Avocado is no longer an exotic fruit in our country. Now you can buy it not only in big cities, but also in very small ones. But many people refuse to buy this fruit, which is useful in all respects, because they do not know how to eat it, whether it can be eaten raw or needs to be boiled. This article is just for such people. In it we will answer all the questions that people ask when buying avocados.
Avocado is an incredibly nutritious fruit with a neutral taste. It contains many vitamins, minerals and plant compounds that are beneficial for the entire body.
This green, pear-shaped fruit is a source of monounsaturated fats, which are healthy fats for the body. Avocados contain lutein, which is so necessary for vision, B vitamins, vitamin E, potassium, fiber and many other nutrients.
Avocado can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, prevent obesity, and prevent diabetes. Eating avocados also affects our appearance. As a source of many beneficial substances, it improves complexion and hair condition.
Avocado can be a good addition to a healthy meal.
Many people mistakenly believe that avocado is a vegetable. It's actually a fruit. This confusion occurs because avocados are often used in salads, soups, pizza and sandwiches. After all, it has a neutral taste and this differs from the fruits we are used to.
How to choose an avocado
There are unripe fruits on the shelves of our stores. After all, this fruit does not grow here. To bring it to us, it is picked not yet ripe. But you shouldn't be upset about this. All over the world, stores sell unripe fruits. The avocado is not allowed to ripen on the tree; it is picked unripe.
Unripe fruit has a green color. It's solid. As the avocado ripens, the skin darkens and becomes almost black. If you see such a fruit, do not think that it is a spoiled avocado. This is already ripe fruit. In general, the degree of ripeness of an avocado is determined by the consistency of its pulp.
Look at the picture of an avocado below to know exactly which fruit is ripe and which one needs to ripen.
How to check the ripeness of an avocado? Take the fruit in your palms and squeeze gently without pressing on the peel with your fingers. The ripe fruit is slightly soft to the touch and can be eaten immediately.
Not mature - dense. Pressing with your palms will not affect the shape of the fetus in any way. Overripe – soft to the touch.
If you're buying avocados for the first time, buy a couple of fruits that are slightly soft to the touch. When eating at home, try to feel the difference and determine which fruit is riper and, most importantly, at what degree of ripeness you liked the taste better.
What is an avocado?
These are the fruits of an evergreen plant, which are rich in minerals and vitamins. The avocado tree reaches 18 meters in height. Depending on the variety, the fruits are spherical, oval, pear-shaped, up to ten centimeters in length. The average weight of one avocado is 300 grams.
The unripe fruit has a dark green, hard skin that turns black when ripe. In the middle of the avocado is a large ivory-colored seed. It contains harmful substances that cause an allergic reaction and disruption of the digestive system. The pulp of the ripe fruit is oily, yellow-green or green in color. The consistency is vaguely reminiscent of butter. The leaves of Persea americana are saturated with essential oils and contain toxic substances.
Avocado – is it a fruit or a vegetable?
Because of its unsweetened taste, alligator pear is often mistaken for a vegetable, but it is a fruit. Ripe fruits are used in cooking for preparing cold appetizers, salads, sandwiches, soups, and sushi. At the same time, in Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil, sweet milkshakes are made from avocados, and in Sri Lanka, a delicate dessert is made from sugar, milk, and buttery fruit puree.
The fruit is popular in vegetarian dishes, as it acts as a valid substitute for meat and eggs and gives the dish a nutty taste.
What can you eat avocado with?
The most popular dish made from the buttery fruit is Mexican guacamole. To prepare it, peel the pulp of the fruit, grind it in a blender, add black pepper, salt, your favorite seasonings, and sprinkle with lemon juice.
In addition, the delicate taste of avocado goes harmoniously with seafood, vegetables, meat, and fish.
How to eat Persea american fruit?
There are different ways to process alligator pear: it can be eaten raw, fried, boiled, stewed or baked. It all depends entirely on your taste.
Remember, fresh avocados contain the most nutrients, particularly healthy unsaturated fatty acids.
How to ripen an avocado
But what to do if the store only has fruits that are hard to the touch? Buy. You should not refuse to purchase such a useful product. It can be ripened at home within 2-4 days.
What's the best way to do this? Now we will share with you one little trick.
If you buy an unripe avocado, buy bananas. At home, place avocados and bananas in a bag. Preferably in paper. After a couple of days, feel the fruit. If it still doesn’t lend itself well to squeezing when pressed lightly, then let it sit for a while longer.
The fruits ripen at room temperature. There is no need to put it in the refrigerator. Avocados typically take 2 to 5 days to ripen.
If you need to buy an avocado for some occasion, choose firm, unripe fruits. If they start singing in the room faster than you need, then put them in the refrigerator.
Ripe avocados should be eaten within one or two days.
Safety of overripe avocados
Whether an overripe avocado is safe to eat depends on the type of decomposition and how long it remains overripe.
Since ripening begins at the end of the stem and progresses downwards, you can use part of the overripe fruit if the flesh has just begun to brown.
However, do not eat the discolored parts of the avocado as they will not taste good. Also, don't try to salvage any part of a rancid, sour-smelling, or moldy avocado, as it may make you sick (2, 5, 6).
Keep in mind that once you cut an avocado, the flesh will begin to brown due to exposure to oxygen. This is a natural process similar to how apples turn brown when sliced. If you find it unappetizing, peel off the brown layer and eat the rest (7).
To minimize darkening of cut areas, brush the pulp with lemon juice and store in the refrigerator in a sealed container.
By keeping an eye on your avocado and storing it in the refrigerator to slow down the ripening process, you can reduce waste.
Overly soft but unspoilt avocados are safe to eat and can be used in guacamole, smoothies, salad dressings and baked goods.
If an overripe avocado tastes great, you can eat it, but be sure to avoid spoiled ones. The more an avocado deteriorates, the more likely it is to become rancid or moldy, which can make you sick.
The avocado pulp inside has darkened and is covered with black dots.
What to do to prevent avocados from turning brown?
Is it possible to eat an avocado that has darkened inside?
Even more than a darkened avocado, you should be afraid of an unripe avocado. I learned about this quite recently from a TV show in the genre “Rospotrebnadzor” or “Test Purchase”.
It also has a poisonous pit, as it turned out, it is important not to cut or accidentally damage it when cutting the avocado. Ignorance is also strength - I ate both darkened and frankly hard (and therefore unripe)
You cut an avocado, and it’s darkened, more precisely in the dots, so don’t throw it away. Or it seems soft, you cut it and only then realize it’s underripe
Ignorance is also strength - I ate both darkened and frankly hard (and therefore unripe). You cut an avocado, and it’s darkened, more precisely in the dots, so don’t throw it away. Or it seems soft, you cut it and only then realize it’s underripe.
Also for food, not in a bucket. And everyone is alive and well.
The unripe one is simply tasteless at all, astringent and hard.
A similar effect can be caused by improper storage, transportation or changes in temperature (for example, after refrigeration, it is moved to a warm place and left for some time; a sharp difference in temperature affects the pulp, appearance and taste).
We see approximately the same effect on bananas.
After the refrigerator they are different. not as tasty, and even the peel shows the difference.
An avocado with darkened flesh does not become poisonous, which means it can be eaten, but will it be satisfied with the new taste? It is significantly inferior to the original one.
The presence and safety of all useful properties also raise vague doubts.
Avocado has black veins or black dots inside, darkened, etc.
Is it possible to eat this avocado?
Black veins or dots on the avocado are most likely because the avocado has been lying around for a long time, overripe. I came across these, since they were quite edible - this darkening did not affect the taste in any way, so I ate them.
I also came across information that this is a feature of the variety. Don't know.
If a completely normal avocado, which had light flesh without darkening, darkened after a while when cut, then this is an oxidation process. The same thing happens, for example, with apple pulp. There's nothing wrong with that. If you don't like it, just cut it off.
Avocado is an evergreen, fast-growing fruit plant belonging to the Laurel family. Reaches a height of twenty meters. Its ripe fruits have the shape of a dark green pear and are a real collection of useful elements, macro- and microelements
It belongs to the category of exotic fruits, so before eating it you need to know how to eat avocado, how much you need to eat per day, what is good for the body, what to look for when choosing, features of its preparation and combination with other products in culinary dishes
How to store avocados
Ripe avocados should be stored in the refrigerator in the fruit and vegetable compartment. It is advisable to put it in a paper bag. In the refrigerator, unripe fruits will ripen longer than at room temperature.
You can also store cut avocados. But during storage it will oxidize and the cut will darken. To reduce this process, you can sprinkle the cut with citric acid, lemon or orange juice. You can also use table vinegar. Reduce oxidation of tomato juice and onions.
Store cut avocados in a tightly closed container to prevent exposure to air. You can wrap it in cling film. You can leave the pit in the cut avocado. This will reduce the surface area that will be subject to oxidation.
Why is avocado bitter?
Often, after successfully choosing a fruit, it turns out that it tastes bitter when consumed. If, in addition to bitterness, the avocado contains brown streaks inside, this means that the fruit is completely overripe. There will be no benefit from its use, and you should not eat it. In addition, the taste of dishes prepared with it will suffer.
The second reason for the appearance of bitterness may be the unripeness of the avocado: in this case, it will be light yellow inside, with a bitter taste.
The pulp also begins to taste bitter after heat treatment. Usually people start eating it raw, so as not to expose it to high temperatures, which destroy the structure and contribute to the loss of beneficial properties.
How to peel an avocado
Ripe avocados are easy to peel. You just need to cut the avocado in half or quarters and remove the skin. Then grab the tip of the peel and peel it off. Simply cut off any remaining skin with a knife. If the peel is difficult to peel at first, use a knife.
It is imperative to peel the avocado. It contains substances that can cause poisoning.
You can simply scoop out the pulp with a spoon, like kiwi. But this method is more suitable for overripe fruits.
How to cut an avocado
Before cutting an avocado, you need to wash it.
Place the avocado on a plate or cutting board.
Holding the top with one hand, cut the fruit in half. The avocado is cut lengthwise. Start cutting at the narrow end and work your way inward towards the pit and around the entire fruit.
Hold the avocado with one hand and roll one half against the other with the other.
The pit is easily removed with a spoon. Just pick it up and take it out. You can grow a plant from it at home.
Watch the video on how to peel and cut an avocado.
How to cut and peel
!We do not remove the skin from the pulp, like from a potato or an apple. And remove the pulp from the skin.
Because by peeling it piece by piece, you cut off the valuable pulp. And you will be left with a very slippery oily fruit in your hands. There is a large bone inside, which is difficult to get out of something slippery.
