Avocado: what is it, what is useful and how to properly prepare and use it?

Many buyers, going to the market for fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs and buying exotic fruits, pay attention to avocados. True, not everyone knows what an avocado is, how it is useful, how to properly prepare and use it.

Avocado is one of the most unusual plants, which is a mystery to many. In some sources, one can find the opinion that it is a berry, in others the nut is mentioned, but most are inclined to believe that it is a fruit, although in its taste it resembles none of the fruits, and is more close to a vegetable. Perhaps the whole thing in the unique properties of this fruit. But, despite the unusual taste qualities and disputes over the ownership of the plant, still avocado is a fruit tree.

Avocado is an evergreen fruit plant. The tree grows quickly and reaches a height of twenty meters. The fruit is pear-shaped, spherical and in the shape of an ellipse. Mature fruit can be from 5 to 20 cm, weight varies from 50 grams to one and a half kilograms. The skin is hard and dark green if the fruit is unripe.

After full ripening, the fruit begins to turn black. The pulp of ripe avocado green or yellow-green has an oily structure, in the center is a large walnut.

The taste of the avocado varies with maturity. Unripe fruit resembles a pumpkin or pear, and also unripe. The pulp of ripe avocado is compared to butter with a nut flavor. There are about four hundred avocado varieties.

Avocados are also called alligator pears because of the green skin that resembles crocodile skin. The official name of the plant is Perseus American.

Central America is considered the birthplace of avocado, and now it is grown in Africa, Brazil, Mexico, the United States, and Israel. The tree feels well in a tropical and subtropical climate. Cultivate it on the Black Sea coast. With proper care and a favorable environment from one tree you can harvest from 150 to 200 kilograms.

Some grow it at home as an ornamental tree. It should be noted that the avocado often loses leaves, so it does not always look outwardly as attractive as one would like for home growers to grow it. If you really want to have an exotic tree at home, you should remember that it has very long roots and needs a large pot.

Avocados are actively used in cooking as additives to salads, cold appetizers. Exotic fruit has been used successfully in vegetarian cuisine, replacing meat and eggs for its beneficial properties. It is added to the filling for sushi. In Mexico, it is used to make a traditional snack, which consists of avocado pulp, lime juice and seasonings. And in Brazil, it is added to desserts and a nutritious cocktail is prepared. Avocado food is plentiful.

There are several recipes for making medicinal decoctions. Here are some of them:

• One tablespoon of crushed leaves is filled with one and a half cups of hot water and boiled over low heat for ten minutes. Then the decoction is infused in a warm place for about two hours. After it can be filtered and taken half an hour before meals for half a cup.The course of treatment is two weeks.

• One teaspoon of seeds is poured over one and a half cups of water, boiled for five minutes. After two hours of infusion and straining, they drink a third of a glass 20 minutes before meals.

A real gift is this fruit in cosmetology. It is actively used in the manufacture of face and body creams, shampoos, balms and hair masks.

Avocado fat enriches the skin with beneficial substances, improving its color and enriching with nutrients, helping to fight dry skin and preventing wrinkles. Avocado promotes hair growth, gives them shine. Cosmetic products with avocado content, as a rule, do not cause allergic reactions.

Useful avocado masks can be prepared at home:

• To moisturize and soften the skin, mash one avocado pulp, one teaspoonful of honey and cottage cheese. All thoroughly mixed. Apply the mask on the face for 15 minutes, then wash off with warm water.
• For oily and mixed skin, you can make this composition: one teaspoon of lemon juice is added to the pulp of the fruit. The mask is applied for 15 minutes and then washed off.

• To remove makeup well suited fruit pulp, mixed with one teaspoon of cream, well mixed until a homogeneous mass.
• On a very dry skin, this recipe will have a beneficial effect: you should mix avocado puree with two tablespoons of oatmeal, one egg white and two teaspoons of lemon juice. The mask must be held for half an hour and washed off with warm water.
• Nourishing and moisturizing effect will bring a mask of avocado pulp, banana, two tablespoons of milk.

Masks with the use of avocado there is a huge amount. These are just a few options that can be prepared quickly and easily at home using the available ingredients.

Fruit is beneficial because of the high content of vitamins and minerals. The avocado contains fats, proteins, carbohydrates, fiber, and various acids. Oleic acid, for example, reduces the amount of cholesterol in the blood. In terms of vitamin B1 and B6, avocados are leading among other fruits.

In addition, avocados contain vitamins A, C, K, B3, B5, B9, E. The fruit is rich in microelements. Among them are potassium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, iodine, fluorine. 100 grams of fruit contain 167 calories.

Avocados can be used to improve the cardiovascular system, the gastrointestinal tract, and normalize the functioning of the thyroid gland. The benefits of fruit is that it is the prevention of the formation of malignant tumors. It is recommended for people with diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and anemia to be eaten.

Avocado helps to get rid of parasites, it is useful for gastritis, constipation. For any infectious and viral diseases, it is used as a means to increase immunity. If you eat fruit every day, you can improve memory, improve performance, health and mood will improve significantly.

It is recommended to include it in the daily diet for those who wish to lose weight. It can be included in the diet, because it nourishes the body with vitamins, but it helps clean the intestines and reduces the feeling of hunger. It can be eaten in combination with other products and prepare dietary meals.

With a huge amount of positive properties of the fruit, avocado has a number of contraindications:

• It may be contraindicated in those who suffer from allergies, especially citrus. In this case, the fetus must be tried with great caution - first eat a small lobule and check the reaction of the body.
• It is not recommended to give it to young children, for the very reason that the children's body can suddenly react to an exotic fruit.
• It is not necessary to eat an unripe or overripe fruit, as well as one that has been stored in cut form for more than a day. It needs to be eaten while it is fresh.

• Bring an exotic fruit in the case, if you eat it in too much. In the body there will be a glut of vitamins, but this is not beneficial.

Eat ripe avocado. When buying, you can determine whether the seller offers quality fruit.

The peel of a good fruit is wrinkled, without spots, dents, cracks. Color green, saturated, can have a brownish shade. The light green color indicates that the fruit is immature. The darkened stalk indicates overripe fruit. It should be light brown.

For those who first decided to try an exotic fruit, it is recommended to learn how to properly eat and cook it.

Usually before eating avocado and adding it to various dishes, peel off. But it does not harm the body. But from it you can prepare a healing broth that will help remove worms from the body.

To do this, grind the peel, pour a glass of boiling water and leave overnight. In the morning, the infusion is necessary to drink on an empty stomach. This should be done within three days. If the broth is given to the child, you can add sugar to it.

Despite the fact that there is a perception that the bone of the avocado is poisonous, in fact it is not quite so. Using it in small quantities benefits the body, in large doses it can actually cause harm. Do not use drugs prepared from the bones of pregnant women and children, as well as those who are prone to allergies.

Avocado itself is very useful, and it is contained in the bone a large proportion of nutrients that take part in the improvement of the whole organism and help fight various ailments

• One bone contains the daily rate of fiber required by the body.
• Antioxidants in the nucleus help break down free radicals and lower cholesterol levels.
• Potassium, which is so necessary for the body, is contained in the bone, and its amount is two times higher than the potassium content in bananas. The more ripe the fruit is, the more potassium will be contained in the bone.
• The bone contains all the same vitamins as in the pulp of the fruit. It also contains lutein, which is especially valuable in the fight against eye diseases.
• Avocado bone is also called a natural antibiotic, it copes well with various bacteria and fungal infections.

• In the fight against cancer, the bone is irreplaceable, it helps to slow down the growth of the tumor and acts destructively on leukemic cells.

Based on all the beneficial properties of the avocado kernel, it can be concluded that It is used mainly for medicinal purposes and in very small doses. When taking a course, it is permissible for an adult to eat no more than half of the kernel per day in the form of additives or decoctions.Before chopping the bone for the preparation of medicinal powders, it must be baked in the oven or fry, as it has a bitter taste. You can grind the core with a hammer, pre-putting the bone in a bag, blender or float.

Opinions nutritionists on this issue are similar. You can eat it at night, and it is even better to eat this particular fruit than anything else. It is recommended to actively use in diets.

The fruit itself is sufficiently high in calories. But all the vitamins, trace elements and fats are easily digested and benefit the body. Avocado helps to improve metabolism and cleanse the intestines. Therefore, in the evening it can be eaten both separately and in combination with vegetables and fruits.

Doctors recommend to approach this issue individually and take into account the general condition of the body or the stage of the disease. 3-4 lobules are considered enough per day, and you don’t even have to eat fruit every day. The best is considered four times a week.

With the use of avocado, many dishes are invented, but fans of this exotic fruit prefer to eat it raw. And they consider that moderately ripe fruit is so tasty that sometimes it is even difficult to stop, savoring it. Therefore, it is highly recommended that those who first become acquainted with this taste choose only ripe fruit.

Its color should be green, maybe slightly brown. If the fruit is black, it is overripe. Inside should be yellowish flesh.

There are two ways to do it. After rinsing the fruit well, it should be cut lengthwise, carefully remove the bone. If the fruit is too ripe, you can eat pulp with a teaspoon. But a more aesthetic option is to cut it into neat slices.

The easiest way to use it is to add garlic, pepper, salt, and olive oil to the flesh. Get a great pasta for sandwiches. You can also pepper and salt the slices and eat them separately.

If the fetus is hard and not mature enough, you can create all the conditions for it to ripen at home. If the waiting time allows, you can place it for a couple of days in a warm place where the fruit will ripen on its own. It can not be stored in the refrigerator. There he will not ripen, but only spoil. You can put avocados next to apples and bananas, so it will ripen faster.

Cut fruit is not stored for a long time. He can lie a maximum of five days in the refrigerator, wrapped in cling film.

This method should be used if there is an urgent need to serve avocados on the table, and the guests are on the way. In other cases, it will be better to give the fruit to ripen independently. It will be so much tastier.

Preparing avocados for further manipulation is easy. It all depends on what kind of dish will be prepared. If the pulp is needed for sauce, pasta, toppings, it is enough to cut the fruit along, remove the bone and scrape the whole pulp with a spoon. If you need cubes or slices for salad, you need to carefully cut the flesh with a knife, and then give it the desired shape.

Avocado is an interesting fruit. It combines with many products:

• A good combination will come out if you add it to salads, where there are tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, greens, cabbage, carrots.
• Corn, banana, dried fruits can also be an addition to this exotic fruit.
• Combined with avocado and seafood, especially with shrimp, mussels, squid.
• As for fish, salmon and salmon are suitable options for cooking avocado dishes. Frequent satellites of avocado, which in combination with it give the dish a new taste - it is lime, lemon, orange.
• Suitable for cooking snacks with avocado ham, chicken, cheese.
• Avocados often make sauces and dressings that combine various seasonings, herbs, nuts, and some types of cheese. Taste due to the presence of avocado in these sauces is original and rich.

Avocados can be cooked in a variety of delicious dishes. This is mainly sauces, salads and cold appetizers, sometimes - desserts. All recipes are simple and can be easily prepared at home. The most popular are:

• Avocado, Chicken & Vegetable Salad. Chicken breast is boiled and cut into cubes. Lettuce leaves are laid out on the bottom of the dish, on top of them are laid pieces of chicken, halves of cherry tomatoes, olives, avocado pulp. Salad pepper, salt, add lemon juice and olive oil. Served to the table without stirring.
• Avocado salad with shrimps. The fruit, sliced ​​in slices, is laid out on a plate, boiled shrimps are placed on top. A sauce is prepared for the salad: a few spoons of unsweetened yoghurt or sour cream are mixed with the zest of one lemon or lime, coriander and black pepper are added.
• Avocado stuffed with cheese. Fruit is cut in half, peeled. So that it does not darken, you need to sprinkle it with lemon juice. For two fruits for the filling you will need: 200 grams of cheese, a few tablespoons of cream, a few tablespoons of dry white wine, basil, red pepper. All this is mixed in a blender until smooth. Loan halves are filled with the mixture.

• Tomatoes with filling. It is better to take small tomatoes, you can cherry. The core is taken out of each, the halves are filled with the filling, which is prepared from the pulp of avocado, lemon juice, garlic. Everything is mixed in a blender, pepper, salt, mayonnaise is added. Tomato halves will be filled with stuffing and decorated with greens.
• Avocado Pate The easiest recipe that is suitable for breakfast and making sandwiches is a useful pate. For its preparation it is enough to grind avocado in a blender, add garlic, salt, pepper to taste, and a tasty paste is ready.
• Appetizer of avocado and red fish. Such an appetizer will decorate any table and will delight with its original taste. Avocado and cheese are ground in a blender, salt, pepper, lemon juice are added. In tartlet spread a piece of fish. In the middle of the tartlet using a confectionery syringe squeeze the resulting mass, decorated with greens.
• Salad of sweet potatoes and apples. The oven should be heated to 200 degrees, cut the potatoes into two parts, add spices, olive oil and bake for half an hour. Mix finely chopped spinach and onion, add apple cider vinegar, lemon juice. Mix the sliced ​​potatoes with the dressing. Slice avocado and add to salad.

• Physalis soup. Physalis is laid out on a baking sheet, sprinkled with chopped garlic, baked for about five minutes. When Physalis will turn brown and give juice, you can get vegetables. Next, they are mixed in a blender with avocado and cucumber. Add the boiled chicken broth. Ready soup is cooled and decorated with parsley.
• Spaghetti with avocado and garlic. Add a pinch of salt to boiling water, put spaghetti, cook for two minutes less than usual. For the sauce, the blender mixes slices of avocado, garlic cloves, lemon juice, basil, and olive oil. Spaghetti mixed with sauce, sprinkled with lemon zest and black pepper.
• Cucumber and avocado salad. It is necessary to boil, peel and chop the eggs.Add diced avocados and cucumbers to them. Season with mayonnaise, add mustard and finely chopped dill.
• Salad with vegetables. Lettuce leaves need to be torn apart. Avocados - peel and cut into cubes, also chop the sweet pepper and tomato. All you need to combine and add corn and red beans. Olive oil and lime juice are used as a dressing.

• California Rolls. Favorite dish, the obligatory ingredient of which is avocado, can be prepared at home, although you have to spend a little time for this. Thoroughly washed rice is poured with water and cooked over low heat until cooked. After the rice is drawn for another fifteen minutes. In rice pour vinegar, diluted with boiled water with the addition of salt and sugar, mix well. Then the rice should cool down completely. Avocados are sliced, the shrimps are divided into two parts. Wasabi and soy sauce are added to the mayonnaise. Prepare a saucepan with water to which vinegar is added. Nori is placed on a special mat with the glossy side down. Hands are moistened in acetic water, then evenly spread rice over the surface. After filling with avocado and shrimp filling, the rollers are given the desired shape. Then they can be cut into portions.
• Salad with fish. Eggs are boiled, peeled and diced. Salted salmon is cut in the same way and added to eggs. Avocados and cucumbers are cut into cubes. Salad dressing is made from sour cream, mustard, soy sauce and lemon juice.

Avocados are used in all areas - cooking, cosmetology, medicine, and they use pulp, bone, skin, and leaves, depending on the specific application.

When eaten, only the flesh is always consumed, in rare cases bone is used as seasoning, ground to a powder. Most often, avocado is eaten raw, alone or in the form of sauces, pies, dressings. It is noticed that if the fruit is baked in the oven, then it tastes bitter.

An interesting fact is that bone, for example, is used not only for the preparation of medicinal decoctions and infusions. Long since with its help made ink. In addition, it can be used as food dyes. When chopped from the stone, orange juice is released, which turns into black or red upon contact with air, depending on the type of avocado.

Fruit does not just contain a huge amount of vitamins and minerals. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records because it is recognized as the most nutritious fruit in the world.

About where the fruit grows, how to choose and cut it correctly, where it is used and how to grow it, see the next video.