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Food for Thought Friday: 3 favorite avocado toast toppings 🥑 🍞
 
Hello there, friend!

I gotta admit... I've been eating a lot of avocado toast in the last year. It's so quick to make, delicious and satisfying - I resort to eating it at least once a day when I'm super busy and feeling lazy in the kitchen. That said... recently I've eaten so much of it that I started to get sick of my usual combos and had to invent a few new ones, so I thought I would tell you about those today!

My go-to avocado toast topping is pickled onions, because I almost always have them in my fridge, and they complement the avocado with ALL THE PERFECT THINGS: crunch, zing, acid, and color contrast :). You can find my pickled onions recipe here - it's super easy!

When I get sick of pickled onions, my next go-to is kimchi (Korean fermented veggies). I've been craving kimchi a lot in 2022, and it is also a wonderful complement to avocado toast - crunchy, full of flavor, spicy (often but not always), bright red/orange, and super healthy because it's fermented + good for your gut!

Not all kimchis are created equal though (I've found there are a lot of "kimchi-flavored sauerkrauts" out there that I don't enjoy as much). I much prefer the kimchis made with napa cabbage as I think they have more crunch/better texture, so look out for that ingredient on the label, and note that you might have to try a few different kinds of kimchi to find one you really like! (Also note that some kimchis include fish sauce and/or a touch of flour, so look for vegan/gluten-free versions if you need to.) Sometimes the napa cabbage kimchi will have large/whole pieces of cabbage in it, so I like to cut smaller pieces of this directly onto my avocado toast using clean kitchen scissors - this way I can get a nice little piece of kimchi crunch with every bite!

My latest favorite avo-toast topping combo is Zahtar (spice blend) + olive oil + feta cheese. This one is SO GOOD and the one I've been eating most often lately!

As you can probably tell from the toast photos - I am a "lazy" avocado toast maker - I spoon out the avocado directly onto the toast and then add my toppings, no pre-mushing or mixing.

However... as I've been seeking out new variations lately, I remembered that there's always the delicious option to scoop and mash the avocado FIRST with some lemon/lime, salt, and chili flakes (or really any spice mix you want to use). This makes for more easily edible toast with more perfectly balanced bites (but it does require the extra mashing step).

Maybe you're a "masher" - which is awesome, and if you are - consider trying my lazy way just to test it out!

Alright, that's all for today! Happy toast-making, friends!

love,
Jess

PS. On buying kimchi. An Asian market/grocery will often be the best option if you have access to one! If not, Whole Foods (and many normal grocery stores these days) usually have a decent selection! If you're in the Bay Area, here are my two favorite places to buy kimchi currently:

1) Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco - they make their own variety of delicious versions, and you can bring your own containers (pretty sure they have reinstated this again)!

2) I'm newly OBSESSED with this place in Berkeley called the Cultured Pickle Shop - everything is organic and they make fermented foods from around the world including Indian Pickled Limes (one of my favs) and a lot of cool Japanese stuff, plus THE FIZZIEST KOMBUCHA EVER, and my favorite kimchi (the one pictured above). They also do these cool tastings on the weekends, which I haven't done yet but really want to! I think you can also find their most popular products in some local Bay area grocery stores.

PPS. What are your favorite ways to make avocado toast!?!? Always looking for new ideas and I'd love to hear yours! Hit reply and let me know!

All photos are taken by me and recipes written by me, unless otherwise noted.

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Hi, I'm Jess! I help health-conscious, busy people transform their cooking from chore to lifestyle through intuitive cooking, which I teach through online classes, free content, coaching and more. This is my newsletter, Food for Thought Fridays, where I share highly actionable tips and inspiration to help you cook more intuitively (which makes cooking feel easier and SO much more fun!). Once a month or more, I share a recipe that's really worth making, and I only share those with my email subscribers. Sometimes the text above may include affiliate links, meaning (at no additional cost to you) I get a commission if you click through and make a purchase. This helps me to continue to share free content, so I would love it if you buy through my link! Thank you for supporting Garlic Press Jess!

    I currently work + live on land that is the unceded territory of the Ramaytush Ohlone. And I can't wait to eat at Cafe Ohlone when they reopen someday! Check out this article about them.


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