Avocado

Using prepared salsa to make guacamole is an easy way to incorporate the flavors of tomatoes, onions, and chilies. Serve with stone-ground tortilla chips.

I opted to make these only as soft tacos, as the filling is a bit too sensuous (a polite word for “messy”) for quesadillas. This is definitely a knife-and-fork dish.

Avocado is one of the most sensuous foods I know. Don’t be afraid of its fat content—it’s the kind of fat that’s good for you. See the menu with Tomato and Green Chili Quesadillas or Soft Tacos (page 173).

Soft scrambled eggs put a smile on my face in the morning. They are super easy to make and they require very little forethought. I first tasted “real” scrambled eggs while traveling through Paris as a starving college student. Café et des oeufs was just about all I could afford for breakfast. It was simple, but it was magic.

I love bacon and shrimp. It’s a classic combination that works really well in this Southwestern-inspired bistro dish.

This variation on the "little swamp" theme features sourdough bread and those ever-appealing Southwest seasonings: fresh chilies, cilantro, cumin, and corn.

You can substitute any color of rice or quinoa to make this gorgeous (and healthful) salad, which works as a vegetarian main course or hearty side dish.

Frying avocadoes may seem as strange to you as they did to me until I tasted them at Puntarena in Mexico City. They are a delight, so give them a try!

This veggie-licious burger provides 12 grams of filling fiber, nearly half of your recommended daily intake. Cool beans!

Avocado ice cream is fairly common in Mexico, so I decided to make avocado one of the flavors of paletas when I launched my company La Newyorkina (“the girl from New York”) at the Hester Street Fair in New York City’s Lower East Side. I was unsure of how people would receive them, but avocado paletas rapidly became a customer and personal favorite! An avocado ice pop may sound unusual, but it’s very tasty and has a luscious creamy texture without any dairy. The lime juice not only helps keep the paleta green, it also enhances the flavor of the avocados.

Yes, avocado is high in fat, but it's the good, monounsaturated kind that helps increase satiety so you feel full with fewer calories.

Anything grilled could be described as smoky, but our cover burger is a multi layered masterpiece thanks to chipotle chiles mingled with adobo, smoked paprika, and bacon. Seared avocado makes it almost too good to be true.

In addition to being a great source of good-for-you fat, avocados are full of fiber and bloat-busting potassium.

Arepas define Venezuelan cooking. These thick cornmeal patties are griddled, then baked, and then stuffed while warm with anything from white cheese to this zesty chicken salad with avocado mayonnaise.