ME Monday: How to Remove an Avocado Seed

ME Monday. It’s the post where I usually talk about life that doesn’t relate to running, but it somehow always ties back to running. Today, I really won’t bring the topic back to running, even though I’ve already mentioned running 4 times…

As you probably know, we spent the summer in Seattle, and I was able to spend a good amount of time with one of my BFFs, AM. We met online (not creepy at all) and quickly fell in platonic love, despite being total opposites. We initially bonded over home cooking and super spicy bloody marys. This summer, we picked up right where we left off with some cookouts and bloodies.

girls drinking bloody marys

Blurry iPhone pic of me and AM this summer. We are hilarious. Trust me.

As usual, she taught me something new – how to easily get the seed out of an avocado.  This method has changed my avocado-loving life so I thought I’d share it with you, in case you’ve never seen this trick.

(I’m going to go through the whole process of prepping the avocado in case anyone has never done it. Seems a bit silly, but I never ate an avocado until I was 26 at a super bowl party where all the food was avocado based, so I know there are some newbies out there!)

Step 1: Wash and cut avocado lengthwise. Pretty normal.

avocado uncut

An avocado, ready to be cut lengthwise

Step 2: Glide spoon just along the inside skin of the non-seed side and pull out flesh in one nice chunk. Still normal and obvious. I think everyone starts their prep this way.

avocado

One half out of skin, other half waiting

Step 3: Now here is where things get tricky. How do you get the seed out without destroying the flesh of the avocado? This has been my big struggle. And here is where the good advice comes in. Take a sharp knife and smack the blade right into the middle of the seed, a few millimeters deep!

knife inserted into seed

Knife smacked into seed and inserted a few millimeters.

Step 4: Twist knife about 90˚ to release seed from flesh and pull detached seed (still stuck to knife) out of avocado. Amazing! It really works!

Step 5: Repeat “Step 2” with other side of avocado. It’s now ready to use in any recipe or just eat whole like I enjoy doing!

Warning! Beware of mishaps with this method! I get a little too confident and knife happy and have often *almost* cut the pad of my thumb/sliced up a finger or two with a simple knife slip.

avocado mishap cutting pad of thumb

OUCH! BEWARE! It’s super easy to slip and cut the pad of your thumb one way, or slice your fingertips the other way.

There you have it! A ME Monday that had nothing to do with RUNNING!

How do you remove avocado seeds? Do you use this method?