Spice Blends Made Easy← Back to blog

Avocado Toast Seasoning: Blends, Ratios and Ideas

Seasoned avocado toast with fresh citrus

The best seasoning for avocado toast is a salty, savory blend with a little acid and a little heat: salt, garlic, onion, black pepper, something bright like citrus zest, and a pinch of red-pepper flakes. You can stir it into mashed avocado or sprinkle it over finished slices. Below you’ll find a one-tablespoon recipe you can mix in two minutes, exact amounts per avocado, five variations, a salt-free base, and how long each blend keeps.

Spiceblendsmadeeasy
Make Everyday Seasoning Your Own
Explore customizable seasoning blends tailored to your flavor preferences, with new options and meal recipes introduced monthly.
Explore seasoning blends

Recommendations

Table of Contents

What goes on avocado toast

Avocado has a mild, buttery flavor, so it needs three things: salt, acid and some aromatic punch. Most good blends cover all three.

One popular homemade toast blend combines kosher and sea salt, black pepper, garlic and onion powder, optional tomato powder, cumin, dried cilantro or parsley, citrus zest and red-pepper flakes. The garlic and onion give savory depth, the cumin adds warmth, the zest brings brightness and the flakes add a slow heat.

The acid matters as much as the spice. Martha Stewart’s guide to avocado toast treats bright acidity as essential to balance avocado’s richness, and suggests fresh lemon or lime juice, sherry vinegar or balsamic glaze. The New York Times’ recipe makes a similar point: simple avocado toast depends on sturdy bread, enough salt and citrus, and olive oil to tie it together.

So think of the blend as the dry half of the seasoning, and a squeeze of citrus as the wet half.

What goes on avocado toast

The seasoning pairings that work with avocado

If you want to build your own blend rather than follow a recipe, these are the flavor families that keep appearing in trusted kitchen guides.

Flavor family What it adds Where it shows up
Salt and pepper The baseline avocado needs Nearly every recipe
Garlic and onion Savory depth Guacamole-style blends pair them with cumin and cilantro
Paprika and cayenne Color and heat Simple avocado seasonings include paprika, cayenne and olive oil
Lime, chiles and salt Sour, spicy and salty at once Tajín is a classic pairing
Citrus zest Fresh aroma without extra liquid Lemon, lime or orange zest
Seeds and alliums Crunch and toasty flavor Everything-bagel style blends

A useful rule: pick one item from the savory row, one from the heat row and one from the bright row, then add salt last. That gives you a blend that tastes balanced rather than just spicy.

A one-tablespoon avocado toast seasoning recipe

Here is the small-batch blend from The Cookful, which makes about one tablespoon, enough for roughly two small avocados.

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Stir everything together in a small bowl until the color is even.
  2. Pour it into a clean jar.
  3. If you used fresh zest, leave the lid vented for a day and shake it now and then so the zest dries out.
  4. Seal the jar and store it in a cool, dry place away from sunlight.

The same source says a zest-containing blend keeps for up to two weeks, and that you should leave the zest out if you want it to last longer. For a bigger batch, multiply every amount by the same number, keeping the ratios intact. Doubling is easy; just make sure the salt scales too.

Why tomato powder is worth a try

It is optional, but it adds a faintly sweet, savory note that makes the blend taste fuller. If you don’t have it, skip it. The blend still works without it.

How much to use

Too little and the toast tastes flat; too much and the salt takes over. Here are two methods that work.

If you prefer to measure by the serving, one pre-mixed salt, pepper, garlic, onion and paprika blend is used at ¼ teaspoon per serving on an avocado and tomato toast.

For a worked example, take two avocados and use the Cookful batch above. That is one tablespoon of blend, or three teaspoons, which comes to about 1½ teaspoons per avocado. It sits at the low end of the range, which is a good place to start. Taste the mash, then add a pinch more if it needs it.

A full dressing for two avocados

If you like to season in layers, America’s Test Kitchen’s avocado toast dresses two avocados with 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, ¼ teaspoon salt in the mash and another ¼ teaspoon sprinkled on top. It adds ⅛ teaspoon pepper and, optionally, ¼ teaspoon red-pepper flakes. You can swap your homemade blend in for the salt, pepper and flakes and keep the oil and lemon.

Build the toast so the seasoning works

The blend is only part of the result. A few habits make a bigger difference than any extra spice.

  1. Start with sturdy bread. Sourdough or another dense loaf holds up to a heavy spread without going soggy.
  2. Toast it in olive oil if you want extra flavor. One Delish method toasts sourdough in olive oil, then rubs it with a mix of grated garlic, lemon juice and salt before adding the avocado.
  3. Mash lightly. Chunks give the toast texture. Add lemon or lime juice and your blend while you mash.
  4. Finish with flaky salt and flakes. The Delish version tops the toast with flaky sea salt and crushed red-pepper flakes for a crunchy final layer.
  5. Eat it right away. Assembled toast gets soggy and the avocado browns. If you need to prep ahead, refrigerate the mash for a couple of hours with plastic wrap pressed directly onto its surface, plus a lid, and assemble the toast just before eating.

Five variations to rotate through

Once you have the base, small changes keep it interesting. Martha Stewart’s guide lists many toppings and finishing touches; here is how I’d organize them.

1. Hot and sweet. Red-pepper flakes plus a drizzle of hot honey or a spoonful of chili crisp.

2. Fresh and herby. Chopped herbs or microgreens over the top, with extra lemon juice in the mash.

3. Tangy. Pickled red onions, shallots or pepperoncini cut through the richness.

4. Crunchy. Everything-bagel seasoning, za’atar or toasted sesame seeds. The New York Times also mentions pepitas and sesame seeds as optional toppings.

5. Loaded. Smoked fish, an egg, or a base layer of hummus or tzatziki under the avocado.

If you like the crunchy route, our everything bagel seasoning blend is a quick option for the sesame, poppy seed, garlic and onion combination, and it works as a topping on avocado toast just as well as on a bagel.

Everything-bagel style blends for avocado toast

Seed-based blends are a different animal from the savory powder blend above. They add crunch and toasted flavor, and they stick well to avocado. Cookie and Kate notes that avocado’s creamy surface helps the seasoning adhere, and the same recipe prefers minced onion and garlic to powders for this style.

Three published ratios show how much the formulas vary:

Recipe Seeds Alliums Salt Yield
Cookie and Kate 2 Tbsp white sesame, 2 Tbsp poppy 1 Tbsp minced onion, 2 tsp minced garlic 1 tsp kosher A little over ⅓ cup
Love and Lemons 4 tsp white sesame, 2 tsp black sesame, 2 tsp poppy 2 tsp minced garlic, 2 tsp minced onion 1 tsp flaky sea salt About ¼ cup
The Practical Kitchen ¼ cup sesame, ¼ cup poppy ⅛ cup minced garlic, ⅛ cup minced onion None Salt-free base

The case for a salt-free base

The Practical Kitchen’s salt-free version lets you adjust the salt separately on the finished toast. That is handy because avocado toast is seasoned in two places: the mash and the surface. If the blend already contains salt, you have less control over the total. It also recommends stirring before each use, since poppy seeds settle to the bottom of the jar.

If you want a lower-salt blend with some kick, one version scales to a cup using 3 tablespoons each of dried garlic, onion, poppy seeds, white sesame and red-pepper flakes with just 1½ teaspoons salt, a ratio of one part salt to six parts everything else.

Toasting the seeds

For a deeper flavor, warm the seeds and spices in a skillet over medium heat for about five minutes, stirring often, and let them cool completely before jarring. Warm seeds in a closed jar trap steam and spoil faster.

Sesame and poppy seeds toasting in a skillet

A guacamole-style blend if you want it bolder

Some people want avocado toast to taste like a good guacamole. Taste of Home’s guacamole seasoning makes 2 tablespoons from 1 teaspoon dried cilantro, ¾ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon ground cumin, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon onion powder and an optional ¼ teaspoon cayenne. Use it exactly as you would the toast blend, and add lime instead of lemon.

Storing your blend

How long a blend lasts depends on what is in it.

Blend type Storage How long
Toast blend with fresh zest Vented a day, then sealed, cool and dry Up to two weeks
Toast blend without zest Sealed, cool and dry Longer; leave out the zest for longer storage
Guacamole-style blend Airtight container, away from light, heat and humidity Up to 6 months
Salt-free seed blend Airtight container At least six months, though quality may decline after
Toasted seed blend Airtight jar at room temperature Up to 1 month

Toasted seeds can go rancid. If your blend tastes bitter or off, throw it out and make a fresh batch. Label every jar with the date you mixed it; it takes five seconds and saves guessing.

Our take: seasoning is the shortcut, not the shortcut’s enemy

We started Spice Blends Made Easy because a chef from the Bahamas believed that home cooking should feel like comfort and family, not like a chore. That idea shapes how we think about something as small as avocado toast.

Here is what we have learned from hand-crafting blends:

The same logic carries to the rest of the kitchen. A Mediterranean seasoning blend works on roasted vegetables, and a good taco seasoning does Tuesday dinner. Once you are comfortable mixing one blend, the rest follow the same pattern.

— Robert

Get new blends every month

Mixing from scratch is fun, but not every week. With a Pro membership you choose your blends and batch sizes, get unlimited access to blends and meal recipes, and see new options added every month. It costs $5 per month or $40 per year, and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it with little risk.

Spiceblendsmadeeasy

See the details on our pricing page, or browse the Spice Blends Made Easy homepage to see what’s available. For more ideas on using blends in everyday cooking, the spice blends blog has practical guides, including one on seasoning black beans.

FAQ

What seasoning goes on avocado toast?

A blend of salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and red-pepper flakes is the most common answer. Many cooks add cumin, dried herbs and citrus zest for brightness. Finish with a squeeze of lemon or lime and flaky salt.

What seasoning goes well with avocado?

Avocado pairs with acid and heat. Lemon or lime juice, paprika, cayenne, black pepper, cumin and cilantro all work, and a chile-lime-salt mix like Tajín gives sour, spicy and salty notes together. Garlic and onion add savory depth.

How much seasoning should I use per avocado?

Start with 1½ to 2 teaspoons per avocado, stirred into the mash. If you’d rather sprinkle, use one good pinch over three to four slices. Taste before adding more, since salt-heavy blends can overshoot quickly.

What can I sprinkle on top of avocado toast?

Good toppings include red-pepper flakes, everything-bagel seasoning, za’atar, toasted sesame seeds, pepitas, fresh herbs, microgreens and flaky salt. For something fancier, add pickled red onion, hot honey or chili crisp.

How do I make avocado seasoning ahead of time?

Mix the dry ingredients in a jar and seal it. Leave out fresh zest if you want it to last, or use the blend within about two weeks if you include it. Store it in a cool, dry place away from sunlight.

Sources

← Back to blog