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Perfectly Simple Guacamole

Updated: 8/14/21 3:00 amPublished: 5/25/18
By Catherine Newman

Makes: 4 servings

Total carbohydrates: 7-10 grams per serving (depending on the vegetables you dip)

Hands-on time: 5 minutes

Total time: 5 minutes

Probably you think your favorite part of chips and guac is the chips, but if you make really excellent guacamole and serve it with an exciting assortment of vegetables, you might not miss those chips as much as you imagine. Feel free to add whatever you like to this recipe: salsa, chopped tomatoes, even corn kernels. But try it plain first – that’s how we grew to love it after a trip to Mexico, where we were served chunky, simple guacamole seasoned only with lime and salt, and it was absolute perfection. Plus, avocados are such nutritional powerhouses – filled with fats, vitamins, and minerals – that you’ll feel great after eating it.

Ingredients

2 ripe avocados, halved, pitted, and peeled (watch how to cut an avocado here)

Juice of one juicy lime (about 2 tablespoons) plus a few scrapings of its zest

1 teaspoon kosher salt (or half as much table salt)

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro (optional)

1 tablespoon finely chopped raw onion and/or 1 finely minced garlic clove (optional)

Instructions

1. In a bowl, using a fork, mash together the avocado with the lime juice and zest and the salt. Stir in the optional ingredients.

2. Add salt or lime juice to taste, then serve with raw vegetables for scooping: carrot sticks, bell pepper slices, celery stalks, cucumber spears or slices, green beans, sugar snap peas, and radishes.

About Catherine

Catherine loves to write about food and feeding people. In addition to her recipe and parenting blog Ben & Birdy (which has about 15,000 weekly readers), she edits the ChopChop series of mission-driven cooking magazines. This kids’ cooking magazine won the James Beard Publication of the Year award in 2013 – the first non-profit ever to win it – and a Parents’ Choice Gold Award. Last year they started the WIC version of the magazine for families enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and are currently developing Seasoned, their senior version, commissioned by the AARP. They distribute over a million magazines annually, through paid subscriptions, doctor’s offices, schools, and hospitals. Their mission started with obesity as its explicit focus – and has shifted, over the years, to a more holistic one, with health and happiness at its core. That’s the same vibe Catherine brings to the diaTribe column.

[Photo Credit: Catherine Newman]

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About the authors

Catherine loves to write about food and feeding people. In addition to her recipe and parenting blog Ben & Birdy (which has about 15,000 weekly readers), she edits the ChopChop... Read the full bio »