This Halved Fruit Makes A Perfect Bowl For Your Favorite Creamy Salad

Say goodbye to only using avocados in guacamole, on toast, or as a salad topping. The cool bowl shape that an avocado naturally comes in has been underutilized for far too long. It's begging to be stuffed with any creamy salad you'd normally have between slices of bread or with crackers, like salads made with tuna, salmon, chicken, garbanzos, or boiled eggs.

This dish isn't anything new. In the 1970s and 1980s a salad-stuffed avocado was at the height of its popularity, though it fell out of fashion at some point along the way. Thank goodness those days are over — the stuffed avocado is in its modern revival era, ready to be enjoyed again.

You could stuff an avocado with almost any savory mixture, and it would still taste delicious, but creamy salads are particularly well-suited for this dish. The ingredients that traditionally make up the base, such as mayonnaise, sour cream, or yogurt, act as binders and ensure that everything stays compact inside the avocado's cavity. The buttery texture and rich flavor of an avocado are also the perfect complement to creamy salads, as they share similar flavor profiles.

Stuffing an avocado with a creamy salad is as simple as it sounds. First, pick out the best avocado at the store, making sure it is ripe and has some give when lightly pressed but isn't mushy. If the avocados you have on hand are too firm, try any of these ways to ripen an avocado faster.

Then, slice your avocado in half lengthwise, remove the seed, and stuff the cavity of one or both halves with your favorite homemade or store-bought creamy salad. Since the cavity is small, you can either let the salad cascade off the side of the avocado onto your plate or scoop out a little of the avocado's flesh so it can hold more filling. The idea is to easily incorporate a bit of avocado with each bite of your salad when you dig in — a crunchy unripe avocado will defeat the whole purpose of serving it this way.

This dish can be enjoyed as a dip with crackers or the best store-bought tortilla chips, alongside extra vegetables or grains for a heartier plate, or as-is for a quick, simple, and satisfying meal. In addition to just being a delicious combination, a stuffed avocado is also a good option for folks looking for lower carbohydrate options. The healthy fats and fiber in the avocado, along with the protein in the salad, bring a trifecta of satiety-promoting nutrients.