As much as Australians love avocado – we each eat an average of 3.5kg of avo per year, according to recent reports – it seems that many of us have not yet mastered the art of picking the perfect avocado.
Avocado is a fruit that suits any type of dietary requirement, its filled with essential vitamins and nutrients, and is perfect for breakfast lunch or dinner. Unfortunately, avocado is also a food that tends to become ripe, almost overnight, then rot before you know it. Worse still is buying a lovely, round avocado – expecting plentiful green flesh – only to discover the plum shape was due to nothing but a huge pit.
Fortunately, we have discovered a handy little hack for identifying the best avocado at your local grocer, based on its shape.
Avoid the big, round avocados
We don’t buy avocados for the hard seed inside, and it seems that bigger and rounder an avocado is, the more likely they are to having a large seed inside – and less of the delicious green flesh.
Pick the oval shape
Longer, pear-shaped avocados tend to have smaller seeds inside, and more flesh.
How to know if your avocado is ripe
The best way to identify a freshly ripe avocado is by giving it a good look-over and a gentle squeeze. The skin should be a dark green to almost black-purple colour, and after a very gentle squeeze the avocado should be firm but yield to the pressure of your fingertips. If the fruit feels mushy to touch then it’s probably too ripe.
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