What Goes With Avocado?
Wondering what goes with avocado? Learn the best ingredient pairings, meal ideas, popular flavor combinations, and other helpful tips.
Knowing what goes well with avocado gives you a starting point for putting meals together using the ingredients you already have on hand.
Whether you want to reduce food waste, get more creative in the kitchen, or improve your cooking skills, it starts with understanding what flavors pair well together.
What’s An Avocado?
Avocado is a fruit with a large pit in the middle, yellowish-green flesh, and leather-like skin that ranges in color from bright green to almost black depending on the variety and level of ripeness. They’re a great source of heart-healthy fats with an earthy, buttery taste and a creamy texture.
Avocados thrive in tropical and subtropical regions such as California, Florida, and Hawaii in the United States, along with Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, and Colombia.
Varieties
Although there are hundreds of varieties around the world, some are much more popular than others. The Hass variety for example accounts for 80% of avocados in the world today. This variety has thick, pebbled, purple-brown skin and an oval shape. The texture is buttery and meaty.
Another popular variety is the Fuerte. This variety has thin, smooth, dark green skin with a higher water content and a sweeter, fruitier flavor than Hass.
Helpful Tips
When to Buy
Fuerte avocados are available from November through March. Hass is generally available beginning in late March and ending in early to mid-September. Look at the seasonal produce guide to see what’s in season right now.
How to Know When Ripe
An avocado is ripe if it slightly gives to the touch. If you can’t tell by lightly pressing on it, here’s another way to tell. Remove the little stem on top.
- Green underneath: it’s ripe!
- Brown: it’s overripe.
- Difficult to remove: it hasn’t ripened yet.
How to Store
Store uncut avocados at room temperature until ripe. Once ripe, store them in the fridge to prevent over-ripening. Once cut, rub with a lime or lemon wedge to prevent browning then store in an airtight container in the fridge.
If some browning occurs after it’s refrigerated, it’s still safe to eat as long as it doesn’t smell off and doesn’t have mold.
What Goes Well With Avocado?
Vegetables
Arugula (rocket), bell peppers, corn, chayote squash, chile peppers, cucumbers, endive, fennel, frisée, garlic, jicama, onions, radishes, scallions (also called green onions), and spinach.
Fruit
Grapefruit, lemon, lime, mango, orange, tomatillos, and tomatoes.
Spices
Cumin, black and white pepper, kosher salt, and sea salt.
Herbs
Basil, Thai basil, chives, cilantro, parsley, and tarragon.
Non-dairy/dairy
Unsalted butter, cream (use coconut cream or cashew cream for dairy-free), sour cream, and yogurt.
Proteins
Bacon, chicken, crab, fish, lobster, shellfish, shrimp, and smoked fish (such as trout).
Pantry Items
Black beans, masa, dashi, mayonnaise, olive oil, sake, salsa, soy sauce, chicken and vegetable broth, tabasco sauce, tequila, vinaigrette, and vinegar: balsamic, apple cider, white wine.
Popular Avocado Pairings
- bacon + tomatoes + scallions
- basil + red onions + tomatoes + balsamic vinegar
- chiles + cilantro + lime + scallions + s&p
- cilantro + lime juice
- crab + grapefruit + tomato
- endive + frisée + lemon juice + sea salt
- jalapeño + cilantro + cumin + garlic + lime + onion
- smoked trout + lemon
What To Make With Avocado
Avocado is a common ingredient in Central American, Mexican, and Southwestern cuisines. Enjoy it sliced, mashed on toast, or straight up with a sprinkle of salt.
One of the most popular ways to use avocado is for guacamole, which is a classic example of why the ingredients in it work so well together (onion, jalapeño, lime, tomato, etc.). Guacamole is great as an appetizer with tortilla chips or on top of taco salad bowls, Mexican stuffed sweet potatoes, roasted cauliflower and chickpea tacos, or crispy cod tacos.
Avocado is a staple ingredient in bowls and burritos such as sushi burritos, poke bowls, salmon rice bowls, dragon bowls, and spicy tuna crispy rice.
Slather it on a turkey club sandwich or veggie burger, or enjoy it in a black bean and corn salad or a tropical chicken mango salad.
Although avocado is typically used in more savory ways, it can also be added to sweet drinks and desserts such as smoothies, milkshakes, and chocolate pudding for extra creaminess or to make a popular Indonesian dessert called Jus Alpukat.