Once I announced I was working with the California Avocado Commission I found myself fielding lots of avocado questions. Everything from how to cut them to how store them but the most common topic involved managing their ripeness.
Avocados are like banana or mangoes, they will ripen on your counter in a few days. They are ideal when the skin darkens and they become slightly soft to the touch. However, their window of perfect ripeness seems small going from from inedible to overripe pretty quickly, especially when you are a busy mom trying to manage food for a household.
I've learned to store mine in the fridge just as they ripen as it does slow down the process, but what happens when you have a handful of ripe avocados on your hands and no time to use them?
I have the answer!
Well, Gail had the answer -- I'm just passing on this awesome tip.
Queue your awesome freezer, again.
That's right, you can freeze avocado!
Simply cube it up when ripe and throw in a freezer bag for later use!
I can't believe I didn't think of this before. I do it with all sorts of other things like banana and spinach. Why not avocado?
The best part of saving your avocado this way is having nice cold cubes for smoothies! I made my first avocado smoothie the other day and I loved the texture. Avocados make smoothies creamy and indulgent especially when you add chocolate!
Here's what I did...
Ingredients
- 50g frozen avocado cubes (~â…“ cup)
- 1 ripe banana (brown spots preferred for sweetness)
- ½ cup PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter (24g) (This is a new pantry item for me; I keep it in stock now)
- 2 tablespoon dark cocoa powder (10g) (Another stock pantry item for me)
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
Instructions
Put all ingredients in the blender and process until smooth!
As I said, the avocado adds an awesome smooth texture and boosts the healthy fat content of the smoothie making it much more satisfying. This makes an awesome quick breakfast.
📖 Recipe
Smooth Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie With a Secret Frozen Ingredient
Ingredients
- 50 g frozen avocado cubes ~â…“ cup
- 1 ripe banana brown spots preferred for sweetness
- ½ cup PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter 24g (This is a new pantry item for me; I keep it in stock now)
- 2 tablespoon dark cocoa powder 10g (Another stock pantry item for me)
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
Instructions
- Put all ingredients in the blender and process until smooth!50 g frozen avocado cubes, 1 ripe banana, ½ cup PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter, 2 tablespoon dark cocoa powder, 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
Krista
That looks amazing and I super love the freezing trick! I will have to do that next time. I just bought 2 more jars of PB2...a chocolate one and a regular one. I found that the chocolate doesn't really taste like chocolate, but I love putting it in Greek yogurt. Can't wait to try out this smoothie.