The smashed avocado is the single most Australian brunch dish there is.
Why you are cooking this tonight
The smashed avocado is the single most Australian brunch dish there is. Our cafes gave it to the world in the early 2000s and by 2010 it was on every breakfast menu from Bondi to Brooklyn. Done properly, it is avocado mashed with a fork (not a blender), a squeeze of lemon, sea salt flakes, cracked pepper, and a good thick slice of sourdough underneath.
This recipe adds feta, chilli flakes, and a drizzle of olive oil to lift it past ‘avocado on toast’ into something worth making at home. Soft-boiled egg on top is non-negotiable.
Notes on method
Ripe avocados. If they are hard, leave in a brown paper bag with a banana on the kitchen counter for a day or two. Good sourdough. Fresh lemon not bottled. Do not blender-purée the avocado – texture is half the point.
What to pour with it
A flat white. For weekend brunch with bubbles, Tasmanian sparkling. An Aperol Spritz if you are doing a long lunch.
Aperol
Aperol Spritz on a long Saturday brunch. Bitter-orange and lime-avocado balance perfectly.
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The recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Soft-boil eggs: 6 minutes from boiling water, plunge into ice water. Peel carefully.
- Halve avocados, scoop into a bowl. Roughly mash with a fork. Add lemon juice, a pinch of salt and pepper. Leave chunky.
- Toast sourdough until deep golden. Rub the cut side of the garlic clove over each slice while hot.
- Pile smashed avocado on each slice. Halve eggs, sit on top. Scatter feta, chilli flakes, cracked pepper, sea salt, and a drizzle of olive oil.
- Finish with herbs if using. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Two things that go wrong
Your avocado wasn’t ripe enough.
Hard avocados taste of nothing and are impossible to smash properly. Ripe ones yield to gentle thumb pressure at the stalk end. If yours are firm, leave them in a paper bag with a banana for 24-48 hours.
You blended the avocado.
A perfectly smooth purée is a dip, not smashed avo. The whole point is texture, chunky bits, ribbons of green, crackling sea salt. A fork is the right tool. A blender is a betrayal.
Variations worth knowing
Chimichurri drizzle
Skip the chilli flakes, drizzle a spoon of fresh chimichurri (parsley, garlic, olive oil, vinegar) across the top. Argentinian breakfast energy.
Hot honey and prosciutto
Top the avo with a few crispy strips of prosciutto and a drizzle of hot honey. Sweet-salty-spicy upgrade.
Leftovers and make ahead
Smashed avo browns within an hour. The trick if you’re making it ahead: cover the surface tightly with cling film pressed directly down so no air touches it, then refrigerate. Even then, eat within four hours. Better to smash to order. Spare avocado halves: rub the cut face with lemon, wrap and fridge, good for 24 hours.
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