Is this a sweet dish? Or a savory one? Both, and neither! It’s got just about everything. A perfect combination of tangy, mellow, sweet and savory flavors (with a little surprise hidden inside), this adorable yet easy-to-make keto appetizer or snack will be the highlight of your summer menus!

Tips for making the Avocado and Strawberry Surprise

There is absolutely nothing complicated in this recipe. It’s really easy and super-quick to throw together. Think of it the next time surprise guests show up: it’s as if this recipe were designed for last-minute entertaining! Even better, it’s easy to adjust according to the number of people you’re feeding.

Its carb count is low, too, making this simple, summery dish perfect for a keto lifestyle. Yes, strawberries do have some carbs, but you only need one strawberry per serving, so the amount of carbs does actually remain very low.

Let’s take a look at how to prepare this keto appetizer:

Take one ripe Hass avocado. You need one avocado half per serving, so one avocado makes two servings.

Halve the avocado and discard the seed.

Sprinkle lime juice on the avocado halves. You can leave some lime juice in the empty well that’s left after you remove the seed.

Next comes the surprise: put some homemade mayonnaise into the wells…

…and some chopped fresh chives, too. (You can combine the mayo and chives first, but I just prefer to throw them in one after another.)

Now, take a fresh strawberry, and make a strawberry fan. It’s easy! Here’s how: Don’t remove the leaves; they’ll make a nice decoration and the strawberry fan will hold together better when the leaves are intact.

To create the fan shape, make vertical cuts down the length of the strawberry, but not all way through. Like this:

Spread the strawberry “slices,” and voilà! You’ve got a beautiful strawberry fan. It just takes a few seconds.

Place the strawberry fan on top of the filled avocado so that it covers the filling — the surprise, that is.

Repeat with the second strawberry and the second avocado half.

Serve immediately (for example, with ice-cold, dry sparkling wine or champagne) and enjoy in good company!

My avocado and strawberry experiments

I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I have two Finnish keto books coming out next year. I signed contracts with two different publishing houses a couple of weeks ago, and now I’m trying to find time to write all the text and develop recipes for the books. It’s fun but also challenging. The first book will be about a keto-vegan diet, and the second one will be a keto book for the whole family. The keto craze is finally reaching Finland!

I just graduated as a Certified Keto Coach, but I’m still pursuing further studies. Plus, I’ve been asked to teach on a keto course next fall. That’s really exciting—not least because I’ve followed the keto diet myself for over ten years now, so it’s great to see that others here in Finland are finally becoming aware of its benefits as well.

But back to this recipe. For my Finnish keto-vegan book, I created a recipe with strawberry and avocado. I had several ideas in mind and did some experiments to see what would work best. The most challenging part was finding other ingredients and flavors that would match strawberry and avocado — in a savory dish. My aim was to make a tasty appetizer or snack, not a dessert (even though strawberry and avocado would make a perfect keto dessert, too).

For my keto-vegan version, I used avocado, strawberry, lime juice, olive oil, and chives. I was thinking of using keto-vegan mayonnaise instead of olive oil, but ended up using olive oil just because it sounded better to me. And I have to say that the result was amazing! Here’s the photo you’ll find in my Finnish keto-vegan book:

However, I also wanted to see how regular egg-based homemade mayonnaise would work with the dish. Mayo with strawberry sounded like a fascinating idea, and I wanted to see how the flavors would work together in practice. Plus, the recipe sounded like a perfect match for this blog: a 5-ingredient avocado and strawberry appetizer with lime juice, chives, and mayonnaise.

When creating the dish, I had to find a way to present it nicely. I could have combined chopped strawberry with chives, lime juice and mayonnaise and filled the avocado with that mixture, but the result wouldn’t have looked too impressive. Hmm. I had to decorate it somehow.

I was thinking of ways to make the filled avocado prettier, and suddenly realized that a strawberry fan would look gorgeous on top. I filled the avocado halves with mayonnaise and chives, and placed a strawberry fan on top. Now you couldn’t really see what was inside so that’s where I got the idea to call the dish “Avocado and Strawberry Surprise”. From looking at it, you’d never even guess that mayo and chives are hiding inside! (Both of which, by the way, complement the avocado and strawberry beautifully, as I found out.)

Oh yes, the lime juice also seemed like a natural addition. Whenever I use avocado in a recipe, I (almost) always use lemon or lime, too— not only to prevent the avocado from turning brown, but also because its mild flavor cries out for something tangy. Actually, I prefer lime to lemon, as the taste is more elegant. Lime makes also a great combo with strawberry. So, as you see, all the ingredients in this dish complement each other outstandingly.

You don’t really even need a recipe for this simple, superb dish, but here it is for your convenience. Enjoy!

Avocado and Strawberry Surprise

June 9, 2019

by Elviira

Ingredients

1 ripe Hass avocado
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons homemade mayonnaise
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh chives
2 medium strawberries

Instructions

Halve the avocado and discard the seed.
Sprinkle lime juice on the avocado halves. You can leave some lime juice in the well left from the seed.
Divide the mayonnaise between the two avocado halves, filling the well.
Sprinkle the chives on top of the mayo.
Cut the strawberries into a fan shape, as explained above. Place the strawberry fans on the filled avocado halves so that they cover the filling.
Serve immediately.

Tips for variation

If you’d like to make an egg-free version (mayonnaise often contains raw egg), use egg-free keto-friendly mayo, or replace the mayo with olive oil (like I did in my keto-vegan version). In that case, just drizzle the olive oil on top of the avocado and sprinkle some chopped chives on top. Okay, so it’s not a “surprise” anymore since the well under the strawberry fan isn’t filled with anything — but it’s a tasty appetizer or snack anyway!

For a more piquant taste, crack some rose pepper or green pepper over the finished dish just before serving. Good old black pepper is also a fantastic addition: you’ll be surprised at how well it works with strawberry!