Holy Guacamole!

Erin was asking people to share their top-secret guacamole recipes, so I thought I’d be nice and share mine. Well, the most recent variation of mine. I tend to make it up as I go along, but this combination seems to work the best. Even attempting to quantify these measures is hard!

Ingredients

• 1 medium sweet onion (Vidalia, 10-15, or something mild)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 T fresh cilantro – or about a small handful of leaves/sprigs
• 1 cup grape tomatoes (or 1 1/4 cups if you like lots of tomato)
• 3 Large Hass Avocados, ripe
• juice of 1 medium lime
• 1/2 t. ground Ancho Chili Pepper
• 1 t. Chili Powder
• 1 t. kosher salt

1. Dice the onion, mince the garlic, and chop the cilantro. I use a mini processor to do all three ingredients at once; focus on the onion size and you’ll be just fine. Place in a large mixing bowl.
2. Chop grape tomatoes roughly, and add to mixing bowl. If you use the mini processor, chop these separately from the other ingredients.
3. Cut avocados in half, remove the pits, and scoop insides into the mixing bowl.
4. Squeeze lime juice over the mixture in the mixing bowl.
5. Add spices.
6. Use a potato masher to combine all ingredients, being careful to not stir too much.
7. Grab a chip to sample your guac, and doctor the salt and lime content as appropriate.

Serves: A party of about 10 – 15 people who love guacamole. Two avocados will serve about 4-6; slightly reduce all other ingredients.

The potato masher is important because it doesn’t beat your avocados to death but it does get everything mixed up very well. This isn’t a hot guacamole (notice the lack of jalapeños, serranos, etc.) because too many times people add too much pepper and it drowns the blended flavors of fresh tomatoes, lime, avocado, garlic, and salt. The onions add a bit of zip without overpowering everything else, and the peppers I use add a nice mellow zest to the guacamole.  The grape tomatoes have a much lower water content and keep the guacamole from getting too slimy.

Not to toot the horn too much, but this guacamole has induced people to literally lick the bowl clean. It’s also delicious on freshly grilled burgers!