Even if you could make guacamole without fresh cilantro and lime juice, why would you? Those characteristic ingredients give this all-time Mexican favorite its distinctive tanginess. And together with the creamy avocado, they make it maybe the best-known dipping sauce in the world.
Oh, and one more thing. Please don’t buy pre-made guacamole sauce for your binge-watching nights, Super Bowl weekends, let alone grill parties. You’ll see in this recipe how easy it is to make your own. And this is real food with real ingredients. A vitamin bomb, freshness itself. Why bother poisoning yourself with some canned version of the periodic table, then?
Ingredient Tips
To make delicious guacamole, you really need fresh ingredients, and you must use cilantro and freshly squeezed lime juice. Optionally, you can substitute the latter with lemon juice, but that’s really just a last resort if you can’t get hold of fresh lime. And unfortunately, there’s no substitute for cilantro leaves.
Other than that, delicious guacamole sauce is really a matter of taste. As always, I suggest that you try my version described below in the recipe. It’s pretty amazing (really, and this is not only my opinion). Then you can experiment with your own interpretation.
Here are a couple of tips for making guacamole that you’ll love
- You can completely puree your avocados or leave them chunky; it’s really up to your preference. This is true for the tomato and virtually all ingredients. It’s up to you what type of guacamole you’d like: chunkier or smoother.
- I used a total of 800 grams (28 oz) of whole avocados (with seeds and skin) for this recipe. This resulted in 520 g (18 oz) avocado flesh, about 2 1/4 cups when mashed.
- For this quantity, you’ll need 2-3 regular tomatoes. Cut them into quarters, remove the seeds, and dice them. A total of 1 cup of diced tomatoes is what you need.
- You’ll also need 1/2 tbsp minced garlic, which equals about 2 cloves.
- I used 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro leaves, about 5-6 stems. You don’t need the stems; remove the leaves first and chop those.
- Adjust the quantity of the chili according to how hot you prefer your guacamole. If you remove all the seeds, the chili will give extra flavor and freshness to your dish without being too intrusive.
- For detailed tips on how to peel an avocado, click on the link.
How To Serve Guacamole
You can serve your guacamole sauce right after making it, but it’s best if you leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours.
Guacamole is traditionally eaten with tortilla chips, but you can also serve it with toast or crackers.
As a dipping sauce, you would serve it in a small or medium-sized bowl. But I find it’s pretty eye-catching to serve your guacamole in the halved avocado skins, as you can see in the pictures. This ensures a magnificent presentation for this fantastic food.
Guacamole
Ingredients
- 4 avocados 800 g with seed and skin
- 1 cup tomatoes seeded, diced
- ¾ cup onion chopped
- ½ tbsp garlic minced
- 2 tbsp cilantro leaves fresh, chopped
- 1 tbsp chili fresh, chopped
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- Chop onions and cilantro leaves, mince garlic. Cut tomatoes in 4, take out the seeds and chop them. Discard chili seeds and chop the flesh.
- Cut avocados in half, take out the flesh with a spoon. Mash with a fork in a bowl.
- Add chopped ingredients, lime juice and salt to the mashed avocado. Mix all the ingredients.
