Hello Darlings!
After a brief hiatus, darling Heather from Better With Veggies has brought back her Meatless Mondays from A-Z challenge for round two!
We are back to the beginning of the alphabet and this week, A is for Avocado.
I happen to like avocados. They are full of good fats, lots of
vitamins and nutrients, and are colloquially referred to as alligator pears- a
pretty fabulous name if I do say so myself. However, as much as a foodie as I
am, I’m quite weird about texture. Avocados are one of the foods that I love
the taste of, but really hate how they feel in my mouth. Normally, I get around
avocado’s texture by mashing them and adding a bit of crunch with veggies in my
homemade guacamole or pairing slices of them in salads with croutons or
carrots. But MMAZ was meant to draw bloggers out of their comfort zones, and so
I decided to do just that, and my Pestoed Mushroom-Stuffed Baked Avocados were
dreamt up. And surprisingly, baked avocado doesn’t give me a texture complex.
Ingredients:
Avocado
Mushrooms
4 Cups Fresh Basil
¾ Cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
¾ Cup plus 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
¼ Cup Walnuts
Salt and Pepper to Taste
For the Pesto:
1. In a food processor add cheese, walnuts, de-stemmed basil,
EVOO and salt to taste.
2. Combine the ingredients until smooth 1-2 minutes. So simple!
For the Avocados:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
1. Slice each avocado in half and remove the pit. I found the
easiest way to de-pit the fruit is while using a sharp knife, whittle into the
pit with the knife and turn slightly. The pit should pop out without damaging
the avocado’s flesh.
2. Chop the mushrooms into small chunks.
3. Add a tablespoon of EVOO to a preheated frying pan. Toss in
mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and shrunken- about 5
minutes.
4. In a bowl, combine sautéed mushrooms and pesto and mix well. I recommend adding the pesto gradually, as this recipe makes quite a bit of pesto and you can reserve the excess for later use.
5. Stuff the pestoed mushrooms into the holes made by the
avocado’s pit. Top with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Bake on a tin foil-lined cookie sheet in the 400-degree oven
for ten minutes.
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| Tinkerbelle Decided to Play with an Avocado Pit |
Serve while hot!
Do any of you darlings have any weird food aversions? I can’t
be the only odd one who loves hummus but hates how it feels! Let me know in the
comments below!
