One of the most important skills in the kitchen is how to use a knife. Each week, we introduce the skills necessary to accomplish 1 task in a cleaner, more efficient way. Today we focus on knife skills to cut an avocado
Avocado season is over in California, but fortunately that doesn’t mean the end of avocados! They’re available all year long from Mexico. These fruits (technically) are so delicious and full of healthy fat. They’re also very soft (when ripe) which makes them excellent for knife skills practicing. Even young kids can learn how to safely cut an avocado.
Always make sure you have a clean cutting board, chef’s knife and a towel.
Let’s go!
Step by Step Instructions on How to Dice an Avocado
Step 1: Place the avocado on the cutting board and press the knife into the fruit, until you feel the resistance from the pit. Once you feel the pit, you don’t need to move you knife any further.
Step 2: Holding the knife in place, rotate the avocado to slice it in half. Start at the top and rotate down toward the bottom. You want the halves to be symmetrical.
Step 3: Twist the two halves apart.
Step 4: Using the back edge of the knife, jab the pit and to remove it. To safely jab, hold the avocado in one hand and jab the middle of the blade into the pit. If your avocado is ripe enough, then you can actually just pop the pit out with your fingers.
Step 5: Gently peel off the avocado skin. You can either use your fingers, or you can scoop a spoon in between the skin and the fruit and just pop it out. That way, your hands stay clean.
Step 6: Lay the avocado flat side down on the cutting board and slice evenly across. Rotate 90 degrees and slice across again.
Step 7: Using the knife, (avocado is messy!) scoop the avocado into a bowl. To do this, slide the blade underneath your avocado. Then gently lift up and pop the avocado in a bowl.
Step 9: And there you go, beautifully cut avocado.
Now you’re ready to take on any salad that dinner throws at you.
