Avocado is one of the popular organic fruit with an excellent nutrient source but if you haven’t tasted avocados before, you might wonder, what does avocado taste like? Don’t worry, we are here to explain you.
Avocado has grown its popularity in the superfoods category in the last decade because of its deliciousness, versatility, and healthy for your body. Avocados are rich in vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin D, vitamin K, fatty acids, and many other nutrients.
Avocado
Avocado is an organic fruit, also known as butter fruit in layman’s terms. It is a popular fruit because avocado comprises healthy mono-saturated fatty acids and is considered one of the most nutrient-rich fruits.
Sometimes, people also called avocado as alligator pears based on the shape resemblance with the pear and outer skin to that of an alligator.
If the avocado you brought from a superstore or a vegetable market is not fully ripened, what are you going to do? How to ripen a hard avocado? Wait! We will talk about this too in this article. So keep reading till the end.
Fresh Avocado Nutrition
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the following are the nutritional profiles of 68 grams of avocado.
Calories: 114
Dietary fibers: 6 grams
Vitamin A: 43 micrograms
Vitamin E: 1.3 milligrams
Vitamin K: 14 ug
Omega-3 fatty acids: 0.2 milligrams
What does Avocado Taste Like?
Avocados have a slightly nutty, creamy, and buttery taste subject to the ripeness and its variety. Their overall flavor is gentle and underwhelmed to me for the first time but you can understand its taste when you eat avocados again.
After cutting an avocado into two halves, you will see from your naked eyes that how creamy it looks, and by getting a sharp knife through it, you will feel as if you are slicing butter into pieces.
As a living being, we have five taste buds like sweet, sour, bitter, umani, and salty. We would like to describe the taste of avocado as per these tastes. According to our taste buds, avocado can fall under the umani categories which possess the taste of glutamate. Glutamate is an amino acid found in most meat products and vegetables.
How should I choose an Avocado?
Do you love the taste of guacamole or a bowl of avocado toast? Then should know how to choose a good avocado to make an avocado toast. If you know what to look for and know the level of ripeness of avocado, you will land up in making excellent, tasty, and creamy avocado recipes.
First, you should carefully look at the color of avocados. For immediate use, you should look for dark with patches of green color.
Touch by your hand to know the ripeness of the avocado. Gently squeeze and feel the firmness. This method will confirm the intensity of ripeness.
Examine the texture of the avocado skin. Avoid largely indented avocados and select only the slightly pebbled ones.
Peeling off the stem or cap on the top can determine ripeness inside. If the area under the peeled cap or stem is green, it is good to go and if it is brown, it is over-ripened, please avoid buying this.
How to ripen a hard Avocado?
Sometimes, there will be a situation where you have bought hard avocados to store but you need them for immediate use. In such cases, you should know how to ripen a hard avocado and speed up the ripening process. There are several methods you can use to ripen a hard avocado as described below.
1. Brown paper bag method
Fruits like banana or apple can help in accelerating the process of ripening a hard avocado. Simply add a banana or apple on top of hard avocado inside a brown paper bag. Banana and apple will release extra ethylene gas, helping avocado to ripe within 24 hours.
2. Lemon juice method
Lemon juice can also perform magic in ripening the hard avocado. Just cut the avocado into two halves and coat it with fresh lemon juice. Then put back the two half avocados together by wrapping tightly and shelve them inside the fridge. The next day, your hard avocado will be ready for tasty recipe preparation.
3. Addition of salt method
Cut the stem part of the hard avocado and pour some amount of salt into the opening. Again close the opening with the same cut stem and store it separately. The next day, take a look and your avocado will be ready to eat.
4. Oven method
This method is one of the fast methods to speed up the avocado ripening process. Wrap your hard avocado with the foil and pop them inside the oven which is set to 90 Degree Celsius. The heat inside the oven will help in releasing the ethylene gas from the avocado itself and it will ready within 10 minutes. It is the quicker method but faster isn’t that good to retain the flavor of avocado.
Now, it is your choice for the selection of the perfect method to ripe a hard avocado. Which method is your best choice? Comment below your choice!
What does Avocado do for you? Health Benefits
Avocados are nutrient-rich and a good source of vitamin C, E, K, omega-3 fatty acids, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, folate, and potassium. It contains fatty acids but don't worry, these fatty acids are healthy which helps in keeping you full and satiated, fulfilling your goal of losing weight to some extent. Consumption of avocados may include the following health benefits:
1. Healthy for heart
Natural plant sterol called beta-sitosterol and phytosterols helps in maintaining healthy levels of cholesterol in your body. It contains about 38 milligrams of beta-sitosterols from 50 grams of avocados.
To reduce the intake of saturated fats and bad cholesterols, try adding fresh avocados in toast, sandwiches, or burgers.
2. Great for vision
Avocado contains phytochemicals like lutein and zeaxanthin which provide antioxidant protection and minimizes the damage posed by ultraviolet light.
3. Lowers the risk of depression
40 grams of raw avocado contains about 82 mcg of folate.
According to the studies, fruits having folate are useful in lowering the risk of depression by preventing the addition of a substance that can decline the movement and release of nutrients to the brain.
4. Supports bone health
100 grams of fresh avocado contains 21 milligrams of vitamin K.
Calcium is one of the favorite minerals for the development of strong bones and supporting bone structure but we should also not ignore its support provided by vitamin K. It can support bone health by increasing the absorption of calcium and reducing the excretion of calcium.
5. Saves your brain
Avocado is a good source of vitamin E.
The antioxidant properties of vitamin E help in protecting from cell damage caused by radiation and pollution.
Avocado recipes
Now you know what does avocado taste like, how to choose an avocado, how to ripen, and how to store avocados. But you must be wondering how to prepare an avocado recipe and how to eat it. It is simple, there are many ways where you can add avocados to smoothies and make them thick.
1. Eat avocado as raw (as it is)
2. Mix with any smoothies
3. Make avocado toast
4. Make avocado as guacamole
5. Use as a substitute for butter
6. Put avocado on a burger
Cautionary Note: We will not recommend avocado as a hamburger substitute due to its softness and consistency.
Avocado has gained popularity and dominated the market. It is expensive compared to other superfoods because it has lots of health benefits including promotion of digestion, healthy for the heart, and serves as a natural detoxifier. Finally, we hope that we had answered your question about what does avocado taste like, how to ripen hard avocado, how to choose avocado, what does avocado do for you, etc.
References:
National Center for Biotechnology Information
