Avocado dishes taking restaurants and cafes by storm

Avocado dishes taking restaurants and cafes by storm

Avocado is the fruit of the moment. They’re being incorporated in different recipes.

“Now we’re seeing avocados on everything. They’re on pizzas with some arugula on top. We find avocados in salads. Avocados are even in egg rolls and in smoothies. Avocado has even made its way into desserts so you’ll find avocado ice cream and avocado sorbet so avocado really is a versatile fruit,” said Eve Lahijani, a registered dietician nutritionist.

One popular dish is avocado pizza. You can find it at EVO Kitchen in Los Angeles.

“It’s such a hit. It’s actually in our top two sellers of all of our specialty pizzas,” said Michelle Orlando, co-owner of the restaurant. “It’s fresh, it’s light, it’s filling. People don’t feel guilty about eating pizza. They’re feeling healthy but yet it’s super satiating and yummy to taste so it’s really good.”

Another more well-known item is avocado toast. ACE Hotel Downtown Los Angeles said its version sells well.

“It’s extremely popular. We sell about 250 a week, like 30 to 40 a day. It’s probably our most popular dish. I think people like it because of its simplicity. When you think about it, it’s really just three to four ingredients with the bread, avocado, radish, scallion and Aleppo so it’s kind of the perfect combination of textures with the crunchy bread, the mushy avocado and the crisp of the radish,” said Chef Sean Heller, executive chef of ACE Hotel Downtown Los Angeles.

You might not expect avocados to be used in desserts. But Cafe Gratitude has a vegan dairy-free avocado key lime pie.

One Mediterranean restaurant, Momed, serves up a popular hummus made of avocados rather than chickpeas.

Lahijani said avocados are popular because people know it is healthy.

“Studies have found that eating half to a whole avocado several times a week and in my opinion that’s three to five times a week, is what’s beneficial. Some people think and many of my clients believe that you can just add that onto the current diet that they’re having but the truth is that’s if the fat is part of a healthy diet so if you have a high fat diet it’s wise to use avocado in replacement of the fat that you’re having so instead of putting mayonnaise on your sandwich consider using some avocado. Instead of using a cream based dressing, experiment with using blended avocado,” she said.

Avocado demand has grown every year over the last 15 years, according to the Hass Avocado Board.

In 2015, avocado sales were up a record 1.9 billion pounds. That’s more than double the amount consumed in 2005.

Prices of avocados are rising along with the demand.

The average price of a Hass avocado was US$1.25 a piece in March, up from 99 cents in mid-February.

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