I like to try a new food every week or so. This has opened up many new tastes to me and has overall been very successful. The one food I cannot stand is avocado. Many vegetarians talk about how much they love it and eat it every day. I really, really want to like them. They are a source of healthy fats and I'd rather get my fats from a vegetable (or is it a fruit??) than from unhealthy foods.



To be honest, I've only really tried avocado diced up over a salad and I thought it was disgusting. The taste or consistency, I don't know, but I wasn't able to finish it. So if you have any other ways of cooking it that might help me to like it, I would be forever grateful!

I hate avacado too. The mouthfeel (the sliminess and mushiness) plus the bland, slightly off-ish flavor make me gag. You may be able to take avacado in guacamole if you make your own to have a ton of ingredients that mask the avacado as much as possible. For one, I haven't been able to stomach it as of yet. Yuck.

I think the main thing about avocado is to make sure you're getting a good one. I have known a few people who thought they didn't like the fruit but come to find out they were trying ones that were either not yet ripe or too ripe. And ICK! Overripe avocados taste are foul!



I love avocado. Aside from fresh home grown tomatoes it is probably my favourite food! I just open it up and eat. Nothing else needed.

However, I think it's great on a veggie salad, in a pasta salad, in burritos, nachos, etc.

I love guacomole, and I put it on veggie burgers all the time. I make it with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.



Honestly, though, I think it may be a waste of time to try and make yourself like something. I still can't stand raw tomatoes--always have, and probably always will

I watched a British documentary on healthy eating habits and how to get kids to like veggies. It actually used avocado as one of their test foods. It stated that a person must be introduced to a food on average of 10 times to aquire a taste for it. It worked. The mothers gave their child a small piece of avacado each day. By day 10 the childs reaction went from YUCK to YUM.



I grew up hating bell peppers. Well, I moved to the New Orleans region, where bell peppers are in just about everything. I've come to enjoy red bell pepper, in small amounts. Don't know if I'll get used to the more punget green bell peppers.



My husband hates avocado, he refuses to do the 10 day test, lol. If you don't like something, don't force yourself to eat it, as then food become a chore, no longer enjoyable. You may want to try avocado oil when cooking something, it's a low=temp oil, I think. But try mixing it with olive oil in small quantities. You'll get some of the healthy things that avocado offer, that way.

As someone else said, it can take an average of 10 times...which means it could take more than that. Personally I've tried to like it...

I have literally tried it at least 30 times, probably more. And to me its still nasty. There are plenty of other places to get my healthy fats, like in olive oil, for me to put myself through that lol.

I hate avacado but love guacamole. Guacamole might be a good way to include avacado in your diet.

Thanks for the ideas everyone! I would like to try guacamole. Anyone have any good recipes?



I know you can't force yourself to like something, but I am going to keep trying for a while. I haven't reached 10 times by far! I taught myself to like kale by putting it into green smoothies and now it's one of my favorite foods. I'll eat it any which way! So it can be done. I'm not giving up yet!

It definitely can be done! When I first went veggie I focused on a differed vegetable I hated or hadn't tried before each month. I'd cook it different ways and try a few different recipes. I ended up finding a way I liked each of them by the end of the month.

This is really interesting, I didn't know you could "train" yourself to like something. There are only a few vegetables I don't like so if I really make an effort I should start to love all veggies

You may have just gotten a bad avocado...



I just had half an avocado mashed and spread on toast with olive oil and salt. I don't know that I would recommend this if you didn't already enjoy avocado though.



Next time you're at a sushi place, get an avocado roll. Avocado is great in sushi!

I just mash the avacado up and had salt and pepper then put into burritos adding lettuce toms and salsa.Some people also add lemon and lime juice

Ooh, good idea! I looove sushi!!

A few people have mentioned bad/not ripe/too ripe avocados. How do you tell when they're just right?

Eating avocado with salt and pepper seems very weird for me xD

Here on Brazil we eat it with sugar.

I like to put it on the blender with milk and sugar! very nice...

"A ripe avocado is relatively firm, but will yield to gentle pressure when held in the palm of the hand and squeezed. Color cannot always be trusted to determine whether or not an avocado is ripe. Indeed, the squeeze test is the most accurate. "

http://www.essortment.com/all/howtotellavoc_rqxl.htm



I suppose it's kind of like a peach. You want it firm yet you want it to give a little when squeezed... and yet you don't want it to mush in your hand.

For me, learning how to pick out a perfect avocado was a process of trial and error.



Good luck.

I don't know if you like Nachos but i love Nachos.



Try corn chips with Salsa and Guacamole. But make your own guacamole by just using an avocado. Scoop it into the salsa sauce, put them both on the cornchips and you're ready to eat

A ripe avacado will also feel kind of heavier than it looks. I almost never find ripe avacados in the store (it may be b/c I live in NY though). Usually I have to buy them and wait 2-3 days for them to ripen.



If you really didn't like the texture, I would definitely try another one, and be sure it's not overripe. Overripe avacados are mushy and don't taste good.



Try a slightly firmer (maybe a little less than totally ripe) one on a veggie fajita - delicious!

I have to second the recommendations of avocado rolls and guacamole.



I can give you my guac recipe, but there are no measurements. It's all kind of done to taste.



Dice a small onion or a few shallots and put in a bowl. Take cilantro, torn into small pieces and put it in the bowl too, and then mash the cilantro against the onion with a fork to release the flavors.





Take a ripe avocado and cut it into small pieces and add it to the bowl. Then throw in some salt, lemon juice, and maybe a few dashes of hot sauce. Mash everything together until it looks gooey and good. If you'd like, you can also add some diced tomatos to the guac, and then it's almost like a salsa.



Another way I do guac is just avocado, salt, and lemon juice, so you can really taste the avocado. Both ways are good, but have very different end results.

you can try avocado in a recipe for pesto, just substitute the oil for the avocado and it makes a nice spread for a sandwhich.

2 cups of basil leaves

1-2 cloves garlic

parmesean cheese or substitute

nuts of choice, I like raw pumpkin or walnuts or whatever, 2 tablespoons



Pulse in food processor until as chopped as you would like, add the avocado and pulse a few more times. If too thick add a tsp or two of oil.........if you add olive oil or grapeseed oil that is great.

This is yummy.

You can also toss this over pasta.

I have tried many times. Like you, I want to like avocado. After years of trying, I still cannot stand even guacamole.

Avocados are definitely disgusting if they are bad. Avocado in sushi is AWESOME! I highly recommend it.










That sounds so good, thanks for sharing!



I love avocados, guacamole is the food of the gods to me!



All in all, like everyone has said, try it in different things, and different ways. You may find you like it a certain way. You also may find that you just absolutely hate avocado made anyway, anyday. That's okay too, everyone likes or doesn't like different things. Don't beat yourself up about it, just enjoy the things you do like!

Used in sandwiches with tomato and hummus. Yum! And if it's particularly the texture, the bread helps disguise that.

I love avocados, but not every day, maybe once a week or fortnight.



The way to eat them is this:



1. Slice in half and remove stone.

2. Add lemon juice and salt to each half.

3. Eat out of shell with a spoon.



Delicious!

Thanks synergy! I've got all those ingredients at home so I'm going to give this a try today. Hopefully it will make a good treat to munch on during the game (GO Eagles!!!) Wish me luck!

Avocado with sugar? with lemon juice? salad?

I can't believe y'all



here's my howto on a delicious snack containing mostly avocado:



there's different types of avocados. There is green ones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Avocado.jpeg) and rather purple ones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Avacado444.jpg). I remember the purple ones to be more tasty. I like them best when they've been out for a few days.

I take one and cut it up, then take the stone out. using a spoon, I get all the eatable stuff out and put it on a plate (if i cut through the peel too easily (with the spoon), I know that I've left it out for too long :P). Stone and peel go into the trash can.

Next, I take a fork and mash the avocado-flesh while adding salt and pepper (in larger amounts than you'd think. do it to taste) until it looks kinda like green mashed potatoes (mashing them too long will influence the taste. you just have to try what you like best).

The key thing now is to use the avocado as a spread for German bread (there's three types I like it best with: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ischbrot-1.jpg, http://www.resch-frisch.com/images/p...brot_klein.jpg, http://www.loewenbaecker.de/fotos/LB...urger-Brot.jpg. I couldn't find a better pic for the last type. the bread needs to be fresh otherwise it doesn't taste nearly as good). Usually, I use more spread than bread

And of course add more salt and pepper if it doesn't taste perfectly yet.







Meditating guru kinda people would actually say that it is possible to change your food preferences (well, they don't use the technique for changing food preferences very much, as far as I know...) It's called mental training. there's also a more efficient technique called alpha training where you first get into a state of deep relaxation (a state between being asleep and awake. your body actually sleeps, while your brain works on a lower frequency and is much much more receptive). How to get into that state (which is supposedly also quite good for learning eg vocabulary extremely fast and effectively) you can read in books, on the internet or by visiting seminars about that.

It has to do with self motivation (not the state but the alpha/mental training). You basically suggest to your subconscious that you enjoy doing something (eg eating something). explicitly you tell yourself in easy language (and in your head) that you like avocado (eg "I like avocados and enjoy eating them"; it's better to use own phrases) over and over again, while you imagine yourself eating one with much pleasure and delight while imagining these good feelings as intensively as you can over and over again.



They did a test on how well this mental training works for a different problem. They took three basketball teams with basically the same strength. One of them practiced the layup an hour a day for one week. The second team didn't practice at all, and the third team imagined themselves doing the layup an hour per day for one week (which is called mental training).

At the end of the week, team one increased its hit ratio to 110%, team two decreased its hit ratio to 95% and team three increased up to 107%.

Uhm I don't really know how to help you unless I trade lives with you & you become me because I absolutley adore avocados!

I LOVE them so incredibly much, haha.

They're definatly one of my favorite foods.

I am an avacado fan..put them in salads and all but cant stand guacamole...I think its because of the onions



Peace Love and Happiness



Jenn

I tried the guacamole and it came out okay. It had a little too much onion for my taste. I'll try again and use less. The avocado part didn't bother me at all. I think I could learn to like it. My husband gobbled it up though.



He wants to make sushi this week, so I'm going to ask him to make some avocado rolls for me along with the usual cucumber and carrot rolls. *crosses fingers*