If  you’re going to use a spread on your sandwich, on your toast, or topping your baked potato, why not give that flavourless margarine a miss, and avoid the saturated fat-laden butter. Choose a spread that’s going to give you lots of flavour and the added benefits of vitamins and minerals too. It’s the humble avocado, an oily fruit that will give your lunchtime salad a gourmet twist, and contribute mightily to your nutrition.

Nature designed the avocado as the nutritious pulp that would help the seed within it grow a new tree; so the avocado fruit contains almost every vitamin and mineral you can think of. More fun than a vitamin tablet.  If you’re trying to put on weight, or recovering from illness and don’t have much appetite, avocados can give you a nutritional boost without overloading your stomach.

The humble avocado is a very nutrient-dense food, particularly when it comes to fat content. Although it’s mostly good oil, there is still a lot of it. Half an avocado (without the stone) weighs about 100g, and that half-avocado contains around 20g fat. If you’re a woman who spends most of her day sitting at a desk, that half-avocado will provide almost half your recommended daily maximum fat intake. So enjoy some of that avocado, but don’t go overboard! A good ‘serving size’ is about 25-30g.

Avocados taste best when they’ve been allowed to ripen and their flesh is creamy. Just cut the fruit in half lengthwise, prise out and discard the seed, then slice, scrape or scoop the flesh out. The cut edge will turn a dark colour on exposure to air, but you can prevent this by sprinkling some lemon juice or vinegar over.  If you have avocado left over, store in an airtight container in the fridge. It will keep for a few days.

Here are some easy ways to enjoy your avocado:

-          Bake a starchy Sebago potato, serve topped with a few slices of avocado and some cracked black pepper.

-          Spread your salad sandwich with avocado instead of butter or margarine.

-          Blend avocado with a little liquid to create a creamy salad dressing, or a dip for carrot and celery sticks. Try a mixture of lemon juice and a little chilli; or apple cider vinegar and seed mustard. The right flavour for dressings and dips is a very individual choice, so taste test to get the right mix for you.

-          Make up a Mexican bean dip then create nachos using corn chips, fresh diced tomato and blended avocado. No cheese needed!

-          Toast some high quality sourdough rye bread, top with a few slices of avocado and a poached egg.

-          Make your lunchtime salad exotic by adding some cubed avocado. I like it with a salad of greens, tomato, cucumber and black eyed beans.

What's your favourite way to enjoy avocados?