Fresh Guacamole Recipe
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Fresh, high-quality ingredients make for the best guacamole recipe. The secret to making amazing homemade guacamole is all in the preparation of the tomato. Find out the best way to create delicious guac in your own kitchen. This easy and delicious version is sure to be your new favorite!
You will love this Simple Guacamole Recipe
When you think about the best guacamole you’ve ever had, what did you love about it? Was it full of chunks of avocado? Was it smooth? Did it have tomatoes in it? Was the amount of fresh lime juice just right? Everyone’s palate is different, of course, but I am so confident that my homemade guacamole recipe will me your new favorite, too.
Look, you don’t have to take just my word for it. Consider this 5-star review from Paul:
“This is one of the best guacs I have ever had. My #1 favorite is from El Vez, but this is right up there, on par!”
It took me a long time to get the perfect guacamole just right, but it’s been our one and only since I got it just right in 2018. It all started with a friend named Anne who shared the secret for her authentic guacamole recipe that she’d always bring to gatherings. Her trick was the missing piece and it’s the only way I prepare my guacamole anymore!
THE SECRET TO SUPER AMAZING HOMEMADE GUACAMOLE
Guess what her secret was.
…there was no real secret or secret ingredient. There were no fancy ingredients, no special technique… NOTHING. Just years of making it and getting a feel for what worked best and what tasted the greatest.
Well. This baker, who always needs a recipe, wasn’t having it. So I took to making my own guacamole, with a general “these are the ingredients I use” list from her. After many combinations, I came up with what I feel are the best ratios for homemade guacamole with a tiny little secret to keep things chunky.
And that secret lies in the tomato. We’ll get there in a bit.
What is Guacamole?
Guacamole is an avocado-based dip that often includes onions, garlic, jalapeño peppers, and cilantro. Some versions of guacamole contain other ingredients like tomatoes, and some creative recipes even add bacon, honey, pickled onions, mango or other fruit, corn, or roasted vegetables.
Homemade Guacamole ingredients
For this basic and traditional guacamole dip, we’re using simple ingredients, because simple is best and in our experience, simple can still be quite impressive.
For this easy homemade guacamole recipe, you will need:
• Hass avocados
• fresh lime juice
• Roma tomatoes
• sweet onion
• fresh cilantro
• jalapeño pepper
• garlic
• coarse salt
HOW TO MAKE GUACAMOLE
The process for making guacamole from scratch is super simple.
STEP #1
Slice each avocado in half, remove the pit, and scoop the flesh into a medium size bowl. Add the lime juice, toss to coat, then set this mixture aside.
STEP #2
Slice each tomato into quarters and, using a spoon, scoop out the seeds and soft inside parts. Cut the tomatoes into small dice and add to the avocados.
STEP #3
Add the onion, cilantro, jalapeño, and garlic. Use a large fork or potato masher to mash everything together to desired consistency. Add salt, taste, and add more if necessary.
See? Super simple. But let’s talk about how to choose the best ingredients and prepare them in the best ways so our guacamole is truly top notch.
SUCCESS TIPS FOR CHOOSING THE BEST FRESH INGREDIENTS
Over my hundreds of batches of guacamole in my lifetime, I’ve leaned into very specific choices for my ingredients. You are, of course, free to make your own food choices, but these are my go-tos and are trusted, tested, and perfected in the ratios listed in the recipe below.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A HASS AVOCADO AND A REGULAR AVOCADO?
Hass avocados have a higher percentage of oil, making for a creamier texture than traditional avocados, so they are my preferred choice for this guac recipe.
If you can’t find Hass avocados, no problem! You can still make a perfect bowl of guacamole with the perfect avocado from any region.
ALWAYS USE SWEET ONIONS FOR FRESH GUACAMOLE
Next up, the onion!
I much prefer the taste of guacamole made with a sweet onion as opposed to a white onion, yellow onion, or red onion.
Sweet onions are a little less potent than the others and they also only add to the guacamole’s flavor. To me, overpowering onion flavor is distracting and gross. Vidalia is my go-to on this one.
JALAPEÑO PEPPER: WITH OR WITHOUT SEEDS?
For this guacamole, we’re also working with a seeded jalapeno pepper. You’re absolutely welcome to leave the seeds in, but again, I think too much heat can be distracting, and a raw jalapeño is most definitely a very strong and potent heat.
I personally think that the pepper itself carries just enough heat with its flavor. But go with what you prefer when it comes to spice! Simply leaving the seeds in will turn this into a spicy guacamole recipe, so you don’t have to adjust anything else!
MINCE THE GARLIC
We’ll add 2 to 3 large cloves of garlic, but here’s the key: they need to be minced. We want to amp up the seasoning of the guac, but we don’t want any huge chunks of garlic since they’ll be staying raw.
Mince mince mince that garlic so we get garlic all up in every little bite!
REMOVING TOMATO SEEDS YIELDS THE CHUNKIEST HOMEMADE GUACAMOLE
Now the key to the whole shebang… The tomatoes and the preparation of those tomatoes.
Best Tomatoes for Guacamole
I go with Roma tomatoes for my homemade guacamole because they are small and firm-ish, which helps me perform my best contribution to thick and chunky homemade guacamole: zero tomato seeds.
Tomato seeds are FULL of moisture. Those goopy, wet tomato guts. We don’t want them. Get rid of them!
Added moisture to your guacamole = thinning it out. If we just add the tomato flesh, we’re not really adding too much moisture, leaving all the room for avocado chunks.
So. Much. Dip. For those tortilla chips!
Homemade Guacamole Recipe substitutions and additions
As I mentioned, feel free to leave out any of the ingredients that don’t align with your tastes. This is our family’s favorite recipe and we never stray from it, but you can use any onion, pepper, or tomato that you prefer or that may be available in your home garden when the season is right!
Fresh Guacamole Recipe storage
Now, I’ve seen some rumors about storing guacamole with the pit of an avocado in it, but to be perfectly honest, guacamole never lasts more than a day or two around our house, so storing it is really not a problem for us AT ALL.
If you’re an avocado pit user: does it actually work?! We find that just pressing a piece of plastic wrap onto the guac works just fine for storing for a day or two and helps prevent that pesky thin layer of water that sometimes accumulates on the top of the guacamole. It also tends to keep the browning process a bit more at bay.
How to serve this Simple Guacamole Recipe
Don’t limit this perfect guacamole to just DIP.
We also love using guacamole for sandwich spreads, with eggs, in salad, on top of nachos, on baked potatoes… ON SPOONS.
There’s really no bad way to serve or consume guacamole. But I hope this fresh guacamole inspires you to leave the store-bought guacamole on the shelf on your next grocery store trip.
Easy Guacamole Recipe FAQs
Easy Guacamole Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 large Hass avocados
- juice of one lime
- 2 small Roma tomatoes
- ⅓ cup minced sweet onion
- ¼ cup minced fresh cilantro
- 1 jalapeño pepper seeded and minced
- 2 to 3 large cloves of garlic minced
- ½ to ¾ teaspoon coarse salt
Instructions
- Slice each avocado in half, remove the pit, and scoop the flesh into a medium size bowl. Add the lime juice and toss to coat. Set aside.
- Slice each tomato into quarters and, using a spoon, scoop out the seeds and soft inside parts. Cut into small dice and add to the avocados.
- Add the onion, cilantro, jalapeño, and garlic. Use a large fork or potato masher to mash everything together to desired consistency. Add salt, taste, and add more if necessary. Guacamole is best served right away, but leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator, covered tightly with plastic wrap in contact with the surface of the dip. Enjoy within 3 days.
Nutrition Disclosure
All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
I never would have thought to use a sweet onion, I usually use a red one, but a vidalia makes so much sense.Your right by the way too much onion flavor in a guac is gross. I usually only use maybe a quarter of a jalapeno with the seeds, I agree, too much spice takes it over.I like use my pastry cutter to help me mash my avocados, I know weird right? But it gives me that chunky/smooth consistency. I love guac in sandwiches right now, plus i feel like I’m eating healthy anytime I have it.
Ohh, a pastry cutter! Smart! I like that idea.
I just use the best Salsa, I can find, and mash some avocados and add to Salsa. Takes minutes ….
Guacamole has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I’ve made it so many times it’s hard to count. I like that it’s naturally gluten free and vegan. My husband and kids love it too. They prefer to eat it with unsalted tortilla chips. Thank you for your useful tips! Such treasure. I should definitely give it a try (probably this weekend). Really in the mood for it. Look forward to your new recipes Lynn!
I’m so glad to have you, Ann 🙂 it feels like a guac weekend around these parts, too!
My husband and I absolutely love this guac! It is our go-to summer dip. In our opinion: the cilantro is the cherry on top. It goes great on enchiladas, tacos, quesadillas, chips, spoons, you catch my drift. A-mazing.
So glad you enjoy it as much as we do, Karin! Thank you 🙂
BETTER than a restaurant. Seriously! This is the only guacamole recipe we ever use!
Thanks so much, Jane!
This is our go-to guacamole recipe! It is the perfect blend of tomatoes, garlic and guacamole. And 100%…sweet or Vidalia onion for the win in this guacamole.
Thanks so much!
Guacamole is my meal of choice. I used 1/2 of the jalapeno (my family doesn’t like heat), and I left the lime out. This was an easy recipe that I loved.
I love everything there is about this guac. Simple ingredients and fantastic tips gave me a bowl of guac that disappeared as soon as I set it on the table.
Haha, sounds about right! 🙂
Spot on, I loved it, couldn’t get enough — those were all the comments after I made it! Thanks!!
Haha, thanks so much!
Absolutely divine. Didn’t even need to worry about storing it because there was none left. We were all scraping the bowl to finish it off!
Haha, sounds like our house! Thanks so much for trying it!