Recipe: The Ultimate Cannabis-Infused Avocado Toast by Chef Sebastian Carosi

From our December 2020 issue, we’re bringing you a smashing cannabis-infused avocado toast recipe written by Chef Sebastian Carosi just in time for 420.

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay area of California, certain things were a given. The San Francisco 49ers, fog underneath the Golden Gate, San Francisco sourdough, mission burritos—and the ubiquitous California avocado toast. The avocado is known around the world as the “alligator pear.” In the “City by the Bay,” people have been eating avocado toast since the late 1800s.

We know avocado trees were already flourishing in Hawaii and Florida dating back to the 1830s, but they landed in California in the late 1850s. Eating avocados has cultural roots going back centuries and over the years we have seen avocado toast mentioned many times in notable publications before it became “Instagramable.” It was mentioned in 1915 when the California avocado association described serving small squares of toast topped with smashed avocado as an hors d’oeuvre.

On May 1, 1937, The New Yorker published an article titled “Avocado, or the Future of Eating?” and the author described himself as eating avocado sandwich on whole wheat while drinking a “lime rickey.” In 1962, a New York Times article featured a special way to serve avocado as the filling or topping on a toasted sandwich or piece of bread. And let’s not forget Chef Chloe Osborne, the chef at Café Gitane in Manhattan, New York who is believed to have first served avocado toast in the early 1970s. While it has been considered a treat for over 200 years, avocado toast has only been manipulating millennial budgets across the world since the advent of social media.

Growing up in the Bay Area, I ate my avocado toast topped with a fried egg from the back yard, queso fresco and lots of hot sauce. These days, I like several different textures and nuances to balance the fattiness of the just-barely-ripe avocado. This, in many ways, IS comfort food. No matter the choice of toppings, avocado toasts are sure to deliver nutritious eats. No one should have to rely on written instructions for the preparations of this American culinary classic… but here you go.

Cannabis-Infused Avocado Toast

Ingredients:

• 5 slices of your favorite artisan sourdough bread, French or Italian (sliced thick)
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 3 tbsp. cannabis-infused butter
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper
• 3 large organic avocados (ripe but still firm)
• 2 tbsp. cannabis-infused olive oil
• 1 tsp. jalapeno, finely diced
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• 2 fresh limes (1 for juicing, 1 for garnish)
• 1/2 tsp. cannabis hot sauce
• 1/2 cup cannabis seed “everything” bagel sprinkle
• 2 cups fresh pomegranate seeds
• 1/4 ounce fresh cannabis leaves
• 1/4 cup very small cannabis leaves

Cannabis Seed “Everything” Bagel Sprinkle

• 1 cup white sesame seeds (toasted lightly)
• ½ cup black sesame seeds
• ¼ cup dried garlic bits
• ½ cup dry onion bits or flakes
• 3 tbsp black onion seeds (optional)
• 1 tbsp black caraway seeds
• ½ cup poppy seeds (toasted lightly)
• 1 cup hemp hearts (toasted lightly)
• 2 tbsp sea salt flakes
• 1 tbsp fine crushed red chili flakes
• 1 tbsp cracked black pepper

Cannabis-Infused Avocado Toast Instructions:

1. Season the sourdough bread slices with salt and pepper.
2. Heat oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Toast the sourdough slices as desired.
3. Butter each piece of the toast with cannabis butter, set aside.
4. Halve, peel, and seed the avocados. In a small bowl, smash the avocados with a fork until they reach your desired consistency.
5. Add the chopped cilantro, fine diced jalapeño, cannabis-infused olive oil and cannabis hot sauce. Add the lime juice and stir to combine well. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired and set aside.
6. On each piece of toast, place three to five fresh cannabis leaves.
7. Place desired amount of smashed avocado mixture on each piece of toast.
8. Place about 1/4 cup of pomegranate seeds on each mound of avocado.
9. Generously cover with cannabis seed “everything” bagel sprinkle.
10. Place 3-4 micro cannabis leaves on top of each cannabis-infused avocado toast. Place fresh lime wedge garnishes on each plate or scattered around the platter.

Cannabis Seed “Everything” Bagel Sprinkle Instructions:

1. Lightly toast white sesame seeds, poppy seeds and hemp hearts in a dry cast iron skillet.
2. Combine all the ingredients in a medium size stainless steel mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly.
3. Store in an airtight mason jar or container for future use.

Chef Sebastian Carosi, the award-winning short order cannabis revolutionary, has been cooking with full-spectrum cannabis and eating the devil’s lettuce since the early ’90s. Carosi trained at Portland Oregon’s Western Culinary Institute and apprenticed under renowned chefs in Italy. An avid forager and wild-crafter, Carosi went on to lead the farm-to-fork movement across the United States. Follow @chef_sebastian_carosi on Instagram