About five years ago, my taste buds changed drastically. Certain foods that made me blanch or just never appealed to me suddenly became foods that I wanted in almost every meal. The best examples are onions, ice cream (which hadn’t appealed to me since I was a kid), mushrooms, bell peppers (which still need to be diced incredibly small so the texture doesn’t get to me), and then of course, avocados. I hated the texture of them and the consistency of guacamole made my stomach churn. But now, I LOVE avocados like a chubby kid loves chocolate cake! I want them in and on everything. So far, my favorite breakfast, favorite burger, and favorite salad all have avocados on them. And now these fries have become a favorite snack and the sauce is just incredible (yes, it has avocado in it)! (View info and fun facts on avocados at the bottom of this post.) Recipes for both the avocado fries and creamy tomatillo sauce are below.
Baked Avocado Fries
Yield 20-25 fries
Ingredients
- 3 large ripe avocados
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- salt and black pepper
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 450F. Line a baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack on the sheet. Set aside. (A broiler pan will work just fine too.)
- Cut the avocados in half and then slice them lengthwise. You should get four to five slices per half.
- Set up three bowls in a line. In the first bowl, place the 1/2 cup of flour and add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper.
- Crack the eggs into the middle bowl and lightly whisk them.
- In the last bowl, combine the panko and melted butter and mix them together. Add the garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and salt and pepper and stir to combine.
- Dredge each avocado slice in the flour and then in the beaten egg. Coat them thoroughly with the panko and place them on the rack/pan. Spray each one lightly with cooking spray.
- Bake them for 20-25 minutes, until the panko is golden brown. Cool them for about ten minutes and serve them with the creamy tomatillo sauce.
Creamy Tomatillo Sauce
Yield 3 1/2 cups
Ingredients
- 3/4 pound tomatillos, husks removed
- 1 jalapeno, stem removed
- 1 medium white or red onion
- 1/2 bunch cilantro, stems removed
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 avocado, pitted with insides scooped out
- coarse salt
Instructions
- Puree the tomatillos, jalapeno, and onion in a food processor (or blender).
- Add the cilantro, buttermilk, and avocado. Season with coarse salt and continue to puree until it's smooth.
I wanted to know about this little green thing that I love so much so I ‘Googled’ it and found a great website from California growers. Check it out: www.avocado.org.
Did you know?
- Avocados are a fruit, not a vegetable, belonging to the genus Persea in the Lauraceae family.
- Avocados are sodium and cholesterol-free and have only five grams of fat per serving, most of it the monounsaturated kind.
- Avocados were once a luxury food reserved for the tables of royalty, but now California Avocados are enjoyed around the world by people from all walks of life.
- Brazilians add avocados to ice cream.
- Filipinos puree avocados with sugar and milk for a dessert drink.
- California produces about 90 percent of the nation’s avocado crop.
- There are nearly 5,000 avocado growers in California; the average grove size is around 10 acres.
- California Avocados grow year-round.
- About 43 percent of all U.S. households buy avocados.
Information from HERE.