Healthy, satisfying, and fresh, this avocado toast with honey is as delicious as it is beautiful. Feta cheese is spread on a grainy bread, layered with smashed avocado, and topped with lemon, honey, and roasted pistachios.
The interplay of creamy and crunchy textures, the combination of sweet and salty tastes… It’s just irresistible.
Simple and quick, with a few ingredients you can make this meal any day of the week. But to be honest, it tastes impressive and would be an excellent meal to serve for guests at brunch.
One of the joys of this recipe is the surprise layer of feta underneath the avocado. I like to mash slices of avocado on the toast itself to ever so slightly intermingle these flavors, but you can also mash the avocado in a separate bowl and spread it on top of the feta.
This avocado toast recipe is a meal in itself, but if you really want a side dish, keep it light! Some honeydew melon or a baby green salad would work.
For drinks, I would work with the flavors already in the dish. Try a lightly sweetened lemonade or honey-lemon tea. For more of a brunch/lunchtime meal, a refreshing and citrusy prosecco or white wine would be delicious.
What You Need to Make Avocado Toast with Honey
I use a chef’s knife to open and slice my avocado, but if you have one of those fancy avocado tools that open, slice, and pit the avocado, you can use that too.
When you make avocado honey toast, your key consideration needs to be the ripeness of your avocados. You cannot use under-ripe avocados. Does the avocado feel like a rock? That will not work.
Does it have a tiny bit of give? Almost there, but give it another day. You need avocados that feel soft when you squeeze them, but not mushy.
This recipe also calls for honey, feta, yogurt, lemon, pistachios, salt, and pepper, so you may need a trip to the grocery store. The lemon helps keep your avocado from browning and adds a nice acid to contrast with the honey and avocado.
Use a feta cheese that has a salty, tangy flavor, and do not use the premade crumbles. Use a block. I like cow’s milk feta because I don’t want stronger flavors to overwhelm the dish.
For the nuts, using slightly roasted and salted pistachios adds a lovely depth and contrast to the honey. However, if you can’t find roasted pistachios, regular is fine.
Your choice of honey is up to you. I used wildflower honey that has a fruity and floral flavor.
Ingredients:
- Avocado
- Seedy bread
- Salt
- Ground pepper
- Greek yogurt
- Feta
- Roasted pistachios
- Lemon
- Honey
How To Make Avocado Toast With Honey
Make the feta spread: Place the feta and Greek yogurt in a bowl and mash together with a fork. You do not need the mixture to become completely smooth, but you do want it to get to a spreadable consistency.
Slice the avocado: With a chef’s knife, slice the avocados in half and remove the pit. Carefully slice long strips of avocado, trying to avoid piercing through to the skin of the avocado with your knife.
Do not hold the avocado in your hand while you slice it (ouch!). Using a spoon, scoop the avocado slices out of the avocado shell.
Prepare the nuts: Using a sharp chef’s knife, roughly chop the pistachios into large pieces, running over them with your knife 2-3 times.
Make the toasts: If using a toaster or toaster oven, toast the slices of bread until they are light brown. If using a broiler, preheat the broiler and place slices of bread on an unlined baking sheet.
Use a ‘low heat’ setting if your oven has one. Toast for 1-2 minutes per side, flipping when they begin to take on color. Do not walk away! Toasts can burn quickly under the broiler.
Assemble the avocado toast: Spread a layer of feta cheese on the toast. Arrange slices of avocado on the feta. Squeeze a small wedge of lemon on the avocado. With a fork, gently mash the avocado until the slices are no longer visible and the avocado’s texture becomes smoother.
Apply light pressure as you do this to avoid mixing with the feta layer below. Top with chopped pistachios, honey, salt, and freshly ground pepper.
What can I make ahead of time?
You can make the feta spread up to a day ahead of time and store it in the fridge until you are ready to use it. However, if you prepare the avocado in advance, it will eventually oxidize and turn brown, even if you add lemon juice and oil to the surface.
You can still eat the avocado, but because of the browning, I do not recommend assembling these until right before you intend to use them.
I don’t like pistachios; can I use another nut?
Of course! Pistachios have a wonderfully light flavor, so stick with a seed or nut that offers something similar, like sunflower seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds, or even walnuts. I would avoid toppings that have a darker or a very strong flavor like pecans or peanuts.
My avocados are rock hard. What can I do?
You cannot use a hard avocado in this recipe. The avocado will lack flavor and the texture will not allow you to mash it. It can take several days for an avocado to ripen, but to speed this up, you can put the avocados in a paper bag with a banana or apple. The additional fruits release a gas that, when contained within the paper bag, helps avocados along in their ripening process.
What bread should I use?
The bread adds complex flavors and textures that are important to this dish. I recommend using a multigrain or seeded loaf with a thick crust. The layers of feta and avocado will be thick and creamy, so we want the bread base to add heft, texture, and crunch.
For those reasons, I would not use soft white bread, brioche, challah, or airy French or Italian bread. I would also avoid a sourdough loaf because it would bring a very different flavor to the dish.
Avocado Toast With Honey
Ingredients
- 8 slices of seedy bread cut into ½ inch slices
- 2 to 3 avocados depending on size
- 6 oz feta in brine
- ⅓ cup Greek yogurt 2% or whole
- ⅓ cup roasted and salted pistachios
- ⅓ cup honey
- 1 lemon cut into wedges
- sea salt or kosher salt to taste
- freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- If using a broiler, place slices of bread on a baking sheet and preheat the broiler, using a low setting if available. Toast for 1-2 minutes per side, flipping the bread when it begins to take on color. If using a toaster or toaster oven, toast bread until lightly browned.
- Place 6 oz drained feta (do not include brine), and 1/3 cup of Greek yogurt in a bowl and mash together with a fork until feta and yogurt are combined and spreadable.
- Put 1/3 cup pistachios on a cutting board and chop with a chef’s knife, making 2-3 passes, until pistachios are in large pieces.
- Halve and slice avocados, scooping out slices with a spoon.
- Spread 1-2 tablespoons of the feta cheese mixture on each slice.
- Arrange slices of avocado on each toast and sprinkle lightly with lemon juice.
- Mash avocado carefully with a fork until the slices of the avocado are no longer visible.
- Top the avocado toasts with a sprinkle of roasted pistachios, honey, salt, and freshly ground pepper.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Here are a few other recipes you might enjoy!
- Fruity Pebble French Toast
- Hawaiian Roll French Toast
- Oreo French Toast
- Cinnamon Raisin French Toast
- Sourdough French Toast
- Cottage Cheese Toast
- Mascarpone French Toast
Arielle is a food and drink photographer based in Washington, D.C. She was previously a social science researcher before she fell in love with photography.