one-avocado guacamole with quick-pickled red onions
Yield: 1-2 cups. Adjust to taste. Scale ingredient amounts up or down depending on size of avocado.
Equipment
- Sharp knife
Ingredients
- 1 ripe avocado
- 3 slices red onion (chopped or diced)
- 1 length jalapeño, seeds and ribs removed (see notes)
- juice from ¼ or ½ lemon (depending on the size of your avocado)
- ¼ tsp salt
- ⅛ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- pinch cayenne (optional)
- ½ tsp fresh cilantro (chopped, optional)
- 1 clove garlic (minced, optional)
- 4 cherry tomatoes (chopped, optional)
Instructions
- Cut open your avocado to make sure it’s good. If it is, great! Set it aside. If it’s not, I’m sorry, you’ll need to use a different avocado.
- Combine chopped red onion, lemon juice, and pinch of salt in a bowl to quick-pickle. Stir and let it sit while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
- Mince the jalapeño and any other optional additions (cilantro, garlic, tomatoes, etc). Set aside on your cutting board.
- Use a fork to scoop the avocado out of the skin and into the bowl with the lemon and onions. Use the fork tines to mash the avocado into large chunks.
- Add the jalapeño, another few pinches of salt (~1/4 tsp), the ground black pepper, and any of the optional additions, to the avocado. Continue mashing with the fork or a muddler until you reach your desired consistency.
- Adjust to taste — add more lemon, salt, pepper, etc if you think it needs it. Serve!
Video
Notes
- To slice a length of jalapeño, remove the top with the stem and the bottom tip of the pepper. Stand the pepper upright, with the stem-end on your cutting board. Look for where the ribs of the pepper are attached, then slice downward removing a length of the pepper from between two of the ribs. A pepper usually has 3-4 lengths, so you’re looking for a section of pepper with no ribs or seeds — just the wall of the pepper, removed cleanly.
- Avocado browns quickly, so if you do plan on storing this for later press a sheet of saran wrap smoothly against the surface of the guacamole to keep air from reaching it. Then stretch another sheet of saran wrap or a container lid over the top as well. It won’t stay good for days, but you might be able to eek another 24 hours out of it.
- If you don’t have a jalapeño pepper, a poblano, Serrano, or Fresno pepper will work fine. Since those peppers differ from the jalapeño in size, aim for anywhere from 1-3 TBSP chopped/minced pepper, depending on how hot you want it or how big your pepper pieces are.
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