Avocados are a must-have staple in my house; however, I’ve never really seemed to get the hype around this fruit. My family love to add avocados to salads, but I’d usually avoid them wherever possible. After stumbling across an avocado toast recipe from cooking expert and food blogger Chris, who runs Don’t Go Bacon My Heart, I was keen to see if this would change my opinion on avocado toast.
While regular avocado toast typically calls for just avocados, salt, pepper and perhaps some lemon juice, Chris claims that “you haven’t quite lived” if you haven’t added cream cheese to the dish. I didn’t expect the cheese to add much to the avocado, but I was pleasantly surprised. It added a gentle, tangy flavour and made the avocado far more creamy than usual. Topped off with sea salt, pepper and chilli flakes, this made for a delicious lunch.
I followed Chris’ recipe, but made a few changes along the way, like skipping out on the lemon juice and chives.
One thing I would say is key about this recipe is that the avocado needs to be ripe for it to taste the best, as I made this again a few days later, and the avocado wasn’t quite as ripe, and it kind of spoiled the dish.
Ingredients
- Half an avocado, peeled, pitted and finely sliced
- One slice of bread
- 30g of cream cheese, or as much as needed
- Chilli flakes
- Sea salt
- Black pepper
- Extra virgin olive oil, for toasting the bread
Method
The first step is to get your bread ready. The bread is important – don’t overlook this. It’s the edible plate on which your toppings rest.
You want a sturdy loaf to counteract the soft avocado and cream cheese. I opted for sourdough, but ciabatta would work well too.
I toasted the bread in a pan, but you can toast it under the grill if you’d prefer. Either way, it’s worth adding extra virgin olive oil for an extra layer of flavour.
I drizzled one side of the bread with extra virgin olive oil and placed it in a pan, oil-side down, over medium-high heat. I then added oil to the other side and flipped it over for both sides to be crisp.
Next, I spread the toast with a thick layer of cream cheese before adding the sliced avocado and topping it all off with chilli flakes, salt and black pepper to taste.
If you’re having this for brunch and are on the hungrier side, I’d recommend pairing it with some crispy bacon, a fried egg or some smoked salmon.
