Here is how I make a fresh and healthy snack that is good for the skin, stomach, and digestive tract, and tastes ridiculous at the same time.

Hopefully you have read my “Learn to Cook” article first, because it will help you to understand why I won’t post exact measured recipes.

The avocado is called “aguacate” (ah wah cah te) in Spanish, just in case you want to impress your friends.

The hardest part about Guacamole is picking the right avocados. If they are green and hard, then you won’t be able to make your dish now, they are not ripe yet. What you need to look for is the skin turning a dark color, almost a deep purple. Grab it up into your hand, and LIGHTLY squeeze it. If the thing smashes a lot and feels mushy, it is over-ripe. You want it to be slightly soft to the touch, yea, that’s the right one.

Select about 4 or 5 aguacates to start with to make a pretty good sized batch of guacamole. Several limes, sea salt, pepper, red onion, roma tomatoes, and jalapenos are all the other ingredients you will need. Roma tomatoes are important because they are not as juicy as the larger ones, too much juice will create guacamole soup instead. We don’t want the stuff running off of the chip, we want a big pile to stay right where we want it. YUM!

Cut the aguacates with one concentric circle around the perimeter, inside you will find one ginormous seed. Do not throw the seed away at this time. One problem with guacamole, is that it spoils VERY fast. It will turn black if no other ingredients are added. BUT, if you use lime, and place the seed inside the guacamole, it seems to hinder the spoil process.

Now scoop all of the green “fruit” out with a spoon, try to avoid any dark spots. Once all are finished, use a fork to mash it down as best you can.

I like to add the sea salt, pepper, and lime at this time. Remember what I told you in Learn to Cook… TASTE as you go. Start with half of a lime, a pinch of sea salt, and a sprinkle of pepper. Now taste. Hopefully by now you know what flavors you like, add more if it is needed. I prefer mine to be salty, and limeny. You might not. Try to use at least one whole lime for every 2 or 3 avocados if you can, to minimize spoiling. This is only necessary if you are not eating it right away, if you are going to eat it right now, then no worries.

Chop the red onions and tomatoes next, make the chucks as big or small as you like. Use small amounts, until the mixture is balanced and appealing to the eye. (your eye)

Check the taste along the way. Sometimes it will have just the right salt amount, but then you add tomatoes and onions, and now it needs some more.

You can stop here if you do not like it to be hot, otherwise, you can add some jalapeno for a nice kick. Only interested in a little zing instead of hot. Make sure to NOT add the seeds. The pepper meat also gets hotter the closer you get to the stem. Make sure to taste.

Lastly, to adjust thickness, add a SMALL amount of water to thin it out if you desire. Another option is to use a strong blender to make it creamy. I have tried all of those options, and they are all good. I just hate trying to scoop it out of the blender, and clean it afterwords.

That is it! You made a great tasting and healthy snack. Cilantro is another nice ingredient to add, but not a lot of people like the flavor. Avoid using the stem if you can, it gets very bitter.

Think outside the box when it comes time to actually eating your guacamole. Don’t waste all of it on chips alone. It is great on rice, Italian bread, tacos, as a salad topper, fish, and with other meat. As you cut a chunk of fillet minon, plop it into your guacamole dip… WOW, what an awesome idea.

-bryan j bailey