Years ago I learned (from somewhere — maybe my Mom, maybe a YouTube video, it hardly matters) the absolute best way to dice an avocado in beautiful, delicious, creamy, uniform cubes. Follow my pictorial below and you’ll be transforming avocados into gorgeous green gourmet goodness in no-time flat.
1) With a medium-sized very sharp knife (I always have very sharp knives, I sharpen them every single time I use them) slice the avocado all the way around lengthwise, cutting the flesh all the way to the pit. Twist the two halves apart.
2) Whack the pit with the sharp edge of the knife hard enough for the knife to stick.
3) Twist the knife parallel with the cutting surface. The pit will “unstick” from the flesh and come out, stuck to the knife. A well-ripened avocado will release its pit fairly easily. Carefully (don’t cut yourself!) pull the pit off the knife. The pit is slippery and all too often the pit ends up jumping out of my hand and rolling across the kitchen floor. It happened just this morning in fact…
4) Make vertical cuts in the avocado flesh, evenly spaced. It doesn’t matter how big the slices are as long as they are around the same size. Cut all the way through to the skin but don’t pierce the skin. I mean the world won’t end if you pierce the skin but if your hand is on the other side holding it, well… ew nobody wants blood on their avocado. Just sayin’.
(BTW the picture is kind of funky here. Besides being upside down, you can’t actually cut the avocado without holding it with the non-knife hand. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I took this photo.)
5) Now make horizontal slices into the flesh, perpendicular to the first set of cuts. Make them about the same size so you’ll have evenly sized cubes. (Again with the not-holding of the avocado… sheesh.)
6) This step is most satisfying! Gently squeeze the avocado as shown, gently pressing inwards on the opposite ends of the skin of the fruit. Look at those cubes start to come apart! What a cool fruit.
7) Holding the avocado in the palm of your non-dominant hand, grab an ordinary table spoon with your other hand (I like the larger size because it matches the curve of the fruit better, but the smaller size works too – whatever floats your boat) and dig into the edge of the avocado, between the flesh and the skin. Continue pressing, feeling your way with the edge of the spoon, along the inside edge of the skin. The cubes of the avocado will start to pop out of the skin, whereby you can scoop them into a bowl or right into your salad or onto your cutting board, whatever is handy.
Enjoy the process, it’s one of the funner ingredients to prep during the making of a meal. I’d love to hear your comments below!