Lara Ferroni - An Avocado a Day: More Than 70 Recipes for Enjoying Natures Most Delicious Superfood

Ill be honest: avocados and I do not go way back. In fact, barring the dreaded lima bean (still on my list of most feared foods), the mashed-up green goop was probably my most disliked food as a kid. I may have memories of my older brother torturing me with a wretched browning slice when I was younger, but that could have just been a nightmare. Thats how much I used to dread them. But somewhere along the way something changed, as things do as you get a little older and a little wiser. I realized that maybe there was something to this whole avocado thing. Maybe all avocados dont taste like rotten green bacon. Maybe I had just never had a good avocado. Maybe a perfectly ripe avocado with a little salt, an olive oil drizzle, and a spoon is exactly what I want for lunch almost every day. Or in the morning with my eggs. Or at dinner in my salad. Or even in my dessert. Maybe youll see a little smile on my face when I see that five-for-three-dollars deal in the produce section. Maybe a few will make their way into my shopping basket as an indulgence, even though they arent. Maybe Ive found that they are on my list of top ten foods, one of the few I cant imagine giving up. As it turns out, Im not only an avocado convertIm an avocado evangelist!

And thats a good thing, because avocados really are a superfood. Avocados are packed with nutrients (about twenty vitamins and minerals) and healthy fats that help keep you energized throughout the day. Avocados also act as nutrient boosters, so adding a little avocado to your greens helps your body absorb even more of their good stuff. In fact, adding an avocado a day to a healthy diet has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, improve LDL cholesterol levels, and lower levels of oxidative stress in the bloodstream when eaten after other foods. In one study by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2001 to 2008, participants who had enjoyed an avocado in the previous twenty-four hours were found to have greater fiber, potassium, vitamin K, and vitamin E absorption than adults who consumed no avocado. Avocados have more potassium than bananas. An average-size avocado has four grams of protein and contains eighteen of the important amino acids needed for the bodys protein-building processes. The vitamin C, vitamin E, and carotenoid antioxidants found in avocados have been shown to improve skin tone.

Not to mention, some studies have shown that avocados are one of the best foods for managing your waistline. The good fats, proteins, and fiber in an avocado help fill you up and keep you full longer. Several studies have shown that a diet rich in monounsaturated fat may actually prevent body fat distribution around the belly by regulating the expression of certain fat genes, and others show that the fat in avocados helps boost your metabolism, letting you get more out of your workouts.

Its easy to work an avocado into your daily diet. Cooking with avocados goes way beyond game-time guacamole! Their smooth, buttery flavor is subtle enough to work with savory and sweet ingredients, in any meal of the day. Avocados make vegan dishes velvety and paleo recipes more satisfying. Ive come up with more than seventy recipes to help you make the most of your avocados, whether you are a longtime avocado devotee or find yourself with a more recent avocado crush. I hope you enjoy!

how i cook

I wonder if is one of my favorite phrases, and there is always some experiment happening in my kitchen. Yeah, Im that person who has made my own nut milk. Ive even made my own version of Cheetos. Theres a rumor that I may dehydrate things.

And avocados turn me into a complete avocadork. Although Im an omnivore, Im fascinated by whole-food, plant-based cooking when it makes the food taste amazing, and avocados make that so very easy.

Avocados can play so many roles, acting as butter in baked goods, cream in dressings or smoothies, or even eggs in homemade mayo. Avocado can take the lead in sandwiches, or play a supporting character adding richness to your salads and sides.

So throughout this book, youll see recipes that are vegan (or could easily be made vegan) right next to those that are definitively carnivorous. I let flavor be my judge. If I dont think theres a good plant-based substitute, I wont make the suggestion. And if I think the substitute is even better than the original (like in the ), Ill write the recipe that way.

While experimental, the food I cook is pretty simple, and I aim for (although dont always manage) an eclectic but streamlined pantry. Youll find that many of the recipes in this book use a similar set of seasonings, so if you buy an ingredient for one recipe, youll probably be able to use it again in another. This is especially important for the few ingredients that may be hard to find. If you have had to order a can of sweetened condensed coconut milk on Amazon.com (you can, by the way), youll want to be sure to use all of it. As much as possible, Ive tried to suggest great ways to use any extra ingredients, so theres minimal waste. For example, many recipes call for just part of an avocadothe rest can be popped into the freezer and used the next day in a smoothie.