Aside from coffee beans, there are a few ingredients that are always present in my kitchen, like salt, pepper, and olive oil. But in addition to these essentials, you can *always* find a handful of avocados sitting on my countertop as they ripen to perfection.
Because I tend to make avocado toast pretty much every day of the week, finding ways to expedite the process is always top of mind. And thanks to social media and (ahem) the fact that I attended culinary school, it’s safe to say I have tested just about every way to cut an avocado known to humankind. Most recently, however, I stumbled across a trending avocado-cutting hack that just might be the most effective one yet. Here’s why.
Why *this* might be our favorite avocado-cutting hack… ever
In a recent Instagram post by @kalejunkie that’s already garnered 500K views, Nicole Keshishian Modic shares her favorite way to cut an avocado (that she learned on TikTok), and it’s almost too good to be true. You simply start by cutting an avocado as you normally would, from the stem to the bottom around the pit. However, you won’t want to grab the two hemispheres and give them a nice tug to separate them just yet.
Instead, you’ll keep the two pieces together, turn the whole avocado on its side, and create another cut along the equator. You should end up with four sections of the fruit. Next, you’ll do the twist. (No, not the dancing kind.) Grabbing the avocado along the sides, gently twist the fruit to dislodge it from the pit—and you magically end up with four equal pieces. Depending on how ripe your avocado is, you can then easily remove the peel with your fingers before popping out and discarding the pit with your fingers (no knife required).
How this avocado hack stacks up against the others we’ve tested before
As we mentioned, we’ve tried just about every avocado-cutting technique out there. Here’s our hot take on why this new quarter-and-twist trick works better.
1. Enlisting a cooling rack to make perfectly bite-sized avocado pieces
While this hack is still one of our favorites for making guacamole or feeding a large crowd, we cannot deny the fact that it does leave you with a mildly disastrous mess to clean up (ever tried scrubbing dried avocado off the grates of a cooling rack?) once all is said and done.
2. Using an avocado slicing gadget
Though it certainly had some benefits (namely, sparing yourself a trip to the ER thanks to an unsightly “avocado hand” injury), this tool had some downsides, too. The blade for slicing and scooping out the avocado meat was, at times, finicky, and the final result was a little too rough around the edges for presentation purposes (of course, that’s perfectly fine for avocado toast or guacamole).
3. Pushing the avocado pit out with our fingers
While we prioritize the goal that is sparing ourselves any potential hand injuries caused by accidentally missing the pit with a knife, this avocado-cutting hack definitely requires a good handwashing session before and after completion. Plus, if you’re looking to garnish a dish with presentation-worthy ‘cado slices, handling the fruit with your hands can result in a mushy green mess… especially if it’s fully ripened.
All to say: After much deliberation and testing, we can confidently affirm that this avocado-cutting hack might just be our favorite yet. For starters, it eliminates the threat of injury from removing the pit with a knife: As you twist the four pieces apart, the pit becomes exposed and easily pluckable without damaging the flesh of your hand or the fruit.
Meanwhile, the carefully positioned cuts help ensure that your avocado’s delicate insides are minimally handled or squished while cutting. This is especially useful for serving sliced pieces or garnishing a dish where presentation is key. And removing the peel is beyond easy if your avocado is ripe, which helps minimize fuss and food waste (no avocado meat left behind). Finally, the four pieces are beyond easy to slice, dice, or mash into the desired shape.
It’s safe to say that we’re big fans of this simple way to cut an avocado, which can also be applied to other fruits with large pits like peaches, nectarines, or plums. And while it seems just as easy as the good ol’ way you’ve cut avocados in the past, this quartered method helps remove the pit more safely and keeps the flesh intact, too. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the difference an extra cut can make in the final result.
As if we needed yet another reason to love avocados even more. An RD shares all of their benefits:
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