Smashed Avocado Recipe
by Christine Lamb

The avocado is home to

Mexico; there are larger varieties of avocado, the Haas has the creamiest, most

delicious flesh. Nearly all avocados grown in Mexico are Hass.

Mesoamericans “discovered the

avocado”, which had grown there for more than 50 million years. When the

Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1519 the fruit was called aguacate.

There are hundreds of avocado

cultivars, the vast majority are grown as garden trees, not as commercial

crops. The Hass is one of the smaller varieties of avocado: Rich, buttery and

flavorful, the flesh is said to have the subtle taste of toasted almonds. The

large, smooth and thin skinned avocados

in the market that hail from the Caribbean have a more bland flavor and are

much less oily than the Hass. This makes them less good for guacamole. They

don’t mash as well, even though the size might promise an excellent guacamole

yield, the quality isn’t there. They are still excellent for salads and other

culinary purposes.

The Hass avocado is named

after Rudolph Hass, a California postman who planted a seedling in his front

yard, 1920s and patented the cultivar in 1935. When he died in 1952 (the year

his patent expired as well), he had no idea that the black-green avocado with

the pebbled flesh would become comprise 95% of the avocados grown in California

and 80% of the avocados eaten worldwide. The tree itself succumbed in 2002 at

the “ripe” old age of 76 to root fungus.

More than $1 billion of Hass avocados are sold in the U.S., according to the

California Avocado Commission.

More than 49% of American

household eat avocados.

This is a quick and easy

breakfast or afternoon snack.

Smashed Avocado

Recipe by Christine Lamb

(Christine’s Pantry), 2015

Ingredients:

Directions:

In a small bowl, smash

avocados. Add lemon juice, garlic powder, salt and tomato, mix well. Spread on

toast and sprinkle with black pepper. Enjoy!