4 Ingredient Guacamole Recipe : Ugly Duckling Bakery

Name: 4 Ingredient Guacamole Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 2 Hass avocados (each about 7 ounces (200 grams)); 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro; 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice (plus more as desired); 1/2 teaspoon salt

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This 4 ingredient guacamole recipe is quick and easy to put together for Taco Tuesday or your next game night. There may only be four ingredients, but nothing is missing from this recipe.

It’s all about the avocado.

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How to pick an avocado

Tips and tricks for this 4 ingredient guacamole recipe

FAQs about this 4-ingredient guacamole recipe

Related recipes

4 Ingredient Guacamole Recipe

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Looking to learn?

How to pick an avocado

The best avocados for guacamole are Haas avocados.

a bowl of four ingredient guacamole, chips, avocados, limes, and cilantro.

Oops, no wait. They are Hass avocados, named after Rudolph Hass.

These California avocados are creamier and have more flavor than other avocados. And when you’re making guacamole with only three other ingredients, those avocados need to be the best.

Avocados are ripe when they are just slightly soft to the touch. You usually can’t tell by color or by smell.

Unripe avocados should be kept at room temperature until ready to eat, and after that you can refrigerate them to slow the continued ripening. If you’ve only got a half left, leave in the pit to minimize the browning from oxidation.

Tips and tricks for this 4 ingredient guacamole recipe

The ingredients

Perfectly ripe avocado, fresh cilantro, freshly squeezed lime juice, and a bit of salt. That’s all you need to make the perfect four ingredient guacamole.

cutting board with avocado, lime, cilantro, and salt for this 4 ingredient guacamole recipe.

Guacamole is hundreds of years old, so there isn’t one classic recipe at this point. At minimum, it needs avocado, salt, and cilantro. It may have an allium like garlic or onions, chile peppers, or even tomatoes. Diana Kennedy in the Art of Mexican Cooking actually says that guacamole shouldn’t have lime, because it upsets the balance of flavors. It does, however, slow your guacamole from browning.

Make with that last bit of information what you will.

Cutting the avocado

You may or may not know that cutting an avocado is a common way that people injure themselves with knives. Read more here about other hazards in the kitchen that may surprise you.

First slice the avocado around the circumference of the fruit from top to bottom and back around (i.e. not the equator). Twist the two halves to separate them.

To remove the pit, carefully embed your knife into the pit (Panel #1, below) and lift it out (Panel #2). Very carefully knock off the pit from your knife.

removing the pit of the avocado with a knife.

For guacamole, you don’t need to perfectly remove the peel from the flesh, but it’s easy to do by first separating the avocado from the peel. Then use a large spoon to remove the flesh in one big, smooth scoop.

Add all of the ingredients to a bowl or mortar or molcajete if you want to be traditional. And mash with a pestle or potato masher. Make sure not to overmash, because you want to leave some chunks of avocado.

two panels showing the 4 ingredient guacamole recipe in a metal bowl with potato masher and mortar and pestle.

FAQs about this 4-ingredient guacamole recipe

What is the origin of the word “guacamole”?

Guacamole comes from Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Aztec and Toltec, from ahuacatl (the word for avocado) and molli (sauce). That molli is the same word that gave us “mole,” refering to a variety of sauces that come from the Oaxaca and Puebla regions of Mexico.

Can you freeze avocados?

Well, you can freeze them, but I would not recommend using them for this guacamole. Perhaps they’d be fine in a smoothie?

a chip with guacamole and the four ingredients in the background.

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Serve this 4 ingredient guacamole recipe with my taco meatloaf and these spicy pickled onions.

If you’re looking for other things to go with chips, check out this mango pico de gallo recipe. Or make a cocktail like this spicy margarita, spicy skinny margarita, or jalapeño raspberry Bramble.

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