God’s Own Butter: The Avocado Fruit

It seems that when the Gods conceptualized ‘butter’, They put the formula in the Avocado fruit and sent it on Earth. Today’s story comes straight from Nature’s factory: The Tree. It takes a little ingenuity from humans to ‘realize’ Nature’s Grand Plans. We attribute this story to our Vegan friend Amruta Ubale who brought this Grand Plan to our notice!

The Avocado fruit looks like the image on the right. According to this article on Avocado production in India, Avocado is grown in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Sikkim. Avocado has been hailed as “the most nutritive among fruits” and regarded as “the most important contribution of the New World to human diet”. You can check the nutritive value of Avocado in the same article. According to the article, the Avocado pulp is “rich in proteins (up to 4%) and fat (up to 30%)… Avocados have the highest energy value (245 cal/100 g) of any fruit besides being a reservoir of several vitamins and minerals.” Avocado is also considered to be among the Top 10 Anti-Aging Foods. Very interestingly, all the ten anti-ageing foods listed in this linked article are derived from plant-based sources! Now, doesn’t that say something!

So coming back to the point of this story, what is the Avocado and ‘butter’ connection… When you slice the fruit from the center, you find a seed in the middle and the white/yellow portion on the two halves. This white or yellow portion is the Avocado pulp or the ‘butter’. You can scrape off this pulp and use it to butter your toasts and sandwiches. Avocado butter spreads evenly, has a pretty neutral taste, and feels d i v i n e in the mouth. You can spice it up with herbs and toppings of your choice. How about checking out one recipe?

Enjoying an Avocado-butter Toast with Sautéed Mushrooms

The recipe for Avocado-butter toast with Sautéed Mushrooms is contributed by Amruta. It’s amazingly simple. We never imagined before that this could also be one way of eating the Avocado fruit! Here’s the recipe – simple, delicious, and nutritious!

• Sauté the mushrooms (we used organic cold-pressed Safflower Oil from 24 Letter Mantra to sauté) with salt as per taste and keep aside.
• Toast multigrain Vegan bread.
• Scrape the butter from the Avocado fruit and spread it generously on the toasted bread. Do not scoop the butter; scraping it instead helps to spread the butter evenly.
• Load the toast with the sautéed mushrooms and apply dashes of ground black pepper.
• Your avocado-butter toast with sautéed mushroom is ready. Isn’t it divinely yum?!

Smoothies, Salads, Ice creams, Dips

Avocado tastes good in smoothies, salads, ice creams, and as dips as well. You will find many recipes on the internet. Here are some lined for you; click the links to learn more.

Avocado smoothie from ‘Natural News’
Avocado salad from ‘Veggie Wedgie’
Avocado ice cream from ‘A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise’
Avocado dip from ‘Vegan on the Prowl’

The Goodness of Avocado Continues…

Avocado has proved to be very beneficial for the hair and skin. Here are some quick homemade Avocado beauty recipes:

For skins with rashes and roughness: Apply Avocado paste to make the skin smooth
For sun-burnt skin: Rub the pulp of a ripe Avocado to soothe the skin
As face pack/moisturizer for dry skin: Apply mashed Avocado to moisturize dry skin. The inside of the Avocado peel works as a good moisturizer.
Hair care: Apply Avocado with a dash of olive oil to make your hair soft and shiny
For puffy eye treatment: Avocado works magic for puffy eyes

There you are, b e a u t i f u l and h e a l t h y from inside and out!

Purchasing Avocado

Avacado is easily available in many fruit stalls and supermarkets in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Sikkim as they are grown there. One regular-sized fruit costing anything between Rs.15/- to Rs.30/- can suffice for one meal for a family of four if we can put it that way. Outside the states mentioned above, you may have to pay a slightly higher price.

Also, if you want to extract the butter from the fruit, please make sure that the fruit is ripe. The outer covering should feel soft when the fruit is ripe. You can also purchase the fruit with a hard outer covering and ripen it at home by wrapping the fruit in newspaper sheets and placing in a dark spot overnight or for however long it takes for the fruit to ripen. Usually, the shop you buy from will be able to give you an estimate of the ripening time.

And by the way, you can grow your own Avocado too! Rithika from The Green Stove tells you how to do that. Click here to find out!