Peachy Green

This idea—to bake an egg in the hollow of an avocado half—was floating around the internet a month or two ago, looking all amazing, but my feelings about avocados are so strong that anytime one was in my fridge I just could never bring myself to subject it to the questionable practice of BAKING it. Cooked avocado? Who wants that? Not anybody, I worried, and so I stuck to my lime and my salt and eating them raw, as nature intended.

The research I did when I finally thought I might give it a shot was, at first, not very reassuring. The first link I clicked took me to a blog post that totally panned it. (LOL, panned, get it?) Reading through, though, I realized that the writer disliked runny egg (WTH?!) and so had baked the poor avocado until the egg yolk was completely solid, which must have taken at least 20 minutes. At 450 degrees. Right. He also made no mention at all of salt. His complaint that it was bland and tasted like “baked clay” suddenly held a lot less weight, and given everyone else’s raves, I decided to go for it anyway.

In a surprise twist, it tasted amazing! The avocado was warm and creamy, the texture not having suffered a bit, and the baked egg was perfect for scooping up with toast soldiers. (I mostly wrote this post just so I could say “toast soldiers”.)

AVOCADO BAKED EGGS

One avocado, halved & pitted

Two small eggs

Salt & pepper to taste

Sriracha wouldn’t be a bad idea

Place a cast iron skillet in the oven and heat to 450 degrees. Scoop out some of the avocado, leaving just about half an inch or so of flesh inside the skin. Sprinkle with salt. Crack an egg in each half (I used the tiniest eggs in the dozen, and still they spilled over a little). Salt some more. Carefully place avocado halves in hot skillet, and bake 10 minutes.

Top with cracked black pepper, and that sriracha, if you like, and serve with toast soldiers (there I go again) and fresh slices of tomato.