Magnificent News: Eat Voraciously: Guac o'clock

Read online

Here's what's for dinner tonight.

By G. Daniela Galarza

Did a friend forward this to you? Sign up here.

Guac o'clock

"I'm having guacamole for dinner, with these awesome chips I picked up from a local Mexican spot, and I just thought you should know," my friend Melinda texted a few weeks back. She knows I'm a fan of having dip for dinner, and that I'm a fan of chips and dip. In my book, Melinda was doing it right! I replied with the 🏆 emoji.

Let's follow Melinda's lead, shall we? Guacamole is dinner tonight.

I have to be honest though: I don't think I've ever followed a specific recipe for guacamole. When I have a few ripe avocados, I pull out my molcajete.* First, I pound together some roughly chopped onions, a bit of garlic and a small green chile. Then, I halve, pit and plop the creamy, ombre-green avocado insides in the bowl, along with a lot of chopped cilantro and (sometimes) a squeeze of lime juice, and pound it into a rough mash. I stir in some chopped tomatoes and season it to taste with salt. And, I'd do as Melinda did, and try to pick up some freshly fried tortilla chips from a local restaurant. (Though store-bought ones also work, of course.)

Especially for you all, I dug up this guacamole recipe from our archives. It's a Diana Kennedy formula that my editor Joe Yonan cleverly adapted for The Post some years ago. It contains just six ingredients: onion, cilantro, chiles, avocados, tomatoes and salt.

"The word guacamole comes from the Nahuatl words for 'avocado' (ahuacatl) and 'mixture,' or concoction' (molli)," Kennedy writes, in "The Essential Cuisines of Mexico."

If you have a molcajete, you can first pound the roughly chopped onion, cilantro and serrano chiles into a paste before mashing in the fresh avocado and stirring in the chopped tomato. If you don't have a molcajete, you can do as Joe suggests and puree the onion-cilantro-serrano base in a food processor before folding it, along with the tomatoes, into avocado that you've mashed in a bowl.

If chips and dip don't sound like a hearty enough meal, serve the guacamole alongside other botanas, or snacks. Kennedy suggests chicharron or carnitas. I would make a pot of beans, maybe some salsa fresca, and for a lazy, late summer dessert, slices of cold melon sprinkled with Tajin.

*My molcajete is in storage now, so I've been using a bowl and fork or a wooden spoon to mash it all up, and that works just as well. Even better? A machacadora or bean masher! Joe is a fan of this one from Rancho Gordo.

Today's recipe

Photos by Rey Lopez for The Washington Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post

Guacamole

You'll note that this guacamole recipe doesn't contain any lime juice. That means you really shouldn't make it too far ahead of time, lest it turn brown! You can, of course, add lime juice, if you want to, or a squeeze of lemon, or a small splash of vinegar. Other options:

Omit the onion if you don't eat or like raw onion
Add minced garlic
Use jalapeños or a pinch of chile flakes instead of the serranos, or omit the chiles entirely
Add a spoonful of coconut oil or a splash of olive oil
Use a can of roasted green chiles or tomatillos instead of the tomatoes
In place of the cilantro, you could use some chopped basil, parsley, dill or a bit of all three

For easy printing and scaling, view this recipe in our Recipe Finder.

Servings: 8 (makes 4 cups)
Total time: 20 mins

Ingredients

1/2 small white onion, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup), divided
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves, divided
2 small serrano chile peppers, stemmed, seeded and chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea or table salt, plus more to taste
5 medium ripe Hass avocados
2 medium ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped (not peeled)

Steps

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine half of the chopped onion, half of the cilantro, the chile peppers and the salt. Pulse for a few minutes until a coarse paste has formed.

2. Transfer to a medium mixing bowl. Cut the avocados in half, discard the pits and scoop the flesh into the bowl. Using a wooden spoon, mash the avocado with the paste. Add the tomato and the remaining chopped onion and cilantro; mix well and adjust seasoning to taste. Serve immediately.

Recipe adapted from Diana Kennedy's "The Cuisines of Mexico" (Harper & Row, 1972). Tested by Joe Yonan.

Nutrition information per 1/2 cup serving: Calories: 188; Total Fat: 16 g; Saturated Fat: 2 g; Cholesterol: 0 mg; Sodium: 254 mg; Carbohydrates: 12 g; Dietary Fiber: 8 g; Sugars: 0 g; Protein: 3 g.

Share Eat Voraciously