Chrissy Teigen Just Made Avocado Toast Cool Again

With the release of Chrissy Teigen's cookbook sequel, Cravings: Hungry for More, comes an entirely new slate of reimagined recipes that we can hardly wait to cook. At the top of that list: Teigen's deconstructed version of the often-considered basic and tired trend that is avocado toast.

"Let’s be real. Avocado toast has been done every which way and 100 percent of those ways are freaking awesome," she explains in the recipe's description. But Teigen's version is something we've yet to see. She characterizes the dish as, "reverse avocado toast," made from, "perfect avocado halves showered with a ton of toasty bread crumbs with a cayenne kick." In order to confirm that the celebrity cookbook author just invented a way to make avocado toast feel new again, we bought the necessary ingredients to find out.

Teigen's avocado "toast," calls for a total of ten ingredients, which might seem like a lot if you're the type of person (me) who typically just slathers avocado on bread, adds some salt, and calls it a day. But, I already had most of the list on hand, which includes: white bread, parsley, chives, radishes, lemon, olive oil, cayenne, salt, pepper, and one, "gorgeous, ripe," avocado.

Where the basic version of this brunch staple only requires stuffing slices of bread into a toaster, Teigen's reverse-style recipe includes a food processor and a frying pan. After pulsing the slices into fine crumb form, it took me a solid ten minutes to successfully toast (not burn) the seasoned crumbs to crispy, golden perfection. Once the parsley, chive, cayenne, salt, and pepper-seasoned breadcrumbs were amply sprinkled on top of the peeled and lemon-dressed avocado halves, a layer of thinly-sliced radishes are added for a final colorful flourish. As quick and easy as regular avo-toast? No. Surprisingly tastier? Yes.

Although the resulting dish took longer to rustle up than your average take, it looked anything but tired — and one bite echoed that exact sentiment. Teigen transformed the avocado from toast accouterment into the popular recipe's star ingredient by dressing it up with simple but essential flavors. The zest from the citrus, the kick from the cayenne, and the toasty-herbaceous crumb combo fantastically coated every creamy avocado bite. Coupled with the crunch and brightness of the fresh radish slices, the result was flavorful, textural perfection.

If I do anything different next time around, it would only be to add a runny fried egg (or two). Check out the full recipe, below.

Ingredients
2 slices white sandwich bread (crusts are OK)
2 tbsp olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Dash of cayenne pepper
1 tsp finely chopped chives
1 tsp finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 gorgeous, ripe avocado
2 lemon wedges
2 small radishes, thinly sliced

Instructions
1. Tear the bread a little and put it in a food processor; process until it turns into fine crumbs, about 15 seconds.

2. Dump the bread into a cold skillet and add the olive oil, ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp black pepper, and cayenne.

3. Turn the heat to medium-low and cook the crumbs, stirring, until toasty and crisp all the way through, about 10 minutes.

4. Dump the crumbs into a bowl to cool (if you leave them in the skillet they’ll burn). Add the chives and parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

5. Just before serving, peel the avocado (see tip), halve it, squeeze a little lemon onto each half, season it with salt and pepper, plate it, and top it generously with the crumbs and radish slices.

Tip: How To Peel An Avocado
1. Using a sharp knife, start at the narrow end of the avocado, run the knife all around the avocado, hitting the pit at the center, until you’ve come back to where you started.

2. Grab the avocado with both hands and twist it apart (the pit will remain in one side).

3. Take the heel of the knife (the thickest part, just above the handle) and tap it into the pit, then twist the knife to dislodge it.

4. Then you can either use a giant spoon to scoop the flesh out of the skin in one firm motion, or you can do this: Place the avocado halves, skin side up, on a cutting board. Using a paring knife, cut the skin (but don’t cut all the way through into the flesh), working from one end to the other. Then gently peel away the skin in long strips to reveal the avocado.

“Recipes and photographs reprinted from Cravings: Hungry for More. Copyright © 2018 by Chrissy Teigen. Photographs copyright © 2018 by Aubrie Pick. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC."

Cravings: Hungry for More by Chrissy Teigen, $17.99, available at Amazon.