Kylie Jenner loves hers with a little honey, red pepper flakes, and salt. Meghan Markle tops hers with truffles. Gordon Ramsay goes for black sesame seeds and fresh lemon, while Ina Garten prefers a generous drizzle of sriracha.
We’re talking, of course, about avocado toast, one of the most popular brunch staples of the past decade. But how did this simple snack become a global obsession? As it turns out, the roots of this cult classic go far deeper than you might expect.
The history of avocado toast
Australia is often credited as the birthplace of avocado toast. In the 1990s, the late Australian chef Bill Granger was among the first to feature it on the menu at his Sydney café. The move earned him the nickname “godfather of avocado toast,” though even he questioned whether the title was deserved.
“I’ve been credited with inventing a couple of things,” he told BBC six years ago. “One I’m sure about—the ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb are definitely my invention. The other one is avocado toast. While flattering, I’m sure someone else put toast and avocado together before me—but maybe I was the first one to put it on a menu and the first one to put it in a book.”
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Granger was right to be skeptical. While he helped popularize the dish in Australia, he almost certainly didn’t invent it. In fact, a recipe for avocado toast appeared decades earlier in a 1920s edition of the Covina Argus, a newspaper in Los Angeles. In it, writer Martin Fesler suggested mashing avocado with a fork and spreading it on hot toast.
But even Fesler wasn’t the first. Similar dishes have been eaten throughout Latin America for generations, which makes sense, given that avocados are native to the region.
“We’ve been eating bread with avocados all our lives,” Cuban-born chef Maricel Presilla told Taste. “If there’s an avocado ripening and a nice loaf of Cuban bread, we don’t think about it, we just do it. It’s so common, it’s a non sequitur.”
Why avocado toast hit the big time in the 2010s
Avocado toast may have been around for decades, but it wasn’t until the 2010s that it truly exploded into the Western mainstream. Suddenly, Instagram was littered with artfully plated shots of the now-iconic brunch staple. And we largely have Gwyneth Paltrow to thank.
In her 2013 cookbook, It’s All Good, the actor and wellness guru included a simple recipe for avocado toast. “Truthfully, this is one ‘recipe’ both Julia [Turshen, her co-author] and I make and eat most often—and it’s not even a recipe,” she wrote.
“It’s the holy trinity of Vegenaise, avocado, and salt that makes this like a favorite pair of jeans—so reliable and easy and always just what you want.”
From there, avocado toast became a darling of food blogs, brunch menus, and Pinterest boards. And it’s not going anywhere. With its creamy texture, nourishing ingredients, and infinite customizability, avocado toast has become a modern classic.
7 of the best vegan avocado toast recipes
Naturally, we’ve included a few of our own favorite avocado toast recipes below.
Shanika Graham-White
1 Avocado Toast With Spicy-Sweet Maple Drizzle
Avocado tends to have a wonderfully creamy texture when it’s mashed, but it doesn’t have the strongest flavor. In this recipe, food blogger Shanika Graham-White creates a tantalizing version of the dish by combining avocado with a deliciously spicy and sweet maple drizzle as well as roasted chickpeas and tomatoes.
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Rainbow Plant Life
2 Creamy Mushroom Smashed Avocado Toast
Creamy and packed with umami, this mushroom avocado toast recipe is going to become your new brunch favorite. The secret is to combine the mushrooms with coconut milk and red wine vinegar. “This toast is in fact so delicious that I originally made it for both me and Mr. Rainbow Plant Life,” writes Nisha of the blog Rainbow Plant Life. “But after one bite, I decided that I absolutely needed to devour all six slices on my own.”
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Nourished By Caroline
3 15-Minute Avocado Toast With Tofu Scramble
Many choose to enjoy their avocado toast with poached or scrambled eggs, but tofu works just as well, if not better. “It’s satisfying, thanks to the combination of protein, healthy fats, and carbs,” notes recipe developer Nourished By Caroline. “Plus, you can easily adjust the flavor by playing around with toppings.”
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Food Sharing Vegan
4 Smashed Avocado Hash Brown Toast
For a crispy, indulgent base to your avocado toast, swap the bread for a hash brown. “Their flavor is subtle but delicious, they’re tender in the middle and crisp outside, salty, and they make for surprisingly amazing hash brown toast with smashed avocado,” writes Food Sharing Vegan.
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Orchids and Sweet Tea
5Vegan Pesto Egg Avocado Toast
If you haven’t tried sautéed kale, plant-based pesto, Just Egg, roasted bell peppers, and tomatoes with your avocado toast yet, let this be your sign to give it a go. “[It’s] just absolutely perfect for any kind of weather, especially when paired with your fave coffee, tea, or morning drink,” notes Graham-White.
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Cupful of Kale
6 Smashed Peas and Avocado on Toast
If you’re not a fan of plain peas, stay with us; this recipe might just make you fall in love. When they’re smashed with avocado, they’re creamy, buttery, and delicious. “If you haven’t had this before, I promise you’ll love it,” writes Cupful of Kale. “And I’m pretty certain you’ll have it on repeat there on out.”
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Blissful Basil
7 Avocado Toast With Pickled Onions and Cashew Cream
Finally, we have this ultra-tasty recipe from Blissful Basil that combines smashed avocado with tangy pickled onions, velvety cashew cream, microgreens, and Dijon mustard. “Make it for breakfast. Make it for brunch. Make it for lunch or even for dinner,” reads the blog post. “Just promise me you’ll make it. This one’s too good to miss.”
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Charlotte is a VegNews editor and writer based in sunny Southsea on England’s southern coast.
