Guacamole

If  making a large batch of guacamole for a party, chop onions and cilantro ahead of time and refrigerate. It’s best to fix the avocados at the last minute and hope they have been chosen well and do not have large dark areas that must be cut out. If guacamole/avocados are critical to the dinner I often buy a “back-up” avocado or two. I prefer an “all green” version, Ed and Christopher like the salsa addition; see options below.

Remove skin and pit and mash with fork:

1 ripe avocado


Mix with mashed avocado:

1 - 2 T finely chopped Vidalia or other sweet onion
1/4 t cumin
2 t lemon juice
1 – 2 T fresh cilantro, chopped
Salt to taste (this is one of the times when salt is needed)

I prefer to stop with above ingredients. Christopher prefers to add:

1 small tomato, finely chopped (optional)
2-3 T salsa to taste (he prefers canned salsa to fresh)

Moogie adds Worcestershire Sauce and Tabasco Sauce (both to taste) when she makes this. She also thinks leaving the pit in the dip keeps it from turning brown. I've never been convinced of this and find the pit a nuisance. The pit myth was recently invalidated by Mark Bittman in "Six Kitchen Myths that need Debunking"

"4. 'Putting an avocado pit in the guacamole keeps it from turning brown.'
God I love this one. Actually, the pit will block the air from turning the guacamole directly under it brown, but then again so would a rock, and the exposed guacamole will still color. Use plastic wrap and you should be fine. (It is true that you can help an avocado - or almost anything else - ripen, by putting it in a brown paper bag with a banana.)"

Serve with tortilla chips.  Good with Margaritas, in Tacos, and Fajitas, and on a bed of lettuce as an accompaniment to a Mexican dinner.

October 2017: I hadn't made this for a crowd in a while so I checked the recipe instead of just winging it.  I realized that I often omit the cumin, or use less.  In this case I used 1/4 t of cumin per avocado instead of 1 t per original recipe and more onion, closer to 2 T per avocado.  While the above recipe has been revised accordingly, the actual quantities are a question of personal taste.  These ratios seemed to work for my guests. Lots of salsa and chipolte black bean dip leftover, just a few blue corn chips and no guacamole.


Reviewed 5/15/17
Revised 8 October 2017 - see note above