Avocado lovers, have you ever cut into an avocado thinking it was all ripe and ready to be mashed into guacamole or whatever creamy dish you were planning to make, only to realise that your avocado was not quite ripe? What do you do with unripe avocados? Try sticking it back together and putting it in the refrigerator, hoping it would continue ripening, cook it, or toss it? Now there’s another option: pickle it! Yes, unripe avocados can be pickled! It’s now my preferred way to enjoy avocado!
An AIP-compliant avocado recipe
This totally Paleo Autoimmune Protocol (AIP)-compliant pickled avocado recipe is a great way to make use of unripe avocados, especially if you have a lot and can’t finish them all before they turn overripe. All you need are not quite ripe or unripe avocados, water, apple cider vinegar, Himalayan salt, ginger, and honey (optional)! Pickled avocado is such an easy recipe to make. I was inspired by this post over at Mind Body Green!
What kind of unripe avocados to use?
I like using Hass avocados that are not quite ripe. That means they are turning dark green and are still pretty firm, but not rock hard like the bright green and very unripe ones. You cut into them and sometimes the seed splits where your knife slices the avocado. That is the perfect stage for making pickled avocado, in my opinion. If it’s too unripe, it leaves a strange metallic/ bitter taste on the tastebuds though that could be subjective (I taste that when I cook avocados as well, so no cooked avocados for my family). Most unripe avocados sold at the supermarkets are at the perfect stage for pickling.
How to make pickled avocado: preparing the brine
The brine needs to be cooled completely before being mixed with the avocado pieces, so I mixed the water, apple cider vinegar, Himalaya salt, and ginger together in a saucepan, let it boil, then cool. You could expedite the cooling process by putting the container of brine in an ice water bath. Once cooled, I added in some honey for a touch of sweetness. That is completely optional.
Preparing the unripe avocados
I removed the skin and pit, then sliced the avocado flesh into bite-sized pieces. If you have already cut the avocado into half, simply slice off the avocado skin and proceed with the recipe. You can slice them into bigger slices the length of the avocado, or cut them smaller, it doesn’t really matter. In this photo I sliced the avocado-length slices into half and cut them into bite-sized sticks.
Putting it together to pickle
I placed the avocado slices in a clean jar and poured in the cooled brine before covering. Then I popped the jar into the refrigerator to let the avocado slices pickle for a couple of hours. Two hours is a good amount of time to pickle the unripe avocados although you could pickle them for a longer amount of time. The most I have left the unripe avocados to pickle is for 6 hours. Once pickled, I strained out the brine, leaving it in the refrigerator for another pickling session. The pickled avocados were transferred into another clean jar for storage in the refrigerator.
So there you have it, pickled avocados using unripe avocados! I used jars sourced locally (from buying sauerkraut/ sheep’s milk yogurt for my boys) but wide-mouth glass jars (see link below) are perfect for making pickled avocados. Tart, with a soft crunch, these pickled unripe avocados remind me of Japanese pickles. They make a great snack! Wouldn’t you give it a go?
Where to purchase certain ingredients/ equipment online (affiliate links):
- Apple cider vinegar
- Himalayan salt
- raw liquid honey
- 16 oz wide-mouth jars / 32 oz wide-mouth jars (great for storing bone broth/ soups too)
- 1 cup filtered water
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Himalayan salt
- 1 thumb sized knob ginger, peeled and smashed
- 1.5 tablespoons raw honey (optional)
- 1 large unripe avocado*
- Make the brine by combining the water, apple cider vinegar, Himalaya salt, and ginger in a saucepan and bring to a boil
- Remove from heat and cool completely before stirring in the honey (if using)
- Slice off the stem tip of the avocado
- Slide your knife along the length of the avocado just under the peel to remove it
- Run your knife around the longest part of the avocado (as if to halve it)
- Slice off ¼ inch slices, easing off the slices if stuck to the pit
- Cut slices into ¼ inch thick sticks if preferred and place in a clean jar
- Pour the cooled brine over the avocado pieces, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until sufficiently pickled to your preference
- Strain out the brine (you can keep it for another pickling session, I keep the original jar of brine and transfer the pickled avocados into another jar. Both jars remain in the refrigerator)
- Enjoy your pickled avocado!
Thanks for sharing this recipe, it almost look like pickled mango. Makes me salivate. Gonna try this.
Pickled mango! Gosh, it’s been ages since I last had that! Now I want some too! Hope you’ll enjoy the avocado recipe. 🙂