Avocado toast is SO EASY to make! All you need are avocados and toast, right? Well, my elevated avocado toast recipe, Spicy Smashed Avocado Toasts, takes a homemade chile oil and ramps up the flavor of the toast AND the avocado. Talk about the perfect vessel for a poached egg!

Two Spicy Smashed Avocado Toasts on a white plate with a small stainless steel knife next to them.

I’ve got this thing about weekend lunches. Kyle’s got this other thing. 

I feel they should be quick and easy, not requiring thought or time. Kyle, it seems, grew up in Europe where lunches are often have more emphasis than dinner.  (He didn’t, by the way.) 

For me, a sandwich and some fruit or chips or leftovers from during the week make the perfect weekend lunch. For Kyle, roast chicken with herbed potatoes and steamed vegetables are ideal.  

I’m only slightly kidding. Actually, it’s more like hot dogs or burgers on the grill with potato salad and beans.

And I realize that throwing a few dogs on the grill is not complicated by any standard but I grew up with the mindset that the kitchen is closed for lunch on the weekend.

Make yourself a sandwich or starve. And I’m ok with that.

Overhead photo of Two Spicy Smashed Avocado Toasts on a white plate with a small stainless steel knife next to them.

But I made an exception on the 4th of July. It was a holiday, what can I say? These spicy smashed avocado toasts were just as easy as making a sandwich.

And let’s face it, toasts are just like tartines, which are the European version of sandwiches, so I’m still moving with the same train of thought here. 

How to Make Avocado Toast

Avocado toast is probably one of the easiest things you could ever make. It’s simply smashed avocado on top of a piece toast. But for these toasts, I ramped them up a little. Here’s how to make spicy avocado toast (be sure to keep scrolling down to the recipe card for the full list of instructions):

STEP 1: Steep some fresh garlic and chile flakes in hot olive oil in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Strain the garlic and chile flakes out of the oil.

STEP 2: Slice some crusty bread and brush the bread with the chile oil. Heat the grill and grill the bread until toasty.

STEP 3: Smash up some avocado and mix it up with fresh lime juice, salt, pepper, and some of the chile oil.

STEP 4: Spread the avocado over the grilled toast and devour!

That’s it!  

Two Spicy Smashed Avocado Toasts on a white plate.

And now I can add an avocado tree to my list of must-grow fruit trees (do they even grow in the northeast?) because between guacamole and these toasts, I could seriously go broke on avocados.

In my opinion, rich, buttery, creamy smashed avocado with a hint of heat on crispy, crunchy grilled bread definitely makes the perfect light weekend or day-off lunch.

**Note** – When writing the original recipe, I forgot to include the lime juice; the recipe below has been adjusted to include this.

More Outstanding Toasts for You to Also Love

Two Spicy Smashed Avocado Toasts on a white plate with a small stainless steel knife next to them.

Spicy Smashed Avocado Toast Recipe

Yield: 3 to 4 servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Inactive Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Smashed avocado toast is a fantastic way to start the day or for a light lunch or dinner. This avocado toast recipe adds a spicy chile oil to the mix to, which ramps up the flavor profile and makes perfect avocado toast with poached or fried eggs.

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • ¼ tsp red pepper chile flakes plus extra for sprinkling
  • 2 cloves garlic, smashed (skins removed)
  • ½ loaf ciabatta or other crusty Italian bread, sliced on the bias (diagonally to maximize surface area), about ½-inch thick
  • 2 ripe avocado, pitted, removed from skin, and cubed
  • 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat grill to medium-high heat (about 400° F).
  2. In a small saute pan, heat the oil, chile flakes, and garlic over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes, or until the chile flakes and garlic start sizzling. Turn the heat to medium-low and cook for 5 minutes – do not let the garlic burn. Remove from the heat and pour the oil through a mesh sieve into a medium bowl. Discard the garlic and chile flakes and set the oil aside for 5 minutes.
  3. Brush both sides of the bread slices lightly with the oil. Grill both sides of the bread until they are lightly browned and toasted around the edges – this takes about 3 minutes per side.
  4. While the bread grills, in a medium bowl, smash the avocado with, lime juice, about ¼ tsp salt and a sprinkle of pepper with a fork, leaving some larger chunks, if desired. Stir in 2 teaspoons of the chile-oil.
  5. Divide the smashed avocado between the grilled bread slices, drizzle with a little extra chile-oil and sprinkle the tops with extra chile flakes before serving. Serve the avocado at room temperature while the bread is still warm from the grill.

Notes

There will be some leftover chile-oil. It keeps well in the fridge for a couple of weeks and can be brought to room temperature to be used in other recipes (like brushing onto pizza dough before building a pizza).

inspired by Bon Appetit Magazine, July 2012

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Leave a Comment

  • July 9, 2012 at 11:42 AM

    Why hello, new favorite lunch and/or appetizer.

  • July 10, 2012 at 8:10 PM

    Anything with smashed avocado in it sounds good to me!

  • Sam
    July 11, 2012 at 1:19 PM

    Oh goodness… I’m going to go make these right now… for breakfast! 🙂

  • July 13, 2012 at 1:15 AM

    Genius. I love this idea. I can see it for appetizers, lunch…and I’m not opposed to Sam’s suggestion of eating it for breakfast. 😉

  • Bob
    July 13, 2012 at 4:52 AM

    awesome

  • July 13, 2012 at 10:42 AM

    These look so yummy and refreshing with this heat. I will try these.. I am thinking with a bottle of wine, they would be great to eat in the yard! Thank you.

  • Amy
    July 13, 2012 at 7:24 PM

    You know what sucks? Something got messed up in my google reader and I have MISSED all of your posts for a few weeks now! I was like, “where has Tara been lately?”. Turns out you were here all the time and I was missing out! Boo! Anyway, I got it fixed and you’re in my life again (phew!). 😉 Love the tartines….

  • Samantha
    July 15, 2012 at 8:50 PM

    Hi Tara, These are my new fave lunch, too! Right after I saw read my Bon Appetit this month, I saw the same exact thing on Dr. Oz, just on whole grain bread. So super-yummy and healthy, too! Love your blog! 🙂

    • July 15, 2012 at 9:21 PM

      Samantha: Thanks! I imagine a hearty whole grain bread would work great here too!

  • March 16, 2015 at 9:06 PM

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