Avocado Toast – It was Inevitable

It was bound to happen.  A recipe for avocado toast. After all, this is a plant-based food column and avocado toast has become ubiquitously synonymous with being vegan.  Well, at least I thought so until reading a plant-based thread on Twitter that smashed the breakfast dish, like an overripe avocado. And there was lots of agreement. 

“What?  They hate avocado toast? And they’re vegan? Perhaps it hasn’t been prepared properly.  It’s not just a smooshed avocado on a piece of toasted white bread. Hmm, what do non-vegans think? Are they haters, too?” Time to get posting. 

If you’re a naysayer or a lover of my favorite go-to breakfast meal, I have several ideas that take it up a notch and cater to many palates.  This version is my favorite, inspired by avocado toast that I had at a restaurant in DC. It’s so pretty! It’s so refreshing! It’s so full of vitamins and antioxidants! Plus it uses all of the wonderful products available at The Larchmont Farmer’s Market, including the bread. One stop shopping!  You can’t hate that!

Trust me, there will be oohs and aahs, whether you make this for yourself or for company. 

This recipe is for 2 avocado toasts, enough for 1-2 people depending on your appetite. You can easily double, triple, etc. for a crowd. The onion and cilantro can be chopped, as well as the cucumbers and radishes sliced ahead and stored in the refrigerator for a few hours. The tomato salad can also be made ahead. The avocado mash is best made last minute to keep its bright green color. 

I used sweet white onion and dried Aleppo pepper (my new obsession) in the mash. Feel free to use your favorite avocado mix-ins: garlic, shallots, red onion, jalapenos, Tabasco, Sriracha…whatever you love or have on hand.  The tomato salad has a bright vinegar bite to offset the creamy richness of the avocado. Use less vinegar if it’s too sharp for you. The avocados should be ripe but not too soft. 

Please note that the bread is key. Thick slices of bakery-fresh sourdough or multigrain make all the difference. 

Avocado Toast:

8 baby tomatoes, cut in half
2 tsp champagne vinegar
1 tsp good extra virgin olive oil
Pinch fine sea salt
1 very large watermelon radish
1 Persian cucumber
2 thick cut pieces of bread, preferably hand sliced (I used a large center cut slice of Jyan Isaac seeded sourdough that I then cut in half)
Avocado mash
Lime wedges on the side

In a small mixing bowl, combine the tomatoes, vinegar, EVOO and pinch of seat salt. Let this marinate while preparing the rest of the meal, occasionally stirring up. Thinly slice the watermelon radish horizontally. Cut each slice in half. You will need about 5 or 6 half-moon slices per toast. Thinly slice the cucumber horizontally.  Make the avocado mash. Have your lime wedges cut. When all of the parts are ready to go, lightly toast the bread. Spread a good amount of avocado mash on each slice, covering the entire surface. The mash holds the veggies in place. Starting with the radishes, create flower petals by diagonally wedging the slices in the avocado. Next, wedge in the cucumber slices. Top the cucumber slices with several tomato halves to create the center of the flower. Serve with the fresh lime wedges. 

Avocado mash:

2 medium sized ripe avocado
1 T fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp kosher salt
Fresh cracked black pepper
Dried aleppo pepper to taste
1 T finely diced white onion
2 T fresh chopped cilantro 

Remove the avocado from the skin, in chunks, into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, salt, several good cracks of black pepper, and a couple of shakes of aleppo pepper, and gently incorporate. Taste for seasoning. Add the onion and cilantro and mix in. It should be smashed with a combination of smoothness and small chunks.