I love avocadoes.
And I’m sure you love avocadoes too. I mean, seriously, who doesn’t like avocados?
They’re rich. They’re smooth. They’ve got nutrients like fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins, and folic acid. They’re chock full of healthy, monunsaturated fatty acids and give you smooth skin and glossy hair. They’re YELLOWY-GREEN, and if you cut them in half, they kind of look like hard-boiled eggs.
the resemblance is striking...
So when my mom brought back a bag full of avocadoes leftover from a catering event, I was ecstatic. It was avocado galore! Avocados everywhere! A flash flood of avocado!
Usually, we get avocados so I can put them in my sister’s sandwiches. But with the recent plethora of avocado, a few measly slices of avocado in Calynn’s lunch just wasn’t gonna cut it.
So we got a little creative.
At first, we made the standard avocado dip – guacamole.
My mom makes THE best guacamole, by the way. If you’ve tried it, you’ll know – it’s SO GOOOOD(Sorry, that recipe is staying TOP SECRET).
Then we ate a dinner of homemade California rolls, JUST so we could get rid of more avocados.
After that, we just had to get creative. I was even considering making avocado ice cream, but then I came across a recipe for an avocado pasta on Oh She Glows.
And I just had to try it.
So I started with these ingredients:
basil, garlic, lemon, avocado, and noodles
First off, I started by cooking some brown rice noodles, dropping them in some boiling water for a couple of minutes.
While the noodles were cooking, I got the base of the sauce ready by first chopping up a clove of garlic.
The sauce was going to be blended, but I thought I’d help my bullet mixer a little by cutting up the ingredients into smaller pieces first.
Then I got my lemon,
Put it in this handy-dandy squeezing thing,
And added about half of the juice from this lemon half to the garlic.
using this with one hand is harder than it looks..
After that went in a tablespoon of olive oil.
After these first 3 ingredients were in, I blended away.
VRRRRRRMMMMM
By this time, my noodles were done cooking (they take a little under 10 minutes to get to al dente), so I drained them,
steamy!
Rinsed them under cold water,
And let them stand by.
Once my garlic-oil-lemon mix was done pureeing, it looked like this:
Not the most attractive thing in the world… But that was about to change.
I added a little less than 1/2 an avocado to the cup.
Along with a few chopped basil leaves.
And a dash of salt.
Before bullet-mixing….
After bullet-mixing!
I know, it looks a little strange; but what appears to be a weirdly green paste was actually a delicious, creamy sauce. Herbaceous from the basil, rich because of the avocado and olive oil, with a bright punch from the garlic and lemon, this sauce was like a cross between pesto and guacamole.
I wanted to spoon some directly into my mouth.
But I resisted, and dolloped it onto my noodles.
And mixed it well, making sure every strand was coated with the delicious green stuff.
yes, chopsticks are my mixing utensils of choice
I added a little lemon zest and cracked pepper on top…
THEN DEVOURED IT.
When you were a kid, did you ever try eating a noodle dish one strand at a time? Well, that’s what I tried to do with this, because I was trying to savor each bite and make it last.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work; this was so good, and I ended up slurping my way through the entire bowl at an unnaturally fast rate.
Now notice how there was leftover sauce in my bowl. Now, normally I would’ve regretted not making more noodles to eat with the sauce, but in this case, the lack of a sauce-carrying carbohydrate vehicle was NOT a problem.
I just licked wiped the bowl clean with my finger.
i am part of the clean plate club :)
Yup, it was that good.
And really easy to make too; I mean, all it is throwing some stuff into a mixer and cooking a handful of noodles. Easy peezy, lemon squeezy (literally).
:D
And we’ve still got 5 avocados left… I see a lot of avocado alfredo in the near future…
Or maybe I’ll try my hand at that avocado ice cream…? We shall see…
you eatin' nice 
What a great idea! I LOVE this!
Posted by ShopCookMake | June 14, 2011, 12:43 amAvocado is a staple! Looks good!
Posted by Hannah Mendenhall | June 14, 2011, 11:06 amYour lemon juicer may be different, since it looks vintage, but I discovered (on ours) that you’re actually supposed to put the lemon in flesh-side down. It turns the lemon inside-out and gets out much, much more juice. :) Also, I’ve had this sauce, but with cilantro and lime instead of basil and lemon- DELISH.
Posted by Lauren | June 14, 2011, 12:41 pmOh, wow, I had no idea! Thanks for the tip :)
Posted by minyungee | June 14, 2011, 6:51 pmLOL…I too have been doing it wrong. Thanks!
Posted by Tena | January 23, 2014, 7:13 pmOh but wait…..turning it that way…wouldn’t it allow the seeds to fall through the drainage holes?
Posted by Tena | January 23, 2014, 7:15 pmThis looks yummy! Also, to second what a previous poster, Lauren, said, you should flip your lemon half in the citrus press. The juice will come through the holes in the “bowl” side as the lemon turns inside out. Happy pressing!
Posted by Blanca | June 14, 2011, 3:23 pmOh, I was so pleased when I found this recipe while trying to find something different to make for a side and I was even more pleased with the finished dish. Yummy!
Posted by Wendy | June 14, 2011, 11:16 pmhaha nice! I had it again on the weekend and I love playing around with the ingredients. :) I could eat the entire batch myself…
Posted by Angela | June 15, 2011, 2:35 pmI am for sure doing this! Looks and sounds divine :)
Posted by tartsandtypography | June 16, 2011, 10:03 pmLooks so good. Will have to try this. Hope I just don’t make a mess.
Posted by ed | July 1, 2011, 4:53 pmWhat an awesome recipe! I love creamy sauces, but my partner is lactose intolerant so I can’t dabble with cream and milk and cheese as much as I’d like. I think this will more than make up for it, thank you!
Posted by âpihtawikosisân | July 2, 2011, 8:41 pmThis looks great and I love the pictures but where is the recipe? It is so much easier to work with a list of ingredients rather than have to read through the entire thing,
Posted by iris | September 7, 2011, 2:15 pmOH YAYAYAY just what i was looking for!
thanks :)
Posted by monymony | December 13, 2011, 12:12 amI am making this TODAY!
Posted by callieadams | February 10, 2012, 11:25 amLooks delicious, will have to try it. I love the pasta dish, too! Is it handmade?
Posted by Mallery | February 11, 2012, 6:24 amNo, the pasta is not handmade. It’s actually a barley soba that my mom ordered from a Korean company in California!
Posted by minyungee | February 19, 2012, 4:56 pmAdorable article :). Love the step-by-step photos. I’m trying this tomorrow!!
Posted by Foooooood | April 11, 2012, 6:41 pmjust finished a plate of this! my boyfriend and i decided to add baked chicken (cut into strips) and fresh parmesan. i realize this doesn’t make it vegan, but HOLY MOLY, its delicious!
Posted by jenna | April 17, 2012, 10:20 pmI loved it, thanks a lot for sharing! :-)
Posted by Christina | May 7, 2012, 1:55 amTHis looks amazing! i’d love to make this for my extended fam… except that’s 10 of us! would you say the quantities you used were enough for just 1 person? i assume so, but just wanted to make sure so i can get a better sense for proportions before trying it! pretty genius, btw :)
Posted by brooklyn mom | July 30, 2012, 5:58 pmJust posted about this recipe on my blog – I absolutely love it!
Jay
Posted by Jay | October 1, 2012, 4:40 amYummy! I made this today and put it on brown and red rice that I had added avocado oil infused with chili into. The oil made the rice creamy even though only used 2 tblsp for a whole cup of dry cooked. The sauce just kicked it over the top! Delicious! Can’t wait to try it with gf pasta!
Posted by leeza | February 6, 2014, 5:07 pmThis will be served at my house as soon as I get to the store for avocados! I can taste it now…..
Posted by kraftycatcreations | February 26, 2014, 9:08 pmI made this for my husband while on the Daniel fast. It was delicious!!!
Posted by staci Landrum | January 13, 2015, 11:11 pmtried this tonight, was looking forwards to it so much but found the basil overt powering so was really disappointed! Nice idea though
Posted by Katie | March 4, 2015, 1:20 pmDo you think it would make up ok for a luncheon. If you made it the night before and heated the next day. Do you think itit would turn brown
Posted by Dale O'Brien | August 4, 2015, 8:32 pmare you able to tell about how much lemon juice you were actually adding? was it about a tablespoon?
Posted by misty mcclatchey | January 13, 2016, 9:02 am