Just chop it up and add it to your regular salad and dressing.

AVOCADO DRESSING FOR VEGETABLE SALADS

2 avocados, mashed
1 1/3 cups sour cream
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. chervil
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp. tabasco sauce
4 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Combine all ingredients and chill 30 minutes. Makes 3 cups.

Source: The Avocado Bravo by California Avocado Advisory Board

oooh I have one..it's good stuff too.....

I found it on a blog..Dine and Dish

Here is a link that might be useful: Avocado Ranch Salad Dressing

those both look good, and avacados are relatively cheap now, at least for Michigan. I wonder if I could use those seasonings and my homemade yogurt and make avacado dressing...

Annie

I'm very sure you could Annie...

Or fat-free sour cream.

sushipup, I just made 5 quarts of homemade yogurt out of skim milk, so I have yogurt. I'd have to go to the store for the other stuff and I'm just too lazy to take that walk, which is why I was wondering about the yogurt. (grin)

It's a moot point anyway, I cut that avocado that looked perfect on the outside and it was brown and icky inside. I hate it when that happens.

And while we're at it, what's the difference between Florida avocados and California avocados? I found both at Horrock's on Sunday, the ones from Florida were bigger and lighter in color. Is there a flavor/texture difference?

Annie

My favorite ways to have avocados are:

Avocado Salad

Puree one very ripe avocado for each 2 cups of rich chicken broth.
Garnish with a couple of broken tortilla chips and serve hot.

Guacamole

Cut an avocado in half and remove the pit.
Stuff each half with tuna salad and serve on a bed of greens.

All of these, except the last, are made with avocado which has been peeled and pitted. The avocados must be ripe to very ripe. I don't recommend adding any mayonnaise, sour cream or other creamy ingredient to an avocado recipe. A well ripened avocado is already creamy and can't be improved in flavor by those ingredients. I don't recommend adding tomato to guacamole. Tomato only makes it watery and diminishes the flavor of the avocado.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Prep Avocados

Annie,

Suddenly avocados, which have been selling for the absurd price of $2.00 each here, are $1.00 each. I am now buying avocados again and enjoying plenty of them. In Orlando, at Christmas time, I was paying 50 cents each for Haas avocados at my favorite Hispanic produce store.

The smaller, darker, rougher ones are Haas avocados. They are the typical ones from California and Central and South America. The big, shiny ones are a variety grown in Florida. I have not had good success ripening the Florida ones to a nice, soft, buttery consistency but maybe I haven't tried hard enough or maybe there is some bit of knowledge I am missing.

A couple of pointers on the recipes I posted:

Mashing with a fork works well for making guacamole.

Pile the tuna salad high on the stuffed avocados. The pit depression is only big enough for a spoonful.

Jim

The Haas are the only variety we get. I understand that they are a lot better for just plain eating.

Thanks everybody for the wonderful response. Yum-m-m.Barb

Annie, at the risk of insulting Floridians, Florida avocados suck. They are watery, fibrous and have not much nutty flavor at all. DH didn't believe me and just HAD to buy some once. They ended up in the trash can, and he loves avocados.

Yesterday at the grocery, they were $1.39 each. Given the size, that wasn't too bad, so I bought one. Today I opened the paper and saw that store's sales ad -- .69 each! Never fails. LOL!

I had my first large green thin skinned avocado a few weeks back..I loved them...a little firmer and no quite as buttery as a Haas. But still quite good. It was organic and purchased through my healthy food co-op so I don't know where it's orgin was.

Comparing Florida, thin skin lighter green, to California Haas, thick skin dark color, is like comparing tangerines and oranges. They are totally different in texture and taste I was raised on Haas and usually eat one every day for lunch. The Mexican avocadoes are almost as good as the Californian but watch out for the ones from Chile they are stringy and just donÂt taste good. I think itÂs because they pick them early and just about freezes them for shipping they almost always have black spot in them when you cut them open. In my local market the produce manager is as addicted to avocadoes as I am so he always has California or Mexican avocadoes.

Claudia

This is a terrific dressing from Ellie Krieger

Green Goddess Dressing/Dip

1 ripe avocado, halved, pitted and peeled
2 scallions, coarsely chopped
1/4 C fresh tarragon
1/4 C fresh parsley
3 T white vinegar
3/4 C buttermilk
Salt

Just pop it all into a blender and whirl until smooth. The cookbook I have pairs this recipe with sliced heirloom tomatoes, but I have found it is pretty good on just about any type of salad greens. It is also very tasty as a dip with veggies.

Calories are 70 per 1/4C of dressing.

Cindy, that looks delicious too. I just learned to eat avocados a couple of years ago and I still don't like them just sliced or plain, they're too mushy in texture. I do like them in guacamole or dressing so I'm progressing!

Someone suggested spreading avocado on sandwiches instead of mayo or butter but that definitely does not work for me, but Ashley loves guacamole on a cheese burger, which kind of makes me shudder, LOL.

Now I'm wishing I'd bought one of each kind of avocado, just so I could try them. I bought the more "familiar" darker smaller California avocado and right now they're even 69 cents in my small local grocery! I might break down and pick up a couple more, but if I ever see another of those big green Florida avocados I'm going to pick it up, just to see how it is.

Annie

I know the request is for Avocado Dressing, but in case you have some extra avocadoes, you might want to check out this recipe. It's very good.

AVOCADO PIE

2 large avocadoes
¼ cup lemon juice
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (9") graham cracker pie crust
Whipped topping (non-dairy or whipped cream)

Peel avocadoes and blend with lemon juice and milk until smooth. Put into pie crust and cover with topping. Chill in refrigerator or freeze.

Submitted by Cathleen Brock May 20, 1947 Â January 17, 2007

Annie, if the avocados you are slicing are in the least bit 'mushy', they are over ripe.

A perfectly ripened avocado is still quite firm, but not at all hard.

Very hard to descripe. They have a very short or small window of time where they are 'perfect'. You really have to try one at just the right stage to be able to recognize it.

Rusty

rusty, the one I bought was still firm (yes, I gave it a tiny squeeze, ahem), but it was completely dark all the way through. Not soft, like it was bruised or mishandled, it was firm, but an ugly brown.

When I say "mushy", I mean like a banana is mushy, even if it isn't over-ripe. I don't eat those either, they just have a texture that puts me off. That's what avocados remind me of, so I have to put them IN something to be able to eat them.

Annie, I suspect that the avocado that you got was somehow mishandled or stored improperly between here and there. But you are right, it happens. It's such a disappointment when that happens!

That green goddess dressing sounds great! Just one question. Can I substitute something for the fresh tarragon? That's not something I'd normally use and I wouldn't know what to do with the rest of the bunch, assuming I found fresh tarragon locally.

Annie if the avocado was brown on the inside it was rotten they should be a nice uniform greed inside. ThatÂs the problem I find with the imports from Chile they look good on the outside but brown or black on the inside. Like I said I think itÂs because they pick them too soon and store them to cold while shipping.

Claudia

Lowspark, yes. I sometimes substitute fresh basil for the tarragon, and the dressing is tasty both ways. For some reason, my grocery store is often out of fresh tarragon.

Annie, fifteen years ago I wouldn't touch an avocado or guacamole salad. Thought the salad tasted awful and couldn't stand the taste or texture of the avocado. Then a few years ago I began to love a good guacamole salad. It has to be made with avocado, lime juice, salt and lots of cilantro. Any lemon juice or sour cream and I don't eat it. In the past year I have started liking a plain avocado, texture and all. Actually I crave them now. I bet given time, you will too.

Even though it is a good fat, it is fat nontheless and I don't need them at all.

Yes, we get a lot of those darn rotten on the inside avocados these days. I'm sure you're right Claudia. I'll have to check the origins next time.

I have never been able to eat the Florida avocados. They taste like perfume to me. Shudder. The haas or thick skinned avocados I could eat daily. It may sound strange but one of my favorite ways is on a bagel half, put tuna salad, plenty of sliced avocado, then top with slices of cream cheese, a slice of monterey jack and bake until the cheese melts. Omg, I want one...now... and I have no avocados. Sigh.

Thanks Cindy, I'm definitely going to try that!

The avocados I've been getting recently are from Chile and have been of very good quality. Maybe the bad ones have a different supply chain or whatever.

Good sandwich idea, Cindy. I like avocado in a sandwich and I like tuna melts. That sandwich should be more than satisfactory. I'm thinking chilled white wine would be good with it. It's all healthful, right?

Jim

OK, I did it. I found BOTH kinds and I bought them both:

The dark ones are from Chile according to the sticker, so I hope they're good. The big green one is from Florida, no sticker but there was a big sign "Florida avocados" so I'm taking it on faith.

We'll see the difference tomorrow. I'll "research that, and get back to you". (grin)

Beverly, maybe you are right, as I eat more of them, maybe I'll grow to like them by themselves. Not that I need the fat either.

Annie

But Annie itÂs the good kind of fat and the calories arenÂt bad. IÂve never had a Florida avocado it looks like a Haas but lighter in color. When I told my Dr. I eat an avocado every day he said thatÂs better than an apple a day so I looked it up and found this " High avocado intake has been shown to have an effect on blood serum cholesterol levels. Specifically, after a seven-day diet rich in avocados, hypercholesterolemia patients showed a 17% decrease in total serum cholesterol levels. These subjects also showed a 22% decrease in both LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglyceride levels and 11% increase in HDL (good cholesterol) levels."

Claudia

Claudia, I agree, they're very healthy (as are most things that grow instead of being produced in a factory) and the fat content is good fat but they are normally very expensive in Michigan, are never grown locally, can't be grown in my garden and have to be shipped from half way around the world.

If avocados are $2 each and an apple is 29 cents, I'm going to go for the apple grown in Michigan instead of the avocado grown in Chile. Of course, I don't eat an apple a day either, although I should. I love most vegetables but I'm very apathetic about fruit in general. I'm ashamed to admit that I have had two grapefruit, two apples, two pears and four mangoes sitting in my fruit basket for a week now and haven't eaten any of them. Yeah, I know, I'm bad.

And I still think they're kind of "mushy". (grin)

Elery likes them and he's wanting to make sushi this weekend, so some will probably go into "California Rolls".

Annie

I had bought a bag of Haas avocados the other day and hey are perfect right now. I made a variation of the dressing Ruthana posted and it was great.

I mashed two 'cados, added lf sour cream, some minced garlic, salt, and lime juice. We used it on a green salad with tomatoes. Yum.

Today I am having it on a very lovely dense whole wheat bread with fresh roasted turkey. Double yum.

Sue

We rented a beach condo in Florida one winter for a week...ate lunch out but stayed in for the evenings - had lots of cocktails and I cooked. Grilled gulf shrimp/red snapper/grouper/anything seafood. Rice pilaf of any kind, black beans optional, and then this salsa:

diced mango
diced avocado
diced pineapple
lime juice
salt/pepper
chopped scallion
chopped cilantro
tabasco or cholula hot sauce

Wish I was there.

seagrass

Well, I made guacamole for supper with the "traditional" avocados, they were perfect!

I'm thinking I need to run back to the store and pick up some more, so I can make salad with avocado dressing! The flavor wasn't as rich or intense or whatever as it usually is, though, maybe they need a bit more ripening?

Today we had Ann T's stacked enchiladas with guacamole, so I'm thinking maybe sushi tomorrow, that way I could use the big Florida avocado for comparison.

Seagrass those suppers sound perfect to me...

Annie

Seagrass,

I've saved your good sounding recipe under "Seagrass Salsa". Looking forward to making it.

Jim

I like to just go outside and pick avocadoes off of the trees we grow down here in south Texas, i.e. Haas. In fact, this season the trees are loaded with them. I like to just cut them in half and eat them sliced. There is nothing like fresh avocadoes. And when I lived in Florida, I ate the Florida avocadoes and loved them too, . . .fresh off the trees.

Bumping this up because avocados seem to be on sale everywhere.

One of my favorite ways to eat avocado is to mash them up & spread on a BLT. Good luck finding a decent tomato this time of year. :( Sinful, sure, but sooooo good.

I like Florida avocados as well as Hass, which seem to be the big favorite. They have a sweeter, milder flavor to me. I eat avocados pretty much as they are with a dash of salt and a tiny drizzle of balsamic and nothing else. Heaven. Or just a dash of salt.

Cindy,
I finally made that green goddess dressing!! It only took me like nine months to get around to it. LOL But I did want to say it was delicious. I ended up using two avocados because they were small. I'm definitely going to make this again soon, when I need a party dip. Very good and something different. Thanks for posting!!