This loaded guacamole is super tasty, very easy to make, healthy, and oh so versatile. You can have it as an appetizer with chips or vegetables for dipping, as a condiment for burritos and other Mexican food, or as a filling for sandwiches. If you’re looking for a dish to bring to a party that everyone will enjoy, guacamole is always a good bet.
Helpful Notes for Making Loaded Guacamole
You can make guacamole as simple as possible by just using avocados, lime juice, garlic, and salt or you can have it loaded with stuff. I prefer a loaded guacamole but not too loaded as I still want the avocado to be the star of the show. I like adding simple ingredients like tomatoes, cilantro, hot peppers (seeded to give just a hint of heat, not burn your mouth hot), and onions (I generally hate raw onions except in guacamole and Greek pasta salad). For seasoning, I like adding cumin and a pinch of paprika.
The most important step to making guacamole is using the right avocados. You want to make sure that the avocados are ripe but not going bad. To find ripe avocados, look for ones that are a brownish-green colour. The really green ones are not ripe. Also, give the avocados a gentle squeeze. They should feel soft all around but not mushy or hollow. If they’re mushy, they’re overripe. If they’re hollow, they’ve turned bad, and if they’re really firm, they’re under-ripe. To be completely sure that the avocado is not overripe, you can look under its stem. If it’s green, it’s good. If it’s brown, it’s overripe.
If you’ve searched every grocery store and can only find unripened avocados, you can buy them provided that you’re not planning to use them for guacamole that day. You can hasten the process of ripening an under-ripe avocado by putting it with an apple or a banana in a brown paper bag for two to three days. Fruits like apples and bananas release ethylene gas (a plant hormone) which triggers the ripening process. The brown paper bag is used to help trap the ethylene gas that the fruits produce so the avocados will ripen faster.
Once you’ve made the guacamole, plan to have it on the same day as guacamole doesn’t hold up well overtime. Although the citric acid in the lime juice and the gasses released by the red onions in the guacamole will slow down the browning process, the avocados will likely be brown by the next day. Some people swear that putting an avocado pit on top of the guacamole will stop it from browning. I haven’t tried this but since the pit stops the browning process by preventing the avocado from being exposed to oxygen, I assume this might work for the part of the guacamole that’s directly underneath the pit. I’m not sure if it would work for the exposed parts. If anyone has tried the pit method and it’s worked to prevent all of the guacamole from turning brown, please let me know in the comments section. Okay, I’ve rambled on enough. The printable recipe card is below. Enjoy!
Loaded Guacamole
Ingredients
- 3 ripe avocados
- 1 roma tomato (seeded and diced)
- 1/3 cup red onions (diced)
- 2 stalks cilantro (finely chopped)
- 1 jalapeno pepper (diced and seeded with the membrane removed)
- 1 lime (juiced)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp cumin
- ½ tsp of paprika
Instructions
- Peel the avocados by first using a knife to slice the avocados in half lengthwise, then twist the two halves apart. To remove the avocado pit without cutting yourself, use a medium-sized spoon to scoop out the pit. Once the pit has been removed, use the spoon to scoop out the avocado by going around the edges then underneath the avocado with the spoon. Do the same to scoop out the other half of the avocado that doesn’t have the pit.
- Once you’ve peeled and pitted the avocados, place them in a mixing bowl and use a fork to mash them until they’re creamy, you can leave some chunks if you want a chunkier guacamole.
- Add the juice of 1 lime to the mashed avocados plus the salt, cumin, and paprika, mix well.
- Add the chopped tomato, red onions, jalapeno pepper, and cilantro to the avocados. Fold them into the avocados using a spoon.
- Scoop the guacamole into a serving dish and garnish with some chopped tomatoes, red onions and cilantro, if desired.
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