Hola, Monday.
Per Megan's request, I'm making guacamole: her comfort food.
I will admit that there is little better than sitting down with a bag of chips and a bowl of salsa and/or guacamole, but it's so easy to get carried away. In general, there are about 12 chips in a serving. 12. Are you kidding me? I can go through 12 in about 2 minutes. Especially when I'm surrounded by some girl friends and a batch of margaritas (on the rocks, of course.)
Nevertheless, I still eat them, but I find it's easier to curb my chip desire when I have something else to dip. Let's be real, guacamole is not the kind of snack you can have on a spoon- you need something to go with it, and while guac is a relatively healthy snack, it's accesories are not.
When making guac at home, consider dipping it with cut veggies, i.e., peppers, carrots, tomatoes and broccoli, crackers, soy crisps (pcitured below: similar to rice cakes) and yes, tortilla chips. While those aren't the best option, there is nothing more classic than chips and guac.
When buying chips, look for once with low salt, made with whole grains, and cooked in oil such as sunflower, canola or safflower. Avoid anything with lard, non hydrogenated oil and weird ingredients like monopsychgiot (that's not a real word, but neither are half the words I see on labels.) You get the idea.
When serving your guac and dippers, count out a serving of chips for yourself and put your chips on a plate or something, so you avoid going overboard, drinking three margaritas and lose the ability to count how many chips you eat.
When going out or buying guac at the store, make sure it's not made with olive oil! Some places add olive oil to keep the stuff from turning brown. While we all appreciate that, it adds the most uneccesary amount of calories- read labels, ask questions and skip the oil!
Now, on to the recipe.
I did this recipe step by step, so Megan could know exaclty how it's done. I sometimes take for granted the little steps that are involved in cooking, and I tried to take it back to basics today.
This is what you need.
You'll also need salt, tabasco, garlic powder and red onion. I was out of red onion. I found a few slices, in the fridge, in some leftover salad, so you'll see it make an appearance later.
When picking out avocados, push your thumb gently into the skin. It should feel tender- your thumb shouldn't go all the way through, but there shoudl be some resistance. This is kind of a guessing game. Sometimes I fail miserably. If you need to ripen up avos faster, stick them in a brown paper bag with a banana overnight.
Cut the avocados in half.
Hold the avo in your hand and stick a knife blade in the middle of the pit. Make sure it's good and in there and then pull out the knife- this is the easiest, least messy way to remove the pit. Don't throw it away just yet!
Then make about 4-5 slices vertically, and do the same horixontally. You'll end up with little squares.
Take a tomato and cut a circle around the top- where the little stem connector is. Yes, stem connector. I don't know what th real word is, but I liek stem connector better.
Cut the tomato in half.
Then cut it in about 4 slices.
Then, cut it into cubes. You don't need the other half, stick it in the fridge for something else.
Next, cut your red onion. You'll be cooler than me and buy your own. You want in small pieces- you'll want about 1/4 cup.
And your lime.
I like to get all my cutting out of the way because I hate cutting.
When done, take a fork or a knife and scoop the flesh out of the skin and dump in a bowl.
With a fork, mash up the avocado. You don't want mush, but it should be fairly smooth.
The add the tomato and onion. DON'T add these before you mash uo the avos, or you'll end up making avocado tomato sauce, yuck.
Next. add 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix in well. This is my cute little sea salt bowl I got for 99 cents. Isn't it just adorable?
Squeeze 1/2 lime into the mix and stir. Top it off with about 3 dashes of tabasco.
Now, this is important. TASTE IT. Some people like more lime, or salt or heat. Taste it and make the necessary changes- this is how you learn to cook- experiment.
If you're not eating the guac immediately, squeeze a little more lime over the top (this will keep it from browning) and stick one avocado pit in the middle (also helps with browning and I think it looks cool.) Finally, put plastic wrap over the bowl and push it down so it's touching the guac- you don't want a lot of air to seep in and brown your delicious efforts.
When you're ready, get your dippers and dig in!
These are scrumptous soy crisps- I swear they are good. I find them at Raley's- they should be in the cracker aisle.
If you need to double or triple this recipe, no big deal- just increase every ingredient as needed. We also served this guac on chili last night and it was a smash.
