No-Waste Charred Avocado Toast

According to sustainability advocate and cookbook author Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma, using overripe fruits and vegetables instead of throwing them away is an essential tenet of keeping a low-impact kitchen. In her book Good Food, Healthy Planet: Your Kitchen Companion to Simple, Practical, Sustainable Cooking, Chhitwal-Varma shares recipes that make the most of foods that might otherwise be wasted, like her easy fruit compote and this avocado toast recipe. “In this recipe, I share how to cook overripe mushy avocados. The trick? Pan-frying the slices not only adds flavour and crunch but also keeps this bounty of the land from ending up in the landfill,” she writes.

No-Waste Charred Avocado Toast

Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma pan-fries overripe avocado in this sustainability-minded recipe.

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Course lunch, Snack

Servings 2

Ingredients

  

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 green chili finely sliced
• ½ bell pepper finely diced
• 1 tsp sunflower seeds
• 1 tsp crushed peanuts optional
• 1 tbsp lentil sprouts optional
• 1 avocado
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp lime juice
• salt to taste
• granulated sugar to taste optional
• 2 slices bread of choice toasted

Instructions

 

• In skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat; cook green chili, green chili, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and lentil sprouts (if using), in that order. Cook, stirring, moving the mixture to the edge of pan. Remove from heat.
• Halve avocado lengthwise. Using a knife, carefully give the pit a firm whack with a knife, pull it out with a twist and gently whack it again to remove pit from the knife.
• Using a paring knife, slice avocado without cutting through the peel; using a large spoon, scoop the flesh into the pan. The hardest part of this recipe is done.
• Return the pan over medium-high heat; cook avocado to get some char without moving around. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, lime juice, salt and sugar (if using). Remove avocado and bell pepper mixture and arrange on toast.

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Recipe excerpted from Good Food, Healthy Planet by Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma. Adapted for ELLE Gourmet. Copyright © 2024 by Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma. Reprinted with permission of TouchWood Editions (touchwoodeditions.com).