How to Make Guacamole

Big chunks of creamy avocados mixed in with onion, garlic, lime, cilantro—the works. This comes together in just a few minutes, but you will need to make a mega batch because everyone will eat their weight in it.

Ingredients and Prep

Garlic and Onion

First off, we’re going to mince two cloves of garlic, and I want a fine mince—people, not big huge chunks. Never use that minced-garlic paste that comes in a jar; then ask me why—just don’t.

Now it’s time for the red onion. You could also use a shallot if you wanted to—those are amazing—but red onion will be great, give you a little bit of color as well. I want a fine dice on this, and we want about a third of a cup. If you love onion, add some more; if you hate onion, drop it down to a quarter, but it’s still important. I could not in good conscience advise you to skip the onion.

To lessen the bite of the onion, we’re going to add the lime juice right now so that it kind of softens that bite—almost pickles the onion in the acid. We’re going to juice two limes and add that right over the onions.

Tomatoes?

This recipe has zero tomatoes in it. I’m voting for filler—I never heard anyone say, “Oh, this guacamole is amazing; I wish there were more tomatoes, though.”

Jalapeños

I’m going to use two jalapeños. These are a little bit small, but I think they’re going to give me just the right amount of kick. When you chop the peppers, you want to have the skin side up; that’ll make sure you don’t get a bunch of semi-cut pieces of chili. Guacamole should have definitely a kick, definitely some spice, but it’s not like a hot salsa.

Seasoning

I’m adding in three quarters of a teaspoon of salt—that’s my starting point for the saltiness. I’m doing this early because I want the salt to dissolve in the lime juice a bit so everything is equally flavored.

Cilantro

I love cilantro. A lot of recipes will call for a couple of tablespoons; I’m using half a cup. This is up to you—you can up it or lessen it as you see fit—but for me, this has a lot of wonderful fresh flavor.

The Avocados

It is time for the aguacates. I feel like three large avocados to four large avocados is good. If you get stuck with avocados that aren’t ripe but you need them to ripen quickly, add them into a bag with some bananas. The ethylene gas that the bananas emit as they ripen will also ripen the other fruit, including avocados.

I like my guacamole to have a little bit of creaminess and a little bit of chunkiness, so I’m taking these avocados and mushing them up. I’m just using a ricer, but you could use whatever you’d like. I use my spatula to finish it off so I have a really nice combination of big chunks of avocado and mushy, uniform bits—really great mouthfeel.

Final Touches

There is a really nice kick to it, but it’s enough to have you coming back for more, not like, “Huh, give me another margarita.” The lime juice really softened up the bite from the onions, so even though there’s a third of a cup there, you’re not tasting onions—it’s like the perfect guacamole.