The Best Guacamole Recipe (Fresh and Zesty)

This guacamole recipe is creamy, fresh, and packed with flavour! Made with ripe avocados, the flavours in the guacamole deepen when you crush the ingredients like onions, jalapeno, cilantro (and optionally tomatoes and garlic) in a mortar and pestle or molcajete. The result? A more zesty and robust batch of guac than if you just add these ingredients finely chopped.

Another wonderfully satisfying dip that goes with almost anything is this Mexican salsa with roasted tomatoes.

About Guacamole

Guacamole works perfectly as a cold dip for a casual Mexican food night, Cinco de Mayo celebration, or game day appetizer. No matter what the occasion, this will always be a star side dish in your menu. Whether you serve it as a dip for tortilla chips or want to use it in another recipe like these 7-layer dip cups or sheet pan beef nachos, it is an essential recipe, if you're into Mexican food.

You can make this recipe pop by using a mortar and pestle, or even better, a molcajete, a traditional Mexican mortar and pestle, used in the preparation of salsa and guacamole. You'll get guac that's more vibrant as the ingredients release their essential oils through the crushing process. This technique upgrades even the most basic guacamole recipe with a cohesive flavour and texture.

If you already own a molcajete, go ahead and use it all the way through to adding the avocados to it, and then serve your guac right out of it! If you don't, put your regular mortar and pestle to work, like I did. And since the mortar I own is on the smaller side, I used it only for pulverizing the ingredients other than the avocado, and then combined them with the avocados in a mixing bowl.

Love avocados? Look up this Mexican chicken salad and butter lettuce salad, both featuring avocados.

Ingredients

INGREDIENT NOTES

The quality of the ingredients really matters to make the best guacamole because this is a simple dish where the vegetables shine.

1. Avocados: Choose mostly firm avocados that are not rock hard, but give slightly when you press them. Those are at the optimum ripeness. The flesh of a just ripe avocado will be yellowish green with no brown spots or patches.

2. Onion: One small firm red onions will add great texture.

3. Jalapeno: Add according to your tolerance for heat. You will need less because the jalapeno is crushed right along with the other ingredients. I used half a jalapeno with 3 avocados, but I did remove the seeds and pith for a milder taste. Conversely, if you can tolerate spice, you can go for half a serrano instead of a jalapeno. Serranos are hotter than jalapenos.

4. Cilantro: Fresh, green cilantro please, not the tired, limp stems that have been sitting in the crisper compartment for a while.

5. Lime juice: Go for freshly squeezed lime juice, not the one that comes out of a squeezy bottle.

6. Tomatoes and garlic: Not strictly necessary in a basic, bare-bones guacamole, so you can leave them out if you wish to, especially, if you are making the guac as a base ingredient for another recipe. I included the tomatoes and garlic because I like the layers of flavour they add.

7. Sea salt: Without salt, everything will taste bland, so do add a generous pinch. A good rule of thumb is to add ¼ of a teaspoon to one avocado. Start with this measure and add more in the end if you need to.

Instructions

1. Chop the onion, jalapeno and cilantro finely (so it's easier to crush them in the mortar). Chop the tomato and garlic too, if using. You can use a food processor to do dice the ingredients instead of doing it by hand.

Tip: Remove the seeds and pith from the jalapeno for less heat or chop it without removing the seeds if you don't mind the extra heat. Also, remove the seeds and pulp from the tomatoes before chopping them up finely.

2. Put the chopped onion, jalapeno, cilantro and garlic in the mortar or the molcajete and using a to and fro motion (pushing and pulling rather than up and down), grind the ingredients to a pulp. Add the sea salt as well.

3. Now, cut the avocados in halves and remove the stones. Scoop out the flesh and put it into a mixing bowl. Using a fork, mash the avocados to a chunky mixture, adding the lime juice as you are mashing them. Add the crushed ingredients to the bowl and combine. Transfer to a pretty bowl and serve with lots of tortilla chips!

Note: If using a molcajete, add the avocados to the molcajete and press down to break them up.

Top Tips

1. Use the freshest produce you can find for a really tasty guacamole.

2. When mashing the avocados, don't mash them into a perfectly smooth paste. Leave some texture in for a chunky yet creamy result.

3. If you don't have a mortar and pestle or a molcajete, you can add finely chopped ingredients too, as outlined by so many recipes online.

4. If using tomatoes, cut them in half and remove some of the seeds and pulp to avoid making the guac too watery.

How to keep the guacamole fresh

If you are not going to use the guacamole right away, you can keep it in the fridge for a day, provided you take care not to expose it to the air. Otherwise, it's going to quickly turn brown and look extremely unappetizing.

To preserve the green colour of the avocados and prevent browning, you need to minimize contact with oxygen as much as possible. Follow these tips, and your guac should be just fine:

1. Mash the avocados last of all, just when you are ready to mix them into the other ingredients. Don't make the mash beforehand.

2. To store the guacamole in the fridge, transfer it to a deep, narrow bowl or glass jar with a lid and keep this in the fridge instead of the shallow and wide bowl you served it in. Less surface area at the top will ensure less contact with air.

3. Fill the bowl all the way up and cover the surface of the guacamole with cling foil before tightening the lid.

4. Add a little extra lime juice to the guac before storing it. The acidity will prevent the avocados from turning brown. Additionally, you can also squeeze a little lime juice on the surface before covering it with cling foil.