Have you ever had pickled avocado? Do I sound crazy? I know, I might. But seriously, this recipe is going to change your life. If you've ever bought avocados on a whim, and need to figure out how to stop them from going bad, or simple just love pickling things, these avocado pickles are going to delight you. Read on!
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If you've found yourself asking, what to do with lots of avocados, or how to preserve them for longer, this is the post for you. We're all used to quick pickled onions and pickled jalapenos, but pickled avocados are about to become the rage.
💭 Why you'll love this recipe
- It's better than the sum of its parts: Pickles are delightful, avocados are delightful, and when you put them together, avocado pickles? They're insanely delicious.
- Comes together in 15 minutes: You'll need to invest just 15 minutes of your time (and well, three hours of chill time, but that doesn't count right?)
- Super versatile topper for everything: Other than eating it straight out of the jar, I use these as toppers for everything - tacos, sandwiches, the sky is your limit.
📋 Ingredients and notes
You'll need 2-3 under-ripe avocados, a cup of distilled white vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic cloves, red pepper flakes and water. You'll want to pick extra-firm, ideally under-ripe avocados for this recipe versus softer, more ripe ones.
Notes and Variations
- Use under-ripe avocados: I suggest using avocados that are still a bit firm for this recipe, since they tend to soften over time in the pickling liquid.
- Swap out sugar: The sweet component is critical for pickling, but you can replace with monkfruit granules if you don't use sugar
- Add herbs: I've also added herbs like parsley or cilantro to the jar to give an additional flavor boost, but it works great without any of that!
📖 Step-by-step instructions
Slice the avocados into thin strips
I typically try to get this to around 4 slices per avocado half - not too thick, not too thin.
Prepare liquid and pickle in jar
Heat liquids along with salt and sugar to dissolve them. Then, add garlic cloves and red pepper flakes to a jar. Add avocado slices. Then pour the pickling liquid over the avocado slices. Allow to cool down, then place in fridge for at least 30 minutes, ideally 2-3 hours.
🍴 Serving and storage suggestions
You can eat these pickles from the fridge for up to 2 or 3 weeks, depending on how ripe the avocados were when you pickled them. If you notice that the avocados are super mushy, or started to complete disintegrate, it might be past it's shelf life. I often find that I finish these avocado pickles long before they reach their shelf life, so you're good to go.
If you're wondering where to use these avocado pickles, check out some of these ideas:
- Honestly, just eat them out of the jar - guilty as charged!
- Add instead of regular avocados to any taco (like favorite gochujang cauliflower tacos)
- Add to any sandwiches as a great briny, pickle element!
Did you make this recipe?! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Please leave a comment and a star rating and let me know how it went! We love hearing from you, thank you so much
📖 Recipe
Pickled Avocado!
Ingredients
- 2 avocados, medium size, pick ones that are not ripe if possible!
- 1 cup distilled white vinegar, can substitute apple cider vinegar or other types of vinegar in a pinch
- 1 cup water
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional, for heat
- 3 garlic cloves
Instructions
- Slice your avocados into thin strips. I typically shoot for about 4 slices per avocado half, so you should end up with 15-16 slices
- In a small saucepan or pot, combine 1 cup each of distilled white vinegar and water along with ¼ cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Wait until the sugar and salt dissolves, and then set aside.
- Place the red pepper flakes and the garlic cloves in a jar with an airtight lid. Then place the avocado slices in the jar and then pour the pickling liquid over the avocados. Allow to cool, and then close the jar tightly. Place in a fridge for at least 30 minutes, and ideally around 3 hours. Enjoy your avocado pickles!
Notes
- You'll want extra-firm avocados, so I prefer try to pick ones that are a bit (or very) under-ripe. This way, they won't get mushy when you pickle them.
- You can use monkfruit granules instead of sugar, but I've found that leaving out sugar makes the end result super briny and salty, versus being more balanced.
- I've also added herbs like parsley or cilantro to the jar to give an additional flavor boost, but it works great without any of that!
- You have to refrigerate these since they're a quick pickled recipe. I suggest chilling for at least 30 minutes, but ideally 1-3 hours really brings out the flavors the best. They last around 2 weeks when you pickle them under-ripe, but could be a bit quicker if you use already ripe avocados. Watch for when they get too mushy and disintegrate - that's a sign that it's past shelf life.
Pickled Avo can last up to 3 months successfully in refrigerator. I know. Tried and tested
why is sugar critical in this recipe?
Hi Jan, sugar helps balance the tartness of vinegar! Sugar can *technically* be removed but then the pickles get too sour. Additionally, you cannot reduce the amount of vinegar to match the sugar (since that will impact the actual preservation). Hope that helps.
I added a tsp of turmeric as well. And a little less salt.
Delicious.
Quite possibly to balance out the acid/salt levels
i have at some times lots of immature fruit drop. so the avo's are less than 1/2 size? has anybody tried these. could they be done whole?
Smaller fruits should work, but I recommend slicing them still - whole avocados might not not work as well.
Is it possible to seal them and not put into a fridge, but rather for the pantry with the other canned foods?
Hey! I don't recommend placing this in the pantry since this is a quick pickle. This does not undergo waterbath or pressure canning like the canned dishes stored in the pantry.
I love this idea, but am on a very low sodium diet (1,200mg per day). I believe some amount of salt is essential to extend the shelf life in pickling. I wish I knew how much salt I could get away with reducing. I may have to try this recipe and see how how long (and how well) it holds up with just a teaspoon of salt.
Also, have you ever tired to pickle avocados with some lemon or lime juice? I've heard of pickling onions in lime juice, so I know the acidity of citrus works for some pickling. I wonder if substituting a 1/4 of the 1 cup of vinegar with citrus juice would give more of that citrus flavor I'm accustomed to pairing with my avocados.
Hey Nicole. Sugar is actually a lot more important in the recipe than salt, actually! So you can reduce the salt to about half a tablespoon and be just fine (and using kosher salt helps). You can absolutely use lime juice in place of a portion of vinegar!
Can I use frozen avocado for this recipe?
Hi Marie, issue is that frozen avocados sometimes get mushy on the inside when you slice them (which wouldn't work super well with the pickling process). If you do try it out, let me know though!
About how large a jar would I need for this recipe?
Hi Altie, I used a 19.6 oz jar for the recipe, but you can definitely use a different one if you want (the key is to make sure that the avocados are fully covered by the pickling liquid).
That was a good Question Altie.,:),
What a different take on pickling. I love it. I bet the creaminess of the avocado plus the pickling flavor is out of this world.
I just made mine. I hope that they turn out well. I must have a 4 cup mason jar because I have lots of room left. Most of mine are floating too. My avocados are just barely ripened. I kept the measurements of everything the same. They are in the fridge now. Does anyone know if it’s safe to reuse the same Pickleing liquid within a few days?? In case they are as delicious as I expect them to be lol
I wasn't sure what to expect, but these are amazing! I kept it to the basic recipe since my 93 year old Mom even likes them as is! I might try adding some lime juice to the next jar. They don't last very long, awesome recipe!!
Thank you so much for your kind feedback! So glad you loved it.
Well I just put them together. I can't wait to find out how good they taste. After I taste them, I will let you guys know how they turned out. Maybe if I remember. Signed up to get more recipes in the future. Thanks a lot for including the comment about monk fruit. I just purchased some of it and was going to try it for some other project. Hopefully my monkfruit works fine in both projects. Thanks again for the recipe.
Thank you! Let me know how the monkfruit works out - I love using it as a sugar replacement.