How to peel an avocado: step-by-step instructions, tips and tricks

November 9, 2018
Salads
Fedorova Victoria

Avocado is widely used for preparing various dishes. The fruit has beneficial properties and a neutral taste. However, not all housewives know how to properly and quickly separate the pit from the pulp. How to peel an avocado? The article will discuss the most effective ways to remove seeds and cut fruit.

Peculiarities

Avocado is an oval or pear shaped fruit. The fruit is covered with a dark green peel and contains a large seed inside.

The pulp of an unripe fruit is hard. Only fully ripe avocados are eaten. The pulp has an unusual taste. It resembles butter with herbs. You can also detect a special hint of pine nuts in the taste of the fruit.

How to peel an avocado? Due to the fact that the peel and pit are not eaten, it is necessary to learn how to properly remove them from the fruit.

Avocado contains many nutrients. The fruit has a positive effect on the health of the heart and blood vessels. Regular consumption of avocados improves the condition of the skin. This happens thanks to the vitamins A and E contained in the fruit.

To get truly tasty and healthy dishes, you need to choose the right fruit. It must meet all the necessary requirements and be ripe.

Avocado: a brief description of an exotic fruit

What is an avocado? This is a green fruit with a specific unsweetened taste. It has a pin-shaped shape, a fairly strong peel, and in the center of the fruit there is a large spherical (in some varieties - in the form of an elongated ball) bone with a diameter of approximately 4–5 cm.

The scientific name of avocado is Persea americana.

Avocado pulp can have a consistency similar to cold butter or very soft cheese. It is very smooth, soft, but holds its shape well. The pulp is not as juicy as most fruits. Avocado tastes like nuts.

How to choose a fruit

It is necessary to know the features of the correct choice of fruit. As a rule, this is no less important than cleaning and slicing it. Most often, avocados are supplied to the retail chain unripe, but they should only be eaten when they are ripe. When choosing a fruit, you should not always focus on the peel, shape and color of the fruit. This largely depends on the variety of avocado.

When choosing a fruit, you must be guided by the following rules:

Don't buy hard avocados;
such fruits are unsuitable for food because they require ripening;
An avocado that is too soft indicates that it is overripe.

When choosing a fruit, you can use some tricks. You need to press on the peel with your finger. If a dent appears and disappears after a while, then the avocado is ready to eat. If it remains, then the product is overripe.

The avocado needs to be shaken slightly. If it is ready to eat, the pit will tap.

Some housewives, when encountering the fruit for the first time, ask whether avocados are peeled. Further in the article we will talk about the most effective ways to separate the stone from the pulp.

Useful tips

Avocados come in a variety of varieties and can vary in color from light green to dark brown. But for all types, one rule applies - the darker the color of the fruit’s skin, the more ripe it is. Softness is an important criterion when choosing a quality avocado. If you press on the skin, it should be wrinkled and easily return to its original shape. It may be that the peel is too soft, then this indicates that the fruit is probably overripe and has already begun to deteriorate near the seed. A ripe fruit has a dry stalk or no stalk at all. The place where it is attached should also be soft.

Selecting a ripe avocado the first time is a difficult task. You need to have experience in this, as when buying watermelons. You can often buy a fruit that seems ripe and fresh, but at home you discover that it has rotted at the pit. This is due to improper transportation and storage in the store. If you don’t need the fruit today, you can purchase an unripe fruit and wait a few days until it ripens at your home.
Avocados are usually picked hard, and while they are being taken to the store, the fruits ripen. To wait for the fruit to ripen at home, you should put it in a paper bag or simply wrap it in paper and put it in a cool, dark place. You can put bananas with avocados, which release a gas that promotes faster ripening. An avocado will ripen without a banana in 3-5 days.

REFERENCE! If you want to save half an unpeeled avocado, you need to protect the flesh from darkening with lemon juice. After treating the fruit with it, you need to put it in a plastic container with a lid or wrap it in film, and then put it in the refrigerator.

How to peel fruit with a spoon

Avocados must be peeled before eating and preparing dishes. To do this, cut off the peel and remove the pit.

Before starting the cleaning procedure, the fruit is washed under running water. Then wipe dry with a paper towel.

How to peel an avocado? There are several known ways to cut the fruit at home. The most common method is to cut the fruit in half in the middle. Gently run a knife around the bone.

It is impossible to say whether cutting an avocado lengthwise or crosswise is right or wrong. However, it is most convenient to run the knife along the long side line. It is in a horizontal position that the avocado is easiest to place on a cutting board.

After the cut is made, the fruit is taken into the hands, so that half of the fruit remains in each of them. Then they turn them in different directions, which helps to divide the avocado into two parts. Then the pit is removed.

The easiest way to remove it is with a spoon. It is also necessary to separate the pulp from the peel. Use the tip of a spoon to press into the area between the skin and the soft part.

The device is pushed deep into the fetus and its half is circled with smooth movements. Then pry up the pulp in the center and remove it from the peel.

How to properly cut an avocado at home?

The fruit is cut in half, bypassing the seed.

Avocado halves are separated from each other

The cut avocado halves are turned in different directions. The two halves of the fruit are separated and the seed remains in one of them.
The seed can be lifted with a tablespoon and removed from the pulp. There is another way: you need to lightly hit the seed with a knife and carefully remove it from the fruit.

You can hit the bone lightly with a knife to remove it.

If you plan to prepare rolls, then the avocado is cut into strips: half of the fruit is cut in half, the skin is removed from each part of the fruit and the flesh is cut into strips.

Avocado slicing

For the salad, cut the avocado into cubes. In this case, the fruit is not peeled, but the pulp is cut into cubes and removed using a spoon.

Detailed instructions for removing the pit from an avocado are presented in the video.

With a knife

How to peel an avocado at home? The skin of an unripe fruit can be peeled using a regular knife or vegetable peeler. To do this, it is pryed at the base of the fruit and carefully cut off.

In stores you can buy a special knife that is used for peeling avocados. It is a convenient device for removing seeds, removing peels and cutting pulp. The result is a beautifully sliced fruit.

Preparing avocados for peeling

Before eating, avocados should be washed in cool running water without using soap, carefully cleaning the skin with a sponge to remove dirt. When finished, remove excess moisture from the fruit using a towel or paper napkin.

Important : this step must not be omitted, otherwise bacteria from the surface of the skin can easily get into the pulp. This fruit is dangerous to use for cooking, as it can be harmful - lead to indigestion or the appearance of a number of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

Hands

How to peel an avocado? The soft skin is sometimes removed without any special equipment. Initially, several cuts are made on the avocado. To do this, you can use any sharp object, such as a toothpick.

A piece of peel is grabbed by hand near the stalk and gently pulled down. It is not recommended to rush in this case, so as not to damage the pulp of the fruit.

General cleaning rules

To ensure successful fruit cleaning, do not forget the following general rules:

use a sharp knife. As trivial as it may seem, many cleaning problems are caused by blunt kitchen tools. Despite the fact that the avocado pulp is quite soft and can be easily cut even with a table knife, the peel of our fruit is very durable;
Don't forget to sharpen your knife
A small knife (up to 15 cm long) is suitable for slicing and peeling avocados. A longer device will be inconvenient;
Before cleaning, be sure to wash the fruit thoroughly. Most types of avocados have rough skin, so it is recommended to wash them under hot water with a sponge. It would seem why - in most recipes only pure pulp is used. However, when peeling, dirt and germs can jump from the peel to the edible part of the fruit.
Don't forget to wash your fruit - this significantly reduces the risk of infection

How to cut

How to properly peel an avocado? After the pit has been removed and the peel removed, you can proceed to cutting the fruit pulp. It depends on the dish in which the fruit will be used. For salads, avocados are most often cut into cubes. The convenience of this method is that you do not need to peel the avocado.

The fruit is divided into two parts. Without removing the skin, make 4 cuts in the pulp. However, they must be deep. But the cuts should not affect the peel. Horizontal lines are drawn perpendicular to the first notches. Using a spoon, scoop out the pulp and separate it from the peel.

How to peel an avocado? After the procedure for obtaining the pulp, you can proceed to cutting it. For rolls, pieces of the fruit are used in the form of straws or plates. To make it more convenient to cut an avocado using similar methods, it is necessary to divide it into several identical parts during cleaning. Usually the fruit is divided along a vertical line and the pit is removed. Then each of the resulting halves is cut in half. In the process of obtaining straws or plates, the components must be lubricated or sprinkled with lemon juice. This is done so that the pulp does not darken and lose its appetizing appearance.

If the fruit is large, then the resulting quarters must be divided into equal parts. The resulting pieces are peeled and proceed to the cutting process.

To make sandwiches, avocado pulp is cut into thin slices. It is most convenient to do this after removing the skin. Housewives should take care in advance that the knife blade is well sharpened. Otherwise, cutting thin slices will not work.

If the fruit is eaten as an independent dish, then it is not necessary to peel the skin and cut it into pieces. The fruit is divided into two halves and the seed is carefully removed. Then you can enjoy the fruit pulp with a spoon. It makes it convenient to pick out small pieces.

Removing the pit

Once the tropical fruit has been cleared of its bitter peel, the edible part of the fruit will need to be removed from the pit.

To facilitate the process, it is recommended to follow the step-by-step steps:

First, place the avocado on a cutting board so that its narrow side faces up. You need to place a kitchen knife in the center and apply a little pressure so that the blade can reach the bone.
Then you need to slowly turn the fruit over to make the cuts larger.
Next, using a kitchen knife, you need to divide the fruit into 2 halves. Each piece must be the same size.
Using a teaspoon or tablespoon, you should pry up the bone and remove it.
Read also: Black mold in the house: why it is dangerous to human health, how to fight it
At the end of the procedure, it is recommended to sprinkle the edible part of the avocado with lemon juice, apple or wine vinegar.
If the tropical fruit is not completely ripe, then you need to make several turns with the spoon, trying not to touch too much pulp.

There is another method for extracting the bone. To do this, you will need to insert a sharp knife blade into the bone. Then it must be sharply and forcefully removed from the pulp.

Application of avocado pulp

The fruit can be used for food both in its natural form and as a component of many dishes. The fruit contains useful substances, which confirms its benefits for the human body. It contains easily digestible fats that are not capable of increasing cholesterol levels in the blood.

With prolonged contact with air, the fruit undergoes oxidation. As a result, its taste and appearance deteriorate. As already noted, to avoid this process, after peeling the avocado, you need to sprinkle it with lemon juice.

The scope of application of the fruit is wide: cold appetizers, sandwiches, salads and rolls. Avocado goes harmoniously with seafood and lightly salted fish.

The fruit is the basis of such a famous dish as guacamole. It belongs to cold appetizers and includes avocado puree. There are different ways to prepare guacamole.

The general principle of preparing snacks includes grinding the fruit pulp to a puree state. Then lemon juice, salt and other ingredients are added to the mixture. The fruit can be completely chopped; small pieces of avocado are allowed in the dish. Additional ingredients include: tomatoes, chopped herbs and various spices.

Recipes for simple and delicious avocado salads

Such dishes are well suited as a dietary or vegetarian meal or as a healthy addition to the daily diet.

Chicken and Avocado Salad

✍ Ingredients:

boiled chicken fillet – 300 gr.;
avocado - 0.5 pcs.;
bell pepper – 1 pc.;
tomato – 1 pc.;
cucumber – 1 pc.;
cheese (hard) – 50 gr.;
low-fat sour cream – 1-2 tbsp;
garlic – 1 tooth;
salt, pepper - to taste.

Preparation:

Boil chicken fillet and cool. Cut into cubes and place in a salad bowl.
Wash the vegetables and chop finely. Place in a salad container.
Prepare, peel and divide the avocado into wedges. Cut the slices into medium strips.
Add a little salt and pepper to taste. Add sour cream and stir.
Place cheese grated on a medium grater on top. Add chopped garlic and stir again before serving.

See also: How to preserve lettuce for the winter: secrets and recipes

Shrimp salad with avocado and herbs

✍ Ingredients:

avocado – 1 pc.;
half a lemon;
tomato – 1 pc.;
dill – 2 sprigs;
shrimp (peeled, boiled) – 200 gr.;
natural yogurt – 2 tbsp;
salt, pepper - to taste;
leaf lettuce.

Preparation:

Wash the lettuce leaves, cut or tear them into large pieces by hand and place on a plate.
Cut the prepared and peeled avocado into medium cubes and place on top of the leaves.
Sprinkle the slices with a little lemon juice to prevent them from darkening.
Cut the tomatoes into small slices and add to the rest of the ingredients. Add a little salt and pepper to taste.
Season with low-fat natural yoghurt and mix well. Leave the salad for 20 minutes in the refrigerator.
Sprinkle chopped fresh herbs on top and serve.

Do not season salads with avocado with mayonnaise or thick sour cream, as its pulp has a high fat content. The ideal sauce would be olive oil or light white yogurt.

Salad "Vitamin"

✍ Ingredients:

avocado – 1 pc.;
kiwi – 2 pcs.;
green apple (medium) – 1 pc.;
onion – 1 head;
dill, parsley (fresh) - 2 sprigs;
olive oil – 2 tbsp;
salt – 1 pinch.

For more recipes for vitamin salads from vegetables and fruits, see this article!

Preparation:

Wash vegetables and fruits. Finely chop the onion and place it on the bottom of the salad bowl.
Peel the apple and kiwi and cut into small cubes.
Peel and cut the avocado into cubes, then place in a salad bowl.
Chop fresh herbs and add to the rest of the ingredients.
Pour in olive oil. Add a little salt and pepper and leave to soak for 10 minutes. The salad is ready

Avocado is a fairly nutritious product (100 g contains 200 kcal). It has a lot of protein, so it can easily replace meat in a vegetarian menu.

Slicing avocado

This form of cutting looks beautiful on sandwiches and is necessary for rolls.

To remove the skin, use one of three techniques:

Pick up the peel from the upper narrow edge of the fruit with your finger and pull it down slightly. Does she move freely? Then continue to slowly pull the tip until it falls off completely.
If the peel is particularly stubborn, try wedging a spoon between it and the pulp and gradually separate the unnecessary part with cutlery.
A hard, slightly unripe avocado may be too much for even a spoon to handle. In this case, they usually resort to using a sharp knife and peel the fruit like potatoes.

Then they start cutting the halves into slices of any thickness.

When slices are needed not in the shape of a semicircle, but in the form of small triangles, the halves are cut into two more equal parts. That is, you get avocado quarters, which are then cut.

Before adding to the dish, be sure to lightly drizzle the pieces with lemon juice.

Peeling whole fruit halves

Sometimes you need to keep the halves whole for cooking. In this case, it should be cleaned using a special method. In this case, you need to use a spoon. Its tip is inserted between the pulp and the peel so that the cutlery is as close as possible to the outer shell. Then you need to carry it along the entire contour, while the pulp will be separated from the skin.

You should carefully move the spoon closer to the center to separate the pulp from the skin over the entire area. Then the half is removed from the peel. The procedure should be repeated with the second part.

This method is only suitable for ripe fruits. An unripe, hard avocado cannot be peeled using this method, since its pulp is difficult to separate from the skin. If you peeled a ripe fruit, you need to inspect the resulting halves for any remaining peel. If there are small pieces of it left somewhere, you need to remove them using a knife.

We recommend checking out Avocado Mayonnaise

Is it possible to freeze avocados and then defrost them and eat them?

Can! If you won't be eating the avocado anytime soon, freeze it for later use. Freezing mashed avocado with a couple of drops of lemon juice is the best method. Citrus juice will prevent the pulp from darkening during storage.

To do this, place 2 peeled, pitted avocados in a blender and add 1 tbsp. l. lemon or lime juice. Mix until smooth.
Transfer the avocado puree into a freezer bag (Ziplock), release as much air as possible, and close the zipper. This preparation can be stored in the freezer for up to 4-5 months.
When you're ready to use frozen puree, transfer the bag from the freezer to the refrigerator and let sit for 6-8 hours. This way you'll always be ready to make guacamole!

Haas avocado