Avocados have become a food staple that we put on
everything. We smear it on toast, stuff it in sandwiches and salads, and top
our tacos with it. Some people even scoop it straight out of the shell, into
their mouths. They are delicious and are good for you too as they have health benefits,
but, all this avocado love comes at a price.
Avocados are energy-intensive to grow because they require a
lot of land, a lot of water and their transportation uses lots of carbon emissions,
making them a very unsustainable fruit. The environmental impact is still
better than meat, but still not great for the planet.
Enter the Ecovado. Created by Arina Shokouhi, a
graduate student at Central Saint Martins in London who, with the help of a food
scientist from the University of Nottingham’s Food Innovation Centre, the
Ecovado is a sustainable avocado alternative.
The Ecovado shell is made from wax – compostable and
biodegradable. Inside is a soft, pale green flesh made from a blend of broad
beans, hazelnuts, apples and rapeseed oil.
Surprisingly, the Ecoavado looks
like an avocado, but also tastes like one, too. There’s even a pit, which is
really a shelled nut. It varies, but it’s usually a walnut or chestnut.
In places like the United Kingdom, where avocados are expensive
and difficult to come by, this could be a game-changer.
To build this avocado dupe, Shokouhi and her team identified
the chemical elements of avocados down to the molecule and searched for local and
low-impact equivalents, therefore the recipe may change if the Ecovado is
manufactured outside the U.K.
But, you can treat the Ecovado as you would a regular avocado.
It’s creamy on toast, great with eggs, and right at home sliced in a taco.
And, thanks to the heart-healthy ingredients, it has many of the same health benefits
as an avocado, too.
Let’s not forget about the added bonus of
the Ecovado – no ripening time needed. It’s never too hard or too mushy, as avocados
always seem to be. The reduction of that food waste alone, as well as a disappointment
when it’s taco night and you don’t have a ripe avocado, is worth its weight in
green gold.
Shokouhi is working with investors to
make her prototype a reality in stores. Might the Ecovado make it to your plate
someday?