How to Freeze Avocados to Use in Smoothies

                                             

How to Freeze Avocados to Use in Smoothies

We add an avocado to our daily smoothies, but it's nearly impossible to have a "just right" ripe avocado every day since they go bad quickly. Sometimes we only needed half an avocado. Here's a simple way: a smooth purée. For every avocado you need 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and it keeps its bright green color if you purée it rather than mash it like you would for guacamole. Each avocado = 3/4 cup purée (12 tablespoons). Sometimes I will make a big batch, like 18 avocados, so I need over 1 cup lemon juice for that quantity of purée (4 tablespoons = 1/4 cup). Now it's easy to have that daily avocado!

6 avocados, ripe
6 TBL lemon juice, fresh-squeezed
6 sandwich-sized zip-loc plastic bags 
1 ice-cream scoop that measures 1/4-cup servings
1 large tray

1. Wash avocados. Make a cut around each avocado starting at the stem end, and cut all the way around. Twist to separate. The pit will stay in one half. You can easily remove the pit by whacking the sharp knife into the pit, leaving the knife in the pit and twisting it out of the avocado half. The pit will stay on the knife, so simply hit the handle of the knife on the edge of the sink and the pit will fall into the sink.
2. As you go, place each cut avocado half flesh-side down on a cutting board so they don't turn brown, until all avocados are cut in half.
3. Scoop out the flesh of each avocado into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade.
4. Add lemon juice and pulse several times, then run the food processor continuously until you have a smooth purée. Stop halfway through to scrape down sides of the bowl.
5. To portion out into plastic bags: open one plastic bag, then fold the opening backwards down about an inch or two. Hold the open plastic bag in one hand with your fingers under the folded edge, the bag resting in your open palm, and scoop 3/4-cup avocado purée into the bag (3 scoops). Yes, that's a whole avocado portion, but hang on because we will divide in in half in step 7). Set aside and continue until all of the purée is portioned out.
6. To seal, tap each bag on the counter to get the purée into the bottom corners of the bag, then press out all of the air and seal. 
7. Place each bag on the large tray and lay the bags flat. Divide the purée in half by pressing your finger on top of the bag and running it from bottom to top. This creates 1/2 avocado portions in case you only need half an avocado for your smoothie or other recipe. 
8. Freeze the tray of purée, and use half a bag or the whole bag as needed.