Don't Throw Away Your Avocado Pits—Use Them to Make Soup

I've been trying recently to turn more food scraps into food, rather than waste. You can turn carrot tops into pesto and fruit scraps into pickles or vinegar. But avocado pits had me stumped. Sure, you could mill them into flour if you have a mill, which I don't, or maybe use them to make another avocado plant. But it seemed like a shame that such a large part of the avocado had to go to waste. That was until I ate at L'Auberge Del Mar in San Diego, where the chef uses avocado pits to make a flavorful vegetarian broth.

It's genius, really: Roast the pits in the oven and use them as you would chicken bones to make chicken stock. The team at L'Auberge Del Mar supplemented the flavor with fish stock, but if you wanted to keep it strictly vegetarian, you can supplement vegetarian or mushroom stock here as well.

Recipe created by the Culinary Team of L’Auberge del Mar Resort for distribution by the California Avocado Commission.

• 3 Roma tomatoes
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 shallot
• 1 red pepper, roasted and peeled
• 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon white pepper
• 2 California avocado pits
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 fennel bulb
• ¼ cup white wine
• ¼ tablespoon fennel seed
• 4 cups fish stock
• 4 sprigs basil

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F
2. Rough chop Roma tomatoes, onions, shallots and peppers.
3. Toss tomatoes, onion and shallot in extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.
4. Roast avocado pits in 350°F oven until golden.
5. Add tomato mixture, pits, garlic cloves and fennel bulb to a large sauce pan. Deglaze with white wine. Reduce to half.
6. Add fish stock and simmer for one hours.
7. Add basil and steep for 20 minutes.
8. Remove from heat, remove the fennel bulb and garlic gloves, and press through a fine mesh strainer until smooth.