avocado
As a California baby, avocados are one of my top five foods. Here are a number of favorite avocado recipes in one list – aside from guacamoles, they’re particularly wonderful in salads, on toast, and in dips, soups and purees. Avocados have a decadent creamy, potassium-rich flesh that makes them perfect for any number of preparations. Consider them a nutrition booster, because eating them in conjunction with foods that contain fat-soluble phytonutrients like lutein, make those nutrients much more available to the body.
To Select the Best Avocado
Place the avocado in the palm of your hand. Gently wrap your fingers around it, and squeeze very lightly. The flesh will give just a bit if it’s ripe. Another way to tell is to fiddle around with the little stem button; looseness indicates ripeness.
Feel-good Lunch Ideas
Leveling up lunch ideas with lots of color, clever use of leftovers, and feel-good ingredients. These are two lunchboxes I packed recently.
Anna Jones’ California Salad
A California-inspired Miso, Avocado, & Lima Bean Salad from A Modern Way to Eat, by Anna Jones. Seasonal greens and beans are tossed with an assertive, creamy miso dressing. There are crunchy seeds, and broccoli, and avocado - it all comes together into a brilliant, beautiful, feel-good salad.
Indian-spiced Guacamole
Imagine guacamole topped with fragrant, Indian-spiced onions and garlic, green chiles, and mustard seeds. It's great with chips, toasted naan, or toasted pita.
California Barley Bowl
From Megan Gordon’s cookbook, Whole Grain Mornings, a super grain bowl. Plump barley grains are tossed with sprouts (or greens), nuts, avocado, a bit of cheese and dolloped with a simple yogurt sauce.
Market Kale Salad
This kale salad was inspired by the pizza-centric restaurant in my neighborhood that makes amazing salads. We eat there often and I love the salad with farro, avocado, carrots, fennel and a creamy green garlic dressing.
Vegan Red Pozole (Pozole Rojo / Mexican Hominy Stew)
This favorite meatless red pozole is grounded with cascabel and chipotle chiles and spiked with citrus olive oil.
Peace, Love & Energy Dip
The best thing in my refrigerator right now. It’s a dip! An updated version of the virtuous hippie spreads found for decades in California grocery co-ops and farmers’ markets.
TLT Sandwich
A vegetarian TLT sandwich inspired by the classic BLT sandwich. This version includes chipotle-marinated tempeh alongside oven-roasted cherry tomatoes, a bit of shredded lettuce, and a generous avocado slather on a thin slice (or two) of great bread.
Spicy Tempeh Crumble Bowl
A riff on one of my favorite recipes in Andrea Nguyen's Vietnamese Food Any Day - a caramelized tempeh crumble. The sort of thing that immediately becomes the best component in your rice bowl.
Super Natural Vegan Sushi
This is homemade vegan sushi made with sweet potato fries, seasoned tofu, avocado, kale chips, and a whole grain sushi rice blend. A quick kiss of strong wasabi-spiked soy sauce is my preferred dipping sauce.
