The Ultimate Guacamole In Under 5 Minutes.

Our family home in the Caribbean is surrounded by many trees and plants I wish I had daily access to, now that I live in Canada. One such tree is the 3-5 different varieties of Avocado (say zabouca in Trinidad and Tobago) I grew up enjoying. Avocado will find it’s way on my plate – every meal, if I had things my way. Such is my affection for this fruit (more specifically  a single-seeded berry).

After moving to North America and tasting Guacamole for the first time, it was only natural that my affection for avocado would see me fall in love with this wonderful dip. Though I find that many establishments find it easy to screw-up such a simple dish. While I do play around with different recipes, this one is fool-proof and the pickled onions and addition of pomegranate seeds not only adds to the visual appeal of the presentation, they add a lovely layer of flavor and texture.

Did You know?A single avocado has 975 milligrams of potassium, while a banana, well-known for being loaded with potassium, delivers just half that, with 487 milligrams per large fruit.

Ingredients

4 ripe avocados
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic
1/2 large tomato
1/2 scotch bonnet pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
pickled onions
pomegranate seeds
1/2 lime (juice)

• crush the clove of garlic and salt in a mortar and pestle
• add the scotch bonnet pepper and crush till smooth. I like my Guacamole spicy, but you can omit or use less/more if you like
• peel, seed and slice the avocado. Add to the mortar and pestle and crush
• crush smooth or as I did, with a bit of chunky texture.
• mix in the lime (or lemon) juice and mix well to prevent the avocado going discolored too fast
• place in your serving bowl
• drizzle the olive oil
• top with the pickled red onions and pomegranate seeds

Click> for the pickled red onions recipe and check out the demo video I did for a simple technique for removing pomegranate seeds.  You can also add some chopped cilantro to the mix, but there’s no love (other than me) in this house for that vibrant herb.

In Trinidad and Tobago we have something very similar to Guacamole, called zabouca choka, so it was refreshing to get a taste of home when I first arrived here. Though guacamole is only now (recent years) a common item on many restaurant menus and getting avocados in the grocery store wasn’t an easy task.