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Can You Make Avocado Toast the Night Before? (Yes, here’s how)

By: Author Jeff Campbell

Posted on  - Last updated:

Categories Food Prep Tips

Avocado toast is currently a huge craze. But since avocado usually turns brown fairly quickly, a lot of people wonder can you make avocado toast the night before?

To make avocado toast the night before, squeeze lemon juice onto your mashed avocado and then store it in a ziplock bag that you squeeze all the air out of before sealing. Keep in the fridge overnight. When ready to eat, just snip a corner of the bag and squeeze onto your toast. Don’t spread on toast the night before.

But there’s a lot more to know about avocado toast, so let’s keep going!

In this article, we’re looking at ways to meal prep avocado toast, what to do to keep it from getting soggy, and whether using guacamole instead of plain avocado helps prevent it from turning brown.

But ultimately, we’re answering the question of can you make avocado toast the night before?

Let’s jump in.

Can you meal prep avocado toast?

Avocado toast is simply mashed avocado spread on toast.

The avocado is often mashed with a little salt and pepper and lemon juice. Some people add olive oil, but honestly, with all the healthy fats already in the avocado, that seems a little unnecessary to me and just added fat and calories.

Almost everyone loves avocados, but we all know they start to turn brown almost immediately after being cut into.

So for the busy people out there who like to meal prep the night before, are there ways to meal prep avocado toast? Yes, there are!

  1. Mash the avocado the night before – add a pinch of salt per avocado half and a squeeze of juice from a lemon (or lime)
  2. Mix the mashed avocado well
  3. Store in a small size ziplock bag
  4. Press all the air out of the ziplock bag and then seal
  5. Toast the bread (or save that for the morning)
  6. Allow to cool and then put in a Tupperware-type container 
  7. Store that container on the counter 
  8. Quickly reheat in the morning (rubbing a clove of garlic on the toast after reheating adds great flavor!)

Then when you’re ready, you can snip a corner off your ziplock bag and squeeze to pipe the avocado onto the toast.

How do you keep avocado toast from getting soggy?

Toast gets soggy because of moisture.

So first things, first, after toasting, don’t spread the avocado until it’s time to eat. But also don’t store the toast itself in the refrigerator. That being said, you should plan to eat toasted bread well within 24 hours of toasting it. But there’s a reason that store-bought bags of croutons don’t require refrigeration after opening.

They would get soggy if you did that.

Also, make sure to never mash the avocado ON the toast. Even if you plan to eat it right away. For starters, that’s a good way to accidentally poke holes in the toast, but you’re also smashing the toast down and helping to break down its structure, all of which can make it get soggy faster.

So mash the avocado on its own. Toast your toast. Rub a fresh garlic clove on the toast.

Then keep them separate until it’s time to eat. The mashed avocado should go in a sealed container in the fridge allowing for as little air around it as possible to keep the browning to a minimum.

Is guacamole on toast the same as avocado on toast?

Yes, guacamole on toast works as well as avocado on toast. There are hundreds of recipe variations of avocado on toast on Google, so there isn’t only 1 right way to make avocado toast and most recipes do call for additional ingredients.

You’ll see everything from adding balsamic vinegar, to mixing the mashed avocado with hard-boiled eggs, quinoa, lump crab meat, and a host of other ingredients.

Here in Texas, we know a thing about guacamole.

Guacamole starts with mashed avocado too. But we often add not only salt and pepper, but also garlic (powder or ideally minced fresh garlic). Then we mix in either salsa, fresh pico de gallo, or just diced onion, tomato, and (optionally) chopped fresh cilantro.

Some folks like a squeeze of lime in their guac. But I prefer it without it and tend to think stores and restaurants that do that are simply trying to get a longer shelf life out of it.

So yes, spread away with your guacamole!

If you aren’t making your own guacamole, just make sure you’re using a quality store-bought brand where avocado is the first and primary ingredient.

Wholly Guacamole is a good one as is the Trader Joes brand and the in-house stuff they make at Whole Foods.

Avoid spreading anything labeled guacamole sauce, dip, spread or salsa

They may taste OK, but it won’t be the same as avocado toast. Don’t believe me?

Here are the ingredients in “Dean’s Guacamole Flavored Dip”:

Skim Milk, Soybean Oil, Avocado, Diced Tomato, Water, Coconut Oil, Tomato Juice, Contains Less Than 2% Of Onion*, Salt, Egg Yolks, Distilled Vinegar, Nonfat Dry Milk, Sugar, Sodium Caseinate, Spices, Lactic Acid, Garlic*, Vegetable Mono & Diglycerides, Sodium Benzoate And Potassium Sorbate (as Preservatives), Gelatin, Isolated Soy Protein, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Guar Gum, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Xanthan Gum, Ascorbic Acid, Cellulose Gel & Cellulose Gum, Disodium Phosphate, Locust Bean Gum, Citric Acid, Blue 1, Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6. (source)

Yuck!

Does guacamole on toast stay fresher than avocado on toast?

It could.

Depending on how many other ingredients are in the guacamole, it may take a lot longer before it starts to turn brown. That’s especially true if there’s a lot of lime juice in there (but too much isn’t tasty).

I would still avoid spreading it on the toast until it’s time to eat. Brown or not, spreading anything with some moisture content onto toast will make it go soggy fairly quickly.

How do you keep an avocado from browning on a sandwich?

The air turns avocado brown, so adding a small amount of lemon or lime juice acts will prevent discolorization. But too much citrus juice will compromise the flavor and make your avocado toast too tart.

So whether it’s for avocado toast, plain bread, or any other kind of sandwich, it’s ideal to peel the avocado shortly before eating it.

If you need to meal prep it ahead of time, then do use a squeeze of lemon or lime juice and coat it thoroughly but lightly. Then keep it in an airtight container until it’s time to eat.

As I mentioned above, for mashed avocado, a small ziplock bag works great as it’s easy to squeeze all the excess air out before sealing.

Then just snip a corner when you’re ready to eat and squeeze it out like a cake decorator piping icing.

If you’re slicing or dicing avocado, that’s trickier, so a Tupperware-style container works ok, but try spreading a layer of saran wrap over the avocado and gently press down before sealing.

Then assemble your sandwich right before it’s time to eat!

Final thoughts

In this article, we took a look at the current craze called avocado toast.

We examined not only what it is, but focused on freshness and preventing it from turning brown for those that want to do a little meal prep the night before.

Then we even looked at whether it works to use guacamole instead of plain avocado. But primarily, we focused on answering the question can you make avocado toast the night before? The answer to that question is yes!

How do you like your avocados?

Also, don’t throw away those avocado peels! There are actually a ton of healthy and helpful uses for not only avocado peels but also most fruit and vegetable peels. I get into 27 different uses you probably haven’t thought of in a recent article.

Just click that link to read it on my site.

Jeff Campbell
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