Skip to content
Salsita MX
Español Chiles
Guacamole By Fermín Vega

Real guacamole

Four ingredients crushed by hand, with chunks and not purée. No sour cream, no mayonnaise, no cumin, and no, the pit does not stop it browning.

Prep
12 min
Total
12 min
Makes
about 2 cups
Difficulty
Easy
Heat Medium
Method Molcajete No-cook

Real heat that fades with a drink of water. Jalapeño territory.

Ingredients

Makes about 2 cups

  • 3 large avocado Hass, ripe but not soft
  • 2 serrano pepper minced very fine
  • ⅓ white onion minced very fine
  • ⅓ bunch cilantro chopped
  • 1 tsp coarse salt
  • 1 lime Mexican lime, not lemon
  • 1 tomato (optional) seeded and diced

Keeps 1 day refrigerated

Method

  1. 1

    Crush the coarse salt with the minced chile and a tablespoon of the onion in a molcajete until you have a green paste. Almost nobody does this step and it is the one that matters most: the salt breaks the chile open and spreads its oils through the whole batch.

  2. 2

    Halve the avocados lengthwise, twist, and remove the pits. Scoop the flesh out whole with a spoon.

  3. 3

    Add the avocado and crush it with the pestle three or four times. Three or four. You want chunks the size of a thumbnail, not purée.

  4. 4

    Squeeze the lime over and fold with a spoon — no more crushing.

  5. 5

    Fold in the rest of the onion, the cilantro, and the tomato if you are using it, with gentle motions from the bottom up.

  6. 6

    Taste for salt and serve immediately, in the molcajete.

Good with

Tortilla chips · Carne asada · Tacos · Eggs

Guacamole is probably the Mexican dish most often made outside Mexico, and for that reason the one carrying the most freight: sour cream, mayonnaise, garlic powder, cumin, chile powder, bottled lime.

The original is avocado crushed with salt, chile, onion and cilantro. That is it. And made that way, with avocados at their peak and crushed by hand, it needs none of the rest.

The step that separates good from excellent

Almost nobody does it: before the avocado goes anywhere near the bowl, crush the coarse salt, the minced chile and a little onion in the molcajete until they form a green, aromatic paste.

What that does is release the oils in the chile and the onion so they are distributed through the entire guacamole rather than concentrated in stray pieces. The difference is that every spoonful tastes of chile, instead of one in four being hot and the rest bland.

The salt has to be coarse, and not out of nostalgia: the large crystals act as an abrasive against the stone, so a clove of garlic or a chile breaks down in fifteen seconds. With fine salt everything slides.

Three or four crushes, no more

Guacamole has texture or it is not guacamole. Three or four presses with the pestle leave chunks the size of a thumbnail surrounded by creamy flesh, which is exactly right.

Keep going and you arrive at a smooth purée. It is still tasty and it is no longer the same thing: you lose the contrast between creamy and firm, which is half the pleasure.

After the crushing, everything else gets folded in with a spoon. Never the pestle again.

Choosing the avocado

Hass whenever you can: more fat and a buttery texture the smooth-skinned varieties do not reach.

Check ripeness with the palm of your hand, not a fingertip — fingertips bruise, and that bruise shows up later as a dark patch in the flesh. It should give slightly. Then the stem test described above.

An underripe avocado should not go in the fridge: it stays hard forever. A ripe one holds three or four days in there.

About the tomato

Optional, and it divides people. If you use it, take out the seeds and the jelly around them: that is water, and water turns a guacamole into soup within twenty minutes. Flesh only, small dice, folded in at the end.

Making it last, honestly

Avocado oxidizes and you cannot stop it, only slow it. Three things that actually work:

  1. Lime. One per three avocados. The acid slows the enzyme responsible.
  2. No air. Small container, filled to the very top.
  3. Plastic wrap pressed onto the surface, in direct contact with the guacamole, not stretched over the rim.

Together those buy you a day with decent color. The pit trick, again, does nothing.

When to make it

Two minutes before you serve it. Guacamole does not improve with resting — it is one of the very few preparations that is at its absolute best immediately after it is finished.

Common questions

Does the avocado pit keep guacamole from turning brown?

No. This is the most repeated myth in Mexican cooking. The pit protects exactly the small patch of surface it covers and nothing else — it releases no antioxidant. What works: lime, a small container filled to the brim, and plastic wrap pressed directly onto the surface.

Does real guacamole have lime in it?

In central Mexico, traditionally little or none. In the north and abroad, quite a lot. Lime does two jobs: it balances the fat with acidity and it slows browning. One lime per three avocados is a middle ground that does not bury the avocado.

How do I know if an avocado is ready?

The stem test. Flick off the little stem nub: if it comes away easily and there is light green underneath, it is ready. If it will not budge, it is underripe. If it falls off and there is dark brown underneath, it is past it. Then press with your palm — not your fingertip, which bruises it.

Can I make guacamole in a food processor?

You can, and it stops being guacamole. The whole point is irregular texture: chunks you bite through, surrounded by creaminess. A processor also whips air into it, which speeds up browning.

Does authentic guacamole have tomato?

Depends who you ask. Plenty of traditional central Mexican versions have none. What matters if you do add it is removing the seeds and the jelly, which are pure water — otherwise your guacamole turns soupy in twenty minutes.

What should I absolutely not put in it?

Sour cream, mayonnaise, garlic powder, cumin and bottled lime juice. Every one of them covers up the avocado, which is the ingredient you paid for.