Chewy avocado almond cookies

Chewy avocado almond cookies

One of the days that I wanted to experiment making cookies with avocados :) The result has been not bad either.

Following is the recipe

Ingredients 
Mashed avocado - 1 cup
Whole wheat flour- 1/2 cup ( I use organic wheat flour)
Ground almonds- 1/2 cup ( I use mamra variety almonds)
Sugar - 1/3 cup
Butter - 1 tbsp
Baking powder - a pinch
Desiccated coconut 

Method
Take a big bowl and throw in all the ingredients except desiccated coconut, mix well with a fork initially and then with the hands to a smooth dough.
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.
Slightly butter a baking tray, make small balls of the dough, place it in the baking tray, press it with a fork and then sprinkle some desiccated coconut over it.
Bake the cookies for about 10-15 mins and grill for around 5 mins.
Remove the cookies and let it cool in a wire rack.

Note: these cookies are chewy and not crunchy.

Avocado rava kheer

No, I am not growing avocados in the  backyard ( I live in a flat ), nor I have any estate of avocados anywhere :) , I just love this fruit and its versatility and above all it is so nutritious and is very rich in anti oxidants that you find it hard to avoid this fruit.. I wanted to incorporate this fruit in my diet few years ago , but always got it wrong and now I have almost learnt to get the good ones. Those who have never tried this fruit even till now will tel you it is otherwise called as butter fruit since its texture and taste is like butter.. so soft, smooth and silky.

For this evening I tried kheer with it .. Ok now dont get into thinking that I cooked avocados in milk .. Nah! I did something which a kid can do , in fact these days kids can do much better! I made rava  or sooji or semolina kheer and added avocados into it and mixed well. Its quick , easy and simple and not to forget healthy. So here goes the recipe..

Ingredients

Medium rava - 4 tbspn

Milk 2 cups

Sugar candy ( kalkandam) - a handful

Avocado - 1

Cardamom powder - a pinch

Method

Mix the rava and one and half cups of milk and cook till the rava thickens, it takes less than 10 minutes. Remove from flame and then scoop in the avocado pulp to the kheer. Add in the remaining half cup of milk and stir well till the pulp gets well incorporated in the kheer. You can also use a hand blender for this!

Add a pinch of cardamom powder and serve !

Avacado cake with blue berries

Have been venturing out with avocados for sometime now, and this time its cake since I also had some fresh blue berries with me and wanted to try it out too in cakes. 

Following is the recipe

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour - 1 cup

Eggs - 2 no.s

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Baking powder - 1 tspn

Butter - 2 tbspn

Milk - 1/2 cup

Avocado - 1 ( remove the pulp and mash and keep aside)

Blue berries - a handful

Chocochips - a handful

Method

Sift the flour with baking powder and keep aside

Melt the butter in milk and mix the avocados and keep aside

Take a big mixing bowl and break in two eggs and beat till fluffy and then add in the powdered sugar and beat again. Now slowly add in the flour mixture and avocado- butter- milk mixture alternatively and fold in the egg mixture, starting and ending with flour. Throw in the blue berries at this stage and also throw in the choco chips.

Bake in a loaf tin in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celsius for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Bake and enjoy :)!

Spicy avacodos smoothie with toasted oats

This is also another invention in necessity of having a pack of 200 gms curd lying in my fridge. Thought of doing some smoothie but wanted to include in the dinner and also wanted to make it slightly filling and not loaded too. So following is the recipe of the new creation

Ingredients

Avocados - 1 med size

Curd- 200 mls

Green chillies - 2-3 

Mint leaves - few

Dried figs- 4-5 

Oats - 1 cup

Salt and pepper

Chilli powder - a pinch

Method

Preheat the oven to toast mode at around 200 degrees Celsius.Spread the oats in a baking tray mixing it with little chilli powder and salt and toast for around 2-3 mnutes or until toasted. Alternatively you can toast on a gas top in a pan.

Blend the curd and avocados  until smooth  along with the chillies, mint leaves and figs.

Take out a clean tall glass and put half the cup of toasted oats and then pour in half a portion of the avocado curd mixture. You can mix the layers and enjoy it or as you wish.

Enjoy ! :)

Guacamole

I got good avocados again, and guess I am getting a hang of it in choosing the right ones. This time I chose to make guacamole, since it is very easy to make too.

Moslty gucamole is made my mashing the avocodos by fork or other manual means and then chop the onion, tomatoes, squeeze the lime etc etc. But I have a habit of trying easier means to most of the recipes. Hence, as always I have used my food processor to make this dip. It wasn't bad either. Probably some of you might shudder by this idea but the rest may try it :)

Ingredients

Med sized ripe avocados - 2 no.s

Med sized onion - 1 

Tomato - 1 ( remove the seeds )

Chillies- 2 

Coriander leaves - a few

Garlic - 3-4 cloves

Lime - 1

Salt and pepper

Method

Throw in all the ingredients in a food processor and blend for around less than a minute. Remove from the blender to a serving dish and serve with tortilla chips. I made flour tortillas at home and had it with the freshly made guacamole

Tips

When buying avocados check for the medium size ones totally green in colour and with no black spots, it should look fresh and smooth

Let it stay for 3-4 days and check its tenderness once a day and dont wait to use it until it turns black or is more tender. You use it just when you feel it is slightly tender. I am sure you will get it right because we just cannot miss this healthy fruit.

The guacamole tastes better when served chilled too.

Cheers!!

Avocado orange smoothie

I have been always wrong in getting good avocados, either it will be unripe or rotten or ripe and spoilt. I try my luck again and again and voila , I got a nice one this time. I was feeling like a new baby in my hand .. I know it sounds a bit of an exaggeration, but as I said I was super happy !! Knowing the fact the fruit is super nutritious I wanted to use it as an evening snack for the kids. They would happily reject if I would have tried a guacamole with it.
SO i went ahead to try a smoothie and also had few oranges with me. So follow is what I tried!

INgredients
Avacado- one
Oranges - 3 no.s
Sugar - as required
Choco chips - for garnish and fooling :)

Method
Peel the oranges and remove the juice and keep aside.
Half the avacado and remove the seed. Scoop out the flesh of the avacados in a blender and add in the juice to make a smooth paste. You may add in sugar if you feel it is required.
Remove the smoothie to a tumbler or bowl and throw in some choco chips.
Smoothie is ready!

Want to read more about avacadoes ? read this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado