tang, and light where avocado is luscious. (If you don’t have any on hand, try squeezing together lemon and clementine.) A dose of sambal brings a throb of heat, if you like, while a dusting of furikake adds crunch. Ms. Bhogal serves the dip on toast at her restaurant, but you can dispense with the formality of framing it as a meal and eat it straight, dunking the likes of carrots, radishes, tortilla chips and Thai prawn crackers.
Salmon With Avocado and Cilantro Salad
For nights when you need a sparkle of color, this dish is just that, in both appearance and taste. First, roast a side of salmon, rubbed with coriander and garlic, and topped with lime slices to infuse it with flavor. As it cooks, prepare this simple and bright avocado salad, spiked with lime juice, jalapeños and scallions, and tossed with gentle greens, to balance the richness of the salmon. Serve with lightly oiled pearled couscous or orzo, plain rice or cilantro rice, or crusty bread.
Smoked Salmon and Avocado Toast With Carrot Salad
This toast makes for a perfect solo lunch. A thick slice of sourdough is toasted and topped with smashed avocado, capers and salty slivers of smoked salmon. Rounding out these ingredients is the real star of the show: a tall pile of shaved carrot salad tossed in vinegar and olive oil. Sweet, salty and briny, the raw carrot salad offers a nice textural contrast to the rest of the toast. Like most toasts, this one is best eaten right away.
Avocado Hand Rolls
A fresh pot of perfectly steamed white rice is always a good place to start any meal. Though you could use leftover rice for this recipe, there is no greater comfort than just-cooked rice, especially when it’s seasoned like sushi rice with salt, sugar and acid. Build a meal around that pot: Sushi rice tastes great when stuffed into sheets of roasted seaweed with rich, creamy avocado. You can also tuck sliced cucumber, imitation crab sticks or sushi-grade raw fish into these rolls. If you have an extra 10 seconds, don’t hesitate to whip up the spicy soy sauce and lime juice dipping sauce (see Tip).
Spicy Tuna and Avocado Tostadas
Topped with a cross between a chunky guacamole and a tuna salad, these tostadas are a super satisfying, no-cook lunch or dinner for a steamy summer night when turning on the stove is a no-go. Instead of fresh tuna, this recipe employs the tinned variety, making these tostadas accessible for any budget. The simple serrano and lime dressing is tart and spicy with a hint of creaminess that balances the lean nature of canned tuna. Eat the salad like a dip with a bag of totopos at your desk, or pack it up with a bottle of wine and assemble your tostadas outside for a picnic in the park or day at the beach.
Carne Asada Torta
Tender white rolls stuffed with smoky grilled meat, creamy avocado, juicy tomatoes, pickled jalapeños and red onion, the Mexican torta is a much-loved sandwich that likely originated in Puebla during the French occupation in the 1860s. Mexican bakers were inspired by baguettes, and created telera, a smaller, softer loaf with signature hash marks across the top. While the exact history is blurry, one thing remains true: like any good sandwich, good bread is key. Telera or bolillo rolls are traditional here, although according to Claudette Zepeda, a San Diego chef who specializes in regional Mexican cooking, ciabatta is an acceptable substitute. She also said that while pickled onions and chiles are a must, cheese is usually only found on a cold torta. All that to say, while it’s not strictly authentic, feel free to add refried beans or crumble on a little cotija cheese. For extra flavor, place the cut sides of the toasted bread over the carne asada while it’s resting to soak up some of the flavorful juices. This version of the popular sandwich calls for carne asada, but you could also use shredded pollo asado.
Citrus, Beet and Avocado Salad
This is winter’s caprese: shingled slices of the season’s peak produce dressed simply with olive oil, salt and pepper. The sweet citrus, creamy avocado and earthy beets are really all you need, but trio can serve as a base for salads all year long. Add protein (fresh or tinned seafood, grains, legumes), dairy (burrata, stracciatella, yogurt, feta), more vegetables or fruits (baby greens, chicories, radishes, cucumbers), and flavor boosters like toasted whole spices or nuts, crushed red pepper, herbs, shallots or olives. The beets can be steamed or roasted, or you can purchase them precooked. Any way you make it, this easy-to-assemble salad is a bright, beautiful spot in winter’s shorter, darker days.
Cemitas
The cemita is a widely popular Mexican sandwich from the state of Puebla. It’s named for the bread it’s served on, an egg-rich, sesame seed bun. Also referred to as a cemita Poblana, the sandwich is frequently filled with a crispy fried cutlet, often pork or chicken. Traditional toppings are layered to create a symphony of textures and flavors, including creamy avocado, salty Oaxaca cheese, tangy pickled jalapeños or smoky chipotles en adobo, fresh raw onions and papalo (a fragrant Mexican herb similar to cilantro). If Oaxaca cheese is unavailable, string cheese delivers a similar texture and flavor.
Ceviche
Light and bright, vibrant and punchy, ceviche involves marinating raw seafood in citrus juice until it becomes opaque and toothsome. You’ll find many variations of the dish in coastal Latin America made with ingredients like coconut milk, ketchup and green olives. This colorful rendition is one style popular in Mexico, but if you leave out the tomatoes, cucumber and avocado, you’ll get a dish that’s common in Peru, the birthplace of ceviche. Whatever version you make, start with fish that’s as fresh as possible; ask your fishmonger what’s best for ceviche that day, and to make shrimp ceviche, see Tip.
Green Goddess Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Avocado forms the base of creamy green goddess dressing in this everyday chicken salad recipe. Made with lots of green herbs, capers and scallions, it’s tangy, vinegary and luxuriously creamy without the addition of any dairy or mayonnaise. Feel free to substitute other tender herbs you have on hand — chervil, chives and tarragon would all nod to classic green goddess dressing. For the chicken, you can roast bone-in, skin-on breasts, use leftover chicken or purchase a rotisserie chicken. Breast meat is more traditional for a chicken salad, but if you love thighs, by all means use them here. Pile the chicken salad onto toasted bread with lettuce and tomato for a standout sandwich, or eat it straight from the bowl with salted crackers or pita chips.
Tangy Romaine Salad With Habanero-Avocado Dressing
Tender lettuce, juicy sweet oranges, pungent radishes and crunchy cucumbers get a lush treatment with this creamy, tangy, rich, addictingly spicy dressing that leaves a luxuriously rich and full mouthfeel after each bite. The habanero becomes sweeter and its flavors more bold as it roasts, imparting zesty, peppy flavor, feisty bite and a hint of rustic smoke to the creamy avocado dressing. This dressing works well on any green salad — but is so good you might even want to pour it onto a bowl and eat with a spoon.
Avocado, Radish and Iceberg Lettuce Salad
I’ve always liked this very simple salad that was served at La Taza de Oro, a now-defunct Puerto Rican diner in New York City.
Crispy Rice With Salmon And Avocado
This recipe for golden-crisp blocks of sushi rice topped with cool and creamy salmon and avocado is a riff on a spicy tuna and crispy rice dish created by Katsuya Uechi, a Los Angeles chef who was inspired by yaki onigiri. While the dish does require a number of steps and is best eaten right when it’s made, you can break up the work by cooking the rice and seasoning the salmon with lemon zest and jalapeño up to 24 hours ahead. (In fact, the results will be better if you do.) Right before serving, slice and fry the blocks and top with the salmon and avocado. These gorgeous two-bite treats make an excellent party hors d'oeuvres or full dinner with a cucumber salad.
Pasta con Palta (Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta)
In 2016, Sandra A. Gutierrez began to narrow down a list of 9,000 recipes to about 500 for her encyclopedic Latin American cookbook called “Latinísimo: Home Recipes from the 21 Countries of Latin America” (Knopf, 2023). She wanted to focus on the dishes people made at home for a readership of novice cooks. This easy, weeknight recipe from Chile emulates that spirit with the use of Hass avocados –– the main variety produced in the country –– to make a rich and silky sauce that comes together in a blender as the pasta cooks. For best results, sauce and eat the dish immediately to enjoy its velvety texture.
Arepas
These chicken and avocado-stuffed arepas, which are known as reina pepiada (or curvy queen), were created in honor of Susana Dujim, a Venezuelan beauty queen who was crowned Miss World in 1955. The 1950s also marked the invention of precooked corn flour, now known as masarepa, by a Venezuelan engineer. But arepas were around for hundreds of years throughout Latin America before that, the corn patties sometimes served whole or split, then filled with countless combinations. Preparing them used to be labor-intensive, but masarepa gives arepas a light and creamy texture without a lot of effort. Unlike cornmeal used for cornbread or muffins, which is ground dried uncooked corn, masarepa is ground from cooked corn and conveniently sold as dried corn flour. Masa harina is ground uncooked corn treated with other ingredients and is used to make tortillas and other dishes. Neither cornmeal nor masa harina can be substituted for masarepa, which is available online and in many supermarkets.
Smashed Cucumber, Avocado and Shrimp Salad
Smashed, salted cucumbers form the base of cooling summer salads in many parts of Asia, whether dressed with rice vinegar and soy sauce or spicy Sichuan peppercorns, chiles and peanuts. This version pairs smashed cucumbers with avocados for creaminess, along with briny shrimp steamed with sesame oil. Served with rice or flatbread, it makes a light summer meal, but you can serve it on its own as an appetizer, to open for grilled or roasted meat or fish.
Chilled Avocado Soup
This chilled soup couldn’t be easier to make, packing a lot of flavor into a quick dish of just a few ingredients. Fresh, green and somewhat tart, it’s quite refreshing on a warm day.
Salt and Vinegar Kale Chips With Fried Chickpeas and Avocado
These salt-and-vinegar kale chips from “Tenderheart” by Hetty Lui McKinnon (Alfred A. Knopf, 2023) feel decidedly snacky, but team them up with fried chickpeas, avocado and an optional frizzled egg and they become a delightfully textural meal. To encourage maximum crunch for your chips, it is crucial to dry your kale well after washing, and give the chips ample time in the oven to crisp up, since they’re doused in vinegar for extra verve. Customize your chips, if desired, by adding other seasonings: Paprika and harissa impart more intense flavor, while nutritional yeast, grated Parmesan or Cheddar will add more umami. The key point to remember is that salt will make your kale soggy, so only sprinkle it on your chips after roasting.
Simple Guacamole
Providing a framework to build on as you wish, this pared-down guacamole lets the avocado shine. If you want more lime, add more lime. Seed the jalapeño, if you prefer its fruity heat without the spice, or leave the seeds in, if you enjoy living life on the edge. Letting the diced onion sit in lime juice for a couple of minutes will help temper its pungent bite before imbuing the dish with its oniony savoriness. Chopped cilantro and diced tomatoes are welcome additions to this Mexican staple, if you’d like. It’s your guacamole. Serve with tortilla chips, or as a condiment alongside your meal, and double or triple this recipe for a party.
Toasted Millet Salad With Cucumber, Avocado and Lemon
Cooked millet has a taste and aroma that’s subtly reminiscent of raw hazelnuts, and as with hazelnuts, toasting millet first really deepens its flavor. If you want to work ahead, toast and cook the millet, set aside and toss in the other ingredients when ready. Sharp mint leaves, creamy avocado, crisp cucumbers and bright lemon really round out this dish, which makes a lovely side dish, an afternoon snack or the base of a protein-focused grain bowl. Millet is marvelous, but a wide variety of grains will work just as well.