How to Make Guacamole with One Avocado (Small Batch)

Whether you smash it on toast, dollop it on tacos, or serve it as dip, my recipe for one-avocado guacamole makes just the right amount for one person to enjoy or for two people to share.

Follow these easy steps at home to whip up this creamy avocado dip in 10 minutes! I like to add guacamole mix-ins like quick-pickled red onions, minced jalapeños, and cilantro for a punch of added flavor, too.

When it comes to homemade condiments and dips, like my also-popular roasted tomato salsa roja, most recipes are party-sized.

But have you ever made a bowl of guacamole just for yourself? Or, fine, okay, for yourself and a friend? I do it all the time. My small-batch guacamole can be shared, but the beauty of a single-serving recipe is that you don't have to if you don't want to.

It's quick, it's practical, it's tasty, and it creates minimal waste while preserving any leftover ingredients to use for more guacamole tomorrow or the next night.

Back when I lived in L.A., where a bag of perfectly ripe avocados was easy to pick up on the way home, a quick bowl of homemade guacamole and chips was one of my favorite things to munch on while making dinner or between meals.

On weekends, a small personal-sized bowl of guacamole with pickled onions becomes a filling mid-afternoon snack or is perfect for making a low-effort, high-reward avocado toast breakfast. Or it can be a great side dish when served along a heaping sheet pan of carnitas nachos!

Most guacamole recipes use multiple avocados, a whole jalapeño, half a large onion, etc. They're party-sized recipes. But I firmly believe that everyone's favorite avocado dip shouldn't be limited to a party food. Besides, avocados brown quickly when exposed to air, so guacamole isn't something you want to make more of than you'll eat.

Other optional homemade guacamole recipe ingredients: Finely chopped cherry or roma tomatoes, finely minced or zested garlic clove, lime zest or lemon zest, Fresno peppers, cracked red pepper flakes, and/or a pinch of cumin.

How to Tell When an Avocado is Ripe

One of the most common old wives tales about checking the ripeness of an avocado is that if you remove the stem and see bright green, it's ripe.

The problem is that so many people do this, so finding one that actually still has the stem on it can be impossible. Remove the stem too early and the exposed spot will turn brown, even if the avocado is actually perfectly fine inside. It's not the best system.

I Mix My Guac In A Very Specific Order

Ok, yes, when you make guacamole, you're basically just mashing everything together. But by taking the time to mix the ingredients in a specific order as you go, you'll get the most out of each of them.

Once I know the avocado is good, I move on to mince the red onions, which get a quick pickle treatment to mellow their flavor and draw some moisture out. (These aren't true quick pickled red onions, btw — even quick pickled red onions need a bit more time than we'll have here. But it will cut down the sharpness of their bite just enough!)

While the onions mingle with the lime juice and salt, move on to mincing the jalapeño, cilantro, and any other ingredients you plan to add.

To reduce the heat of the jalapeño and prolong its life in the fridge, I cut it in a very specific way. The heat in a hot pepper comes from the seeds and the ribs. I want to avoid those, as too much heat will quickly overpower such a small batch of guacamole.

First, I remove the stem end and cut off about ¼" of the tip, so I can see where the ribs are. They're the three or four white spokes running the length of the pepper. Then, I stand the jalapeño upright, with the wider end against the cutting board.

By cutting off just the section of pepper that you need, the rest of it will stay fresher longer as less surface area has been exposed to air. The remaining jalapeño pepper can be stored in the fridge for up to a week, ready and waiting for you to make more one avocado guacamole the next night or the night after!

One good-sized jalapeño can be enough for three or four nights of this small-batch guacamole.

From here on out, this one avocado guacamole recipe is incredibly straightforward.

Full disclosure: For these photos I popped it into a cute little Le Creuset cocotte, but in real life, I eat it straight out of the bowl

Practical Tips & Recipe Notes

• If your guacamole is too spicy, add a dollop (about a tablespoon) of sour cream or plain Greek yogurt to help cut down the heat. This is a slightly controversial addition (as Antoni of Queer Eye learned the hard way) and not something I'd recommend as a default ingredient. But if you've tasted your guac and it's too spicy, these will help cool it down.
• Store avocados at room temperature until ripe, then place in the fridge. They can stay good in the fridge for up to a week, sometimes more!
• DO NOT STORE AVOCADOS IN A JAR OF WATER IN THE FRIDGE! This tip went viral on TikTok a couple years ago and it's really bad advice. The avocados will stay just as good in the fridge on their own as they will in water. Why is storing avocados in water bad? "The main concern is with the possibility that any residual human pathogens (i.e. Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., etc.) that may be residing on the avocado surface may potentially multiply during the storage when submerged in water," the FDA told Good Morning America.

📖 Recipe