Simple Guacamole Recipe

Who doesn’t love guacamole? It can work alone as a great appetizer which pairs great with our Strawberry Daiquiris or our Strawberry and Thyme Margaritas. And, it also makes a great condiment. It goes great on tilapia fish tacos with mango salsa. Today we’ll show you our versatile, super easy, mildly spicy,  simple  guacamole recipe. Are you ready?

THE PERFECT AVOCADOS FOR HOMEMADE GUACAMOLE

The first key to great guacamole is fresh avocados. Many people think of guacamole as a dip, but technically it’s a sauce as I learned from this cool site which delves into the history of guacamole. It may be because I’m a little nerdy, but I love learning about food origins.

Deriving from Aztec words ahuacatl and mulli that translate to “avocado sauce” you won’t get very far with impressing your guests with your guacamole if you start with sub-par avocados! But not to worry, if we can pull off great guacamole with our less than stellar local supermarkets, then you shouldn’t have any trouble.

Our strategy:

We buy avocados on a weekly basis. They are soooo good. We tend to pick the ones that aren’t completely ripe yet. You want them to be firm, but not rock-hard, and not super soft. I find that if you buy the just under-ripe ones, leave them on the counter for a day or two until they are almost perfect, then stick them in the fridge, they last for easily 3-5 days in the fridge. Then you have the perfect rotation of always having ripe avocados.

What about when you have half an avocado left, is there a way to save it without having it turn brown?

Great question, here are a few common strategies that people suggest:

1) Cover the avocado tightly with parchment or wax paper. The idea here is to limit the exposure to oxygen and thus slow the browning which occurs when an enzyme in the avocado oxidizes when exposed to air.

2) Squirt the avocado with lemon or lime juice. The acid is supposed to help slow the browning process.

3) Store the avocado in a water bath. I know, weird, but reportedly some chefs use this trick while preparing food. Whether that’s true or not, I have no idea, but I presume the idea is again reducing exposure to oxygen.

But, do any of the above methods work?

Well according to this avocado experiment, not really. But feel free to experiment on your own.

We often try a combo: lime juice and then sealing tightly with parchment paper…and it does help a little…but, yeah…the results aren’t great.

And then while researching for this post, I discovered a new possible avocado browning solution which suggests you should store the avocado with cut up onion. Has anyone tried this? I’ll have to try it, although I do worry about the onion taste/smell transferring over to the avocado.

But maybe the most obvious solution is right in front of us, eat the whole darn avocado! After all, avocados have a lot going for them:

-They have more potassium than bananas
-They’re loaded with fiber
-They may help lower cholesterol and relieve arthritis.

And that’s just the tip of the avocado. More on these and other great benefits of avocados. Good, more reasons to eat delicious guacamole.

Alright, you’re primed,  let’s make some guacamole!

Guacamole is easy to execute, it’s basically just mashing/chopping up your avocado to your desired level and then mixing in your other ingredients. One thing we do to make our guacamole to our liking is to add some garlic, cumin, and chili powder…just for a little kick…which we like. Experiment and figure out what works for you.

On to the simple guacamole recipe:

Guacamole

Print Rate

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 6 -8 servings

Ingredients

• 3 avocados
• 1/2 tsp . garlic granules
• 1 1/2 tsp . chili powder
• 1 1/2 tsp . cumin
• juice from 1 lime
• 1 plum tomato , chopped
• cilantro
• salt

Instructions

• Smash up the avocados to your desired consistency (I like my guac chunky, so I go easy on this).
• Add all other ingredients and stir just until combined (go easy if you like it chunky).