Look no further for the best avocado recipes to be found. Avocados are one of the best foods you can prepare, as they bring a lot to the table in the form of healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. There’s also plenty of fiber, and ounce for ounce more potassium than a banana. Add to that additional vitamins and minerals and it’s clear that avocados really are something special from nature. Use these healthy avocado recipes regularly to make sure you’re getting enough of a good thing.
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1. Filled and Grilled Avocados
Fill ‘em and grill ‘em is the name of this recipe, taking avocados to the next level by packing them full of healthy ingredients. From the use of parmesan cheese to the skinny creme fraiche, she’s giving you rich, bold flavors without loading on the fat and calories. The fat you are getting comes from the avocados, and is mostly healthy fat. You’ll be getting added vitamins from the red bell pepper and antioxidants from the cilantro. Overall this is makes a healthy side dish to any number of main dishes, and is even something you can grill up as a snack or appetizer.
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Combining avocado and pesto just makes sense since they’re both green. You’ll be getting the overpowering taste of pesto mixed with the goodness of avocado. It makes this linguine dish far more healthier than an ordinary pesto linguine, and relies on fresh, wholesome ingredients throughout. Adding chicken will give this more protein, helping to balance out the carbohydrates from the pasta, and will make it a more complete meal. Not to mention pesto tastes great with chicken, and the avocado will only add to the flavor profile.
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3. Avocado and Pistachio Ice Cream
This is an interesting way to use avocado, and it allows you to have ice cream if you otherwise are avoiding it. There is very little dairy used, and if you choose you can cut it out completely by going with a soy milk or almond milk. The focus here is on the avocado, which gives it the necessary smooth texture, and has such a light flavor that it easily gets lost to the pistachios, honey, and vanilla extract. What results is a cool and creamy treat that requires no ice cream maker.
4. Chicken Avocado Spring Rolls
These spring rolls are bursting with flavor as well as nutrition and can be the start to just about any meal, or used as a light lunch or snack. There’s chicken so you’ll be getting a good balance of meat, vegetables, healthy fats, and fiber all in one roll. The vegetables include carrots, cabbage, and romaine lettuce, all easily found at the grocery store. They’ve even provided the recipe for a dipping sauce that you can follow to get the full effect of these spring rolls.
5. Avocado Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes
She’s kept things simple with this avocado salad, and you can almost name all of the ingredients just by looking at it. Avocados and tomatoes pair well together, and the shallots provide even more flavor. A few different oils and a bit of lime juice and you’ll have a nutrient-dense salad with plenty of superfoods used. These superfoods include avocados, tomatoes, and olive oil all working together to bring you better health. Tomatoes are always making the news thanks to the lycopene they contain. This makes an easy side dish, and complements a chicken breast quite well.
6. Avocado Black Bean Salad with Tequila Chicken
Many times you’ll see avocado relegated to just being an add-on or garnish, but that’s a bit shortsighted. Here it steals the show away from the tequila chicken which sits upon it. Avocados, black beans, jalapenos, limes, and more combine to form quite a killer salad, which goes really well with the tequila chicken which uses tequila blanco for authentic tequila flavor. The dish as a whole is a great blend of protein, slow carbohydrates from the beans, and healthy fats and fiber from the avocado. A great dish!
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7. Orange, Avocado & Arugula Salad
This is a great salad to have during the spring and summer months. It combines three superfoods as the star attraction, and you’ll get Vitamin C from the orange, an assortment of vitamins and minerals from the arugula, and the many benefits of avocados. It’s a very cooling salad, great for hot days when you don’t want to turn on the oven to make your meal. If you have some leftover chicken you can make this a more complete dish without having to do any actual cooking. On its own it makes a great starter or a light lunch.
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Kale has been gaining a lot of notoriety because of its healthy benefits, like plenty of fiber, protein, and iron, and when you combine that with all avocados have to offer, you’re onto something good. That’s what’s happening in this salad, which brings in the sweet and succulent help of a pear, as well as crisp coolness of a radish. You can swap out the pear for whichever fruit you happen to have. Each ingredient used in this salad has something to offer your body, and you should feel energized and light after you eat it.
9. Creamy Soy Milk Avocado Dip
There are hundreds of guacamole recipes out there, but this one provides a dip with such creaminess that we chose it among all others. The trick is that they’re using soy milk for the creaminess, so there’s no added dairy, just plenty of flavor and the right texture. Cilantro, jalapeno, and lime juice help give this the classic taste of guacamole that goes so well with chips and breads of all types. Because of its creaminess it’s easier to dip and is less resistant when you’re trying to scoop it up. This means less broken chips in the dip bowl.
Two superfoods combine to make this sushi, which doesn’t actually include any fish. You’ll typically find avocado in a California roll, and it adds a creamy silkiness to the roll that many prefer. Here they’ve subbed out the rice for quinoa, so you’ll be getting additional fiber and protein than you would if you were using rice. There will also be a different flavor to the sushi thanks to the quinoa. Joining the avocado is a cucumber and spinach, adding even more nutrients to the equation. It’s a representation of how you can use avocado in unique ways for added health benefits to your meal.
This pasta salad has a strong focus on avocados, featuring shrimp and corn as well. This means that it’s a complete meal all by itself, with protein from the shrimp, carbohydrates from the pasta and corn, and avocado rounding it off with fiber and healthy fat. They’ve included the recipe for the dressing, which keeps things healthy and light by using nonfat Greek yogurt, providing additional protein, and olive oil which provides additional healthy fats. The saturated fat is kept to a minimum, and there’s almost 13 grams of protein and 7 grams of fiber per serving. Not bad for a salad!
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These Vietnamese-style lettuce wraps have big slices of avocado in each one. It’s nestled up right next to shrimp and some sliced radishes. The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity, and compared to a standard American meal you might find it refreshing that this provides all you need and doesn’t leave you feeling heavy or weighed down when you’re done eating. There’s even the instructions for how to put together the dipping sauce that goes with it, called nuoc cham. This really completes the overall experience and makes it fun to eat, so be sure to take the time to make it or buy a pre-made sauce from the store.
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Avocados can be used in baking to make baked goods healthier. In this case they’re adding their nutritional breakdown to a pan of brownies. You’ll notice that they’re not using any grains, and have opted for almond meal instead. The focus is on raw, natural ingredients so you’ll find raw sugar, raw chocolate powder, and organic free-range eggs being used. This will help you stop at just one brownie, as natural ingredients signal your body that you’re satiated. There’s something to be said for brownies that come with their own serving of fiber.
This avocado salsa is so tasty that it takes center stage on the salmon. You’ll want to make sure that you’re getting a good amount of salsa with each bite of salmon because it really adds to the overall flavor of the meal. Salmon already contains plenty of healthy fat and omega-3 fatty acids, which is why it’s recommended on nearly every diet plan. It also packs a protein punch, so all that’s needed is a carbohydrate side to balance this out. Popular choices include brown rice, quinoa, or couscous.
You’ve probably had hummus before, and you’ve probably had guacamole before, but we’re willing to bet you’ve never tried them both at once. This hummus is made with ripe avocados, as well as the traditional chickpeas, so you’re getting the best of both worlds. It can be used to dip pita chips or tortilla chips, or any sort of vegetable and really play both sides well, both hummus and guacamole. They could have called it chickpea guacamole, but we like this title better as it has more ingredients that are found in hummus, with the avocado added for extra flavor, texture, and nutrition.
Avocado features in a traditional Cobb salad, but because of the bacon and blue cheese is not really the healthiest salad on the planet. They’ve set out to fix that by nixing the bacon and blue cheese and replacing it with apple chips. The base of the salad is made with spinach, a better option than the salad green typically found on a Cobb salad. They’ve also detailed how you can make a honey dijon dressing that goes really well with the different components of the salad. Mr. Cobb would surely approve of this healthy variation.
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Photo: The Lean Clean Eating Machine
How to make avocados even healthier than they already are? Stuff them with another bona fide superfood, in this instance quinoa. Between the two you’re getting healthy fat, protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals to spare, all packaged nicely within a halved avocado. But she didn’t stop there, and she’s added her version of “Texas Caviar”, a mix of beans, black eyed peas, corn, peppers, tomatoes, and more that adds up to a whole lot of flavor and extra nutrition. You can use these as an appetizer to impress your friends with your culinary skills, or as a meal in their own right thanks to the protein power of quinoa.
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Jump on board the green smoothie bandwagon with this one made with avocado and other healthy choices. The trick of any good green smoothie is to sneak a ton of leafy green veggies past your taste buds by covering them up with fruit and other delicious drinkables. Here they’re using a respectable serving of spinach, but masking it with pineapple and banana. Don’t worry, it will still retain its green color thanks to the spinach and avocado. The avocado will help you feel full for a longer time after drinking this than if you hadn’t added it thanks to its healthy fats.
19. Cucumber Rolls with Creamy Avocado Spread
Avocados are the answer if you are looking to serve your guests a healthy appetizer, but also want it to look good. It’s no secret that avocados are healthy, but they’re one health food that people actually enjoy eating. That’s why you won’t have to twist any arms to get them to eat these cucumber rolls. The avocado helps hold the cucumber in roll form, and the capers add a robust flavor that pops in the mouth. A hydrating and nourishing appetizer that won’t spoil their appetite for the main course.
Peas are often overlooked when it comes to their nutritional offerings, but here they share the spotlight with avocado and form a nice salad that you can use in a number of ways. They’re showing it used as a topper for a piece of toast, but you can also use it in lettuce wraps, as a dip, or on top of a spinach salad. You’ll be getting plenty of fiber from just a regular serving of this, since both peas and avocados have it. The flavor of this dish is enhanced by onions, garlic, and lemon juice, which help bring out the flavor of the avocado.
21. Avocado Soup in a Bread Bowl
You may be surprised to learn that you can make a soup out of avocado, as long as it has a little help from its friends. In this case they’re using onion, garlic, and ginger to help round out the flavor and give it a bit more bite. There’s even the recipe for the bread bowl, so you can make the entire meal from scratch. That gives you a quality control you just can’t get when ordering soup in a bread bowl from a restaurant. You’ll need to plan ahead on this one, as the prep time for the bread bowls is rather long since you need to let the dough rest.
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Photo: Simply Sugar and Gluten-Free
We’ve already seen how avocado can be used to make a healthy version of ice cream, but here they’ve taken it a step further and have made ice cream sandwiches out of it. it’s a raw recipe, which means there’s no baking involved, and your food processor is going to do all of the heavy lifting. The major wait occurs when you freeze these, as they need plenty of time in the freezer to be ready. This can be a healthy treat thanks to the avocados in the center and other healthy ingredients that go into the cookie parts.
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Avocados do more than just brighten up a dish with their striking green color. They make things taste better and add a texture that only avocados have. In this roasted vegetable bowl, all of the vegetables are roasted and there are steps for the other ingredients which include quinoa, chickpeas, kale, and a garlicky ginger dressing. The avocado gets placed on last, uncooked and ready to be eaten along with everything else. This bowl is really a who’s who in the vegetable world, and introduces a new form of quinoa, black quinoa. Sub in regular quinoa if you can’t find the black version.
24. Chickpea Salad Stuffed Avocados
These avocados get completely removed from their shell, which then serves as a sort of boat that gets filled up with the chickpea avocado mixture. The result is a nice display, but also a good bit of nutrition as well because avocados and chickpeas have a lot to offer in terms of vitamins and minerals. Chickpeas provide plenty of protein, so if you’re looking to cut back on some of the meat you’ve been eating you can use this as a meal all by itself. They also provide plenty of potassium, and when you combine them with the potassium found in avocados you should be all set in that department.
25. Quinoa Avocado Spring Rolls
If you prefer vegetarian spring rolls, give these a try, as they use quinoa so they’ll have a bit of protein added. They’re using red quinoa, just one of a number of different quinoa varieties that all have roughly the same nutritional offerings, just a slightly different flavor and of course a different color for a different look to the meal. In these spring rolls the quinoa comes out with a sort of brownish hue, much different than ordinary quinoa that tends to be more neutral in color. The avocado and cucumber combo works well, and these have a nice mixture of textures that keeps the mouth interested.