First fake meat, now fake avocados – introducing the Ecovado

Broad beans, hazelnuts, apple and rapeseed oil. It is with this improbable list of ingredients that the texture of avocado can be recreated, along with a taste that resembles it closely. This concoction has been thought up as an alternative to buying real avocados, the production and transportation of which have a disastrous impact on the environment.

Meet the Ecovado. This avocado is not actually an avocado, but an alternative that could help reduce the ecological impact of this fruit, which is central to a star recipe that’s still very much all the rage, avocado toast.

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Avocado consumption is increasingly coming under fire because growing the fruit is particularly water-intensive. In fact, it takes between 1,000 and 2,000 litres of water to obtain just one kilo of avocados.

Mexico is the world’s largest exporter, while avocados are also produced in the Dominican Republic and Peru. The ecological cost of transporting avocados to stores in the US, Europe and beyond adds to the carbon footprint of this foodstuff, which is used in a host of popular recipes, from poke bowls to guacamole. 

This is an issue that Arina Shokouhi decided to address in her graduation project, and with tangible results. Her creation takes the form of an avocado with a texture resembling that of the original product, all while doing considerably less harm to the planet.

The graduate of London’s Central Saint Martins school set herself the limit of using only local ingredients to design her avocado alternative. Working alongside the University of Nottingham’s Centre for Culinary Innovation, she developed a mock avocado made with broad beans, hazelnuts, apple and rapeseed oil. The result is strikingly realistic thanks to a skin made of biodegradable wax. And the student obviously didn’t forget to add a stone for effect, using none other than a chestnut or a walnut.