8 Ways to Have Avocado for Dinner
The increasingly loved avocado is so much more than guacamole, or a fruit to top your breakfast toast. Complete with vitamins (C, E, K, and B-6) and healthy fats, these nutrient-rich green beauties can become the key to your next healthy dinner. For steaks, sandwiches, savory pies, and spaghetti, each of these recipes makes it a cinch to sneak in a serving or two of heart-healthy monosaturated fat into your evening meal. The creamy texture makes a brilliant addition to everything from sandwich spreads to pasta sauces. The hardest decision will be which recipe to use first.
No matter which dinner idea you choose, be sure to keep a few avocados for your morning toast, or one of these nine avocado breakfasts.
Karla Conrad
Tri-Tip Roast with Grilled Avocados
This avocado dinner will expand your grilled fruit horizons. Halved, pitted avocados join red wine vinaigrette-basted steak on the grill for a supremely summery meal. Recreate it indoors on a grill pan (such as the Lodge Cast-Iron Reversible Griddle, $35, Target).
Blaine Moats
Avocado BLT Club Sandwiches
Transform a traditional BLT recipe, typically a lunch item, into a dinner-level meal. Here's how: Stack multigrain thick-cut toast with turkey, ham, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and avocado slices. And to solidify the fact that this is an avocado dinner idea, spread the top slice of toast with garlicky avocado aioli.
Brie Passano
Pan-Grilled Mahi-Mahi with Avocado Sauce
Done in 20 minutes, firm and mild-flavored mahi-mahi makes a protein-rich, remarkably flavorful entrée. The creamy jazzed-up guacamole is an ideal complement to the heat of chili powder, black pepper, and horseradish.
Related: How to Cut an Avocado
Brie Passano
Mexican Fried Rice with Radishes and Avocado
Fried rice, superfood-style, is a dinner idea using avocado that's jam-packed with vitamins, via cauliflower rice, riced broccoli, fresh herbs, radishes, and, of course, avocados. Ground chicken cranks up the satisfaction factor in this low-carb, gluten-free recipe.
Hannah Bigot
Taco Pie with Avocado Pie Crust
Similar to a pot pie, but with an open crust, this taco-flavored avocado dinner is actually hiding the avocado, which replaces half of the shortening in the pastry crust for a lusciously flaky texture and more heart-healthy fats.
Jason Donnelly
Chicken in Avocado-Buttermilk Marinade
Prepare this dinner of chicken thighs in an avocado, buttermilk, and jalape?o marinade, which you can freeze up to four months. All you'll have to do during a busy week is let it thaw overnight and bake to juicy perfection while you slice a few fresh avocados to serve as a side.
Hannah Bigot
Avocado Egg Bake
Warning to all you fans of breakfast for dinner: Master this quick and easy avocado egg dinner and you'll want it for breakfast as well. Short on ingredients, but not on flavor, all you need is an avocado, a couple of eggs, some deli meat, and your favorite spices— everything bagel seasoning is a winning option.
Brie Passano
Avocado-Yogurt Spaghetti with Vegetables
Seeking a dinner to make with avocado, sans meat? This healthy 30-minute meal is the answer to your dreams. The vegetarian pasta is a surprisingly well-balanced package, with protein, by way of Greek yogurt, and filling fats from avocado.