Most everyone loves avocados these days, and with studies indicating their benefits in keeping your heart healthy, satiating your appetite, and even lowering your blood sugar, we thought we’d share some fun tips to use them best. Using avocados in your recipes you'll find they’re healthy and filling, and they also have the same creamy texture as dairy foods. Except avocados come with no cholesterol, saturated fat, milk sugar (lactose), excess hormones, tummy troubles, and of course are vegetarian/vegan. Avocados are also pretty sensational flavor-wise: rich, buttery and even slightly sweet in the right recipe. Their soluble fiber helps regulate your blood sugar, assists with the removal of cholesterol and keeps your digestive system functioning. Try using them to create creamy dishes where you normally reach for butter, milk, eggs, cream... even yogurt and cheese.
Here are five ways to use avocados - don't worry about their fat content avocados - because they are so satiating, use just a little - you'll fill up quickly, and their alkalizing benefits, vitamins and minerals will keep your body feeling great!
1. Use Them in Smoothies in Place of Yogurt
If you’ve ever gotten used to a smoothie with yogurt, you know that creamy texture is hard to beat. Bananas can lend that same creamy flavor, but sometimes you don’t want a smoothie to taste like bananas, and some of us don’t want all that sugar. Just 1/4 an avocado is the answer! It will give that same creamy, thick texture, but without the sugar and dairy. It even sweetens up a bit if you let the smoothie freeze for about 5 minutes before consuming. You’ll probably notice you’re a bit more full using avocado in your smoothies as well, since their healthy fat and fiber content will better stabilize your blood sugar. Try them with some berries, cacao, and a little non-dairy milk (almond, rice or hemp milk). It will knock your socks off!
2. Make Them Into Mousse
No need for milk or cream here! Avocados are a great way to make a healthy dessert like mousse, that will truly taste like the rich, creamy pudding like dessert you’ve always loved. They help lend that whipped, fluffy texture and adopt the flavor of whatever other ingredients you use in the mix. Popular combinations are cacao to make a chocolate mousse, but you could easily use vanilla, berries, coconut, peanut butter, or even mint to make your favorite flavor mousse!
3. Whip Them Into a Batch of Brownies and Forget the Butter!
Brownies are indeed a favorite dessert. You just can’t go wrong with a rich, chocolate dessert, right? Well, brownies are one of the easiest dishes to substitute healthy ingredients with, and avocados are one of the best because they’re rich and provide that fatty flavor like butter and oil (but without any negative health risks) and they don't influence the taste in the overall recipe. Not sure how to use them in your next batch? Use them to replace oil or butter in your favorite recipe and you'll be amazed at the results!
4. Cream Them Into a Dressing
Avocados are also one of the best ingredients to use in a dairy-free salad dressing. Or, you can simply mash them into your salads to lend similar results. To add them to a dressing, add 1/2 a ripe avocado to your blender with a squeeze of lemon, maybe a little sea salt, a pinch of black pepper and some mustard or hot sauce. Blend and feel free to add any herbs you might enjoy as well to make 2 servings. Use this as your dressing and you’ll never want the bottled dressings again!
5. Use Them as a Taco Filling in Place of Sour Cream
Most everyone knows you can use avocados to make your own guacamole, but what about using it completely in place of sour cream in your tacos? The healthiest and tastiest way to go is just to use some good old guac instead. Keep things simple and mash up a ripe avocado, add a little lime juice and black pepper and there you go – a rich, creamy delicious cream without a bit of sour cream needed. The lime will help give it that tart kick that cream does and also enhance the flavors of your other taco ingredients like tomatoes.
If you’ve never tried out these options, don’t be intimidated. They’re so easy, and will surprise you at how tasty they are - for sure you’ll love these versions over the dairy-based options.
~Thanks onegreenplanet.org
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