How to cut an avocado without hurting yourself

Avoid falling victim to a case of ‘avocado hand’ this summer

A cup of the creamy green fruit has a 14 grams of monounsaturated fat (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The nation’s love of the delicious avocado is showing no signs of abating any time soon, despite being overtaken by the pineapple as the UK’s fastest-selling fruit.

Many will undoubtedly be eating truckloads of avocados this summer, whether in the form of smashed avo on toast, at a barbecue or as part of a wholesome salad.

However, chances are that numerous people will fall victim to a case of “avocado hand” for failing to cut their avocados in the safest way possible.

Slicing an avocado doesn’t have to be a hazardous task, as long as it’s done correctly.

While holding an avocado firmly in your hand while you cut it up may seem like the easiest course of action, it’s actually a very dangerous method that could put you at risk of seriously hurting yourself.

Rather than put yourself in Meryl Streep’s shoes and sustain an avocado-related injury by employing this technique, you should use a chopping board instead.

“The safest way to cut the avocado would be on a cutting board, using a flat hand to stabilise the avocado while rotating and cutting” explains Kelsey Youngman, director of the Food & Wine test kitchen in New York City.

“Then you’re not cutting anything in your hand.”

When cutting an avocado on a chopping board, using a sharp knife will ensure the best results, as outlined by Real Simple magazine.

Once the knife has been sliced down the avocado lengthways and has made contact with the pit in the middle, you should then steadily rotate the avocado, holding the knife in place, until you’ve made a cut all the way around the pit.

Once you’ve made an incision all the way around the avocado, you’ll be able to twist the fruit and separate the two halves.

The next step is removing the pit from the centre of one of the halves.

Not only can this particular step cause harm if done incorrectly, but you could also end up wasting plenty of avocado if you try to forcibly scoop the pit out.

Martha Stewart’s preferred method, as explained on the Today show, is to hold the avocado half in your hand on top of a damp cloth, before sinking a sharp knife into the side of the pit and then twisting it to remove.

Other chefs, such as cook and writer Dana Velden, prefer to use what they describe as a “whack” with a chef’s knife to remove the pit.

In order to use this method, Velden advises holding the knife securely by pinching the blade just above the handle with your thumb and forefinger.

She then strikes the avocado pit with a sharp blow, making contact between the heel of the knife and the stone.

Learning how to cut avocados properly isn’t the only difficulty that lovers of the fruit have to master.

Avocado-aficionados are frequently faced with the prospect of their favourite foodie item losing its freshness far too quickly.

However, a Californian company called Apeel Sciences has developed an edible coating for avocados that it states can make them last twice as long.

The coating, which is made from leftover plant skins and stems, is able to lock in an avocado’s moisture once it’s been applied on the skin and has dried.