Healthy Coder

I love the guacamole, but only if its home made.   Guacamole is made primarily using avocados.  Avocados have gotten a pretty bad rap over the years.  Yes, they’re high in fat.  Yes, they have cholesterol – but its HDL the “good cholesterol”, which helps reduce LDL the “bad cholesterol”.  They’re also very high in dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals.

That said – I think avocados are a great addition to my diet – but like everything – in moderation.

Choosing Avocados

Picking avocados can be tricky at first.  If you’re buying it for same day preparation you need to buy a ripe avocado.  A ripe avocado will be brownish in color.  Green colored avocados are not quite ready, but you can buy them and let them ripen at home.  Next the avocado should be soft – but not mushy.  This is the hard part.  I usually buy a few extra if I’m not sure.

Once you cut into an avocado (remember there is a giant seed in the middle) the flesh should be greenish white in the center, and a nice green on the outside.  There should be very little or no brown.  If its mostly brown you picked one that is too mushy.  The avocado should scoop out with a spoon easily

The Recipe

We’ve devised an awesome guacamole recipe that I wanted to share with you.  For this recipe you’ll need a blender or food processor.

• 3 Avocados
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 whole tomato
• 1/8th cup cilantro
• 1 jalapeño pepper seeds removed (optional)
• Fresh limes (1-3 depending on juice quantity)
• Salt/Pepper

Peppers and heat

The recipe calls for a jalapeño pepper.   When preparing the pepper for this recipe I cut it in half length wise.  Most of the “heat” if the pepper is contained in its seeds.  I like to keep a few of the seeds (literally maybe half a dozen).  When I’m adding the pepper to the blender I’ll add those seeds to infuse the guacamole with a bit of heat.

You may want to consider wearing plastic or latex gloves (powderless ones) when working with peppers.  If you use your bare hands the burning oils of doom from the pepper will get all over them, and then don’t wash them well enough and you touch your eyes, nose or other mucous membranes you’re gonna be really really sad for 30 minutes or so.

Prep

1. Cut the avocados up and scoop out the flesh into a bowl or blender. 
2. Remove the skin from the garlic and cut up finely.
3. Dice the tomato.
4. Cut up the jalapeño and remove the seeds.   Keep some of the seeds if you want to add some heat to the guacamole.
5. Chop up the cilantro

The Makin

Mash the avocado up a bit and transfer it into the blender.   Add the garlic, tomato, cilantro and jalapeño if you would like.  You can also add some of the jalapeno seeds if you would like some heat.

Next cut one of the limes and squeeze it over the blender to add its juice.  Now carefully start the blending.  Stop once and a while to push the guacamole down to meet the blades if it doesn’t seem to be moving.  Add lime juice as needed until the entire mixture starts to flow nicely with the blender.  Once its blending nicely taste and add lime juice / salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer it to a bowl and enjoy!  This makes enough for good size bowl of guacamole.  I’ve found this keeps a day or two in the fridge.   You’ll also notice the next day that the guacamole will be hotter if you added jalapeño.

Try it out and let me know what you think!