Have you had avocado toast before? If you are a Filipino, then this is not a common fare. It’s the first time for our eldest daughter and I to make avocado toast for breakfast and we are both so happy with our discovery. Including here some suggestions on how to make this healthy and power-packed breakfast. Read more.

Another bread creation: How to Make Baked Tuna Pie Melt Using White Bread

Having Avocado as a Sweet Treat… But Never Savory

It’s avocado season once again and we see posts of online sellers flooding our newsfeed about the fruits they are selling. Along the streets, you will also see fruit stands laden with them. At our store here in Bacolod City, there’s a guy who pushes a cart and sells a variety of fruits, including avocado. And we usually get from him.

On regular days, my mother-in-law eats this before her meal because she knows about the health benefits of avocado. It’s a source of good fats plus, fiber, plus nutrients. Plus, she feels full already with nutritious fruit so she doesn’t have to eat a lot of rice. She does this to keep the weight off and also to keep her blood works in the normal range.

In my case, I like avocado as a sweet treat. I love avocado shake, iced candy, and avocado mousse. While I also like eating it by itself, it seems I prefer the milky and buttery texture of this yellow-green fruit with milk and sugar. haha

Until today. Achi Shawna and I woke up early to prepare breakfast and we agreed upon avocado toast. Today is one of the rare occasions that I woke up to be able to make breakfast. While we have never tried avocado as something savory, my gut tells me that it’s going to be good.

Avocado Toast Recipe

Here’s how we made our avocado toast, along with suggestions for optional ingredients. The most important ingredients here are avocado, salt, pepper, and something sour (like lemon juice or vinegar). It’s actually very simple and unless you add a fried or poached egg as topping, there is no cooking required.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole avocado, mashed
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Juice of 2 calamansi
• 1 tsp. Olive oil (or a few drops of truffle oil)
• Parsley, chopped
• Sliced bread, preferably wheat or sliced baguette (but we just used regular loaf bread)
• Pepper flakes

Procedure

• Slice and spoon out the fleshy avocado. Season with about 1/2 tsp salt and some black pepper. Drizzle with calamansi juice and olive oil (we used truffle oil).

• Using a fork, mash the avocado. Sprinkle the parsley and mix well.

• Toast your breast until slightly brown. You want your bread to be a bit dehydrated (if not brown), so that it will be stiff enough to hold the heavy avocado spread.

• Spread the avocado mixture on your hot toast and sprinkle with pepper flakes.

You might think that the pepper flakes is spicy but just a few on top gives the toast a totally different dimension. Each flake is like a tiny spark in every rich and buttery bite of avocado toast.

Serving Suggestions

You may have noticed that I mentioned above that I used truffle oil. This is totally optional. But I thought if olive oil will taste good, how much more truffle oil? It lends a different character and aroma to the combination of avocado, salt, and pepper. If you don’t have olive or truffle oil? You can omit both. Just showing you that you can use them.

Meanwhile, I used pure, freshly squeezed calamansi juice for acidity. While American or European cookbooks will mention lemons, calamansi is more abundant and cheaper in the Philippines. So we go with that. The acidity of this wee citrus cut through the richness of the avocado and truffle oil for a perfect balance.

However, we made different variants. There’s the simple avocado toast and another one with fried egg. I added a piece of fresh chives for aesthetics and well, this culinary herb is also a good diuretic.

In our third toast, I decided to coarsely chop some ripe tomatoes and seasoned them with a bit of salt. If you have cilantro, it will be more aromatic. Achi Dindin prefers the third one better because the tomatoes added more flavor and character to the avocado. She tried adding pepper flakes but she preferred it without. So it’s really up to you.

I washed my avocado toast down with a cup of freshly brewed black coffee. Yep, I take it black, thank you.

Mother-Daughter Bonding

Working together in the kitchen is my bonding moment with our eldest daughter. Now a pre-teen, I am spending as much time as I can with her. Cooking makes us agree in the kitchen and we delight discovering new flavor combinations. She has good taste!

• Related: Spending More Time with Our Firstborn Before Puberty

That is our first foray into creating a savory breakfast based on avocado. And we totally loved it. Would you be willing to make this at home, too? Hit me in the comments below.