When Tony and I first started dating he didn’t do much exploration with meals. In fact, I’m 99% sure most of his diet consisted of corn dogs, fries and frozen pizza. It was a scary time for me. Somewhat joking. Somewhat not.
As our relationship progressed, so did Tony’s taste buds and his discovery of new cuisines. I’ve tried both Thai food and sushi with him for the first time. He started eating refried beans. He’s now obsessed with chocolate and homemade Reese’s eggs. He enjoys sprouted bread and brown rice. He also thinks my banana bread is the best thing on this planet (admittedly, in the world of banana breads, it totally is).
But the one thing he had never had before I met him?
AN AVOCADO. Which means my husband had never had guacamole. Ummm what?
After that, I officially made it my mission to get him to try avocados and fall in love. First up: avocado on toast with hot sauce and an egg. Next, I shared this easy homemade guacamole recipe with him and he said it was straight out of heaven.
Soon after I made this recipe for him, he began asking me if he should make “his guacamole recipe” for dinner. Wait… HIS GUACAMOLE RECIPE?! He said it as if he had been crafting the recipe for years, or like it was a big family secret or something. Adorable, I know.
Today I’m sharing my very famous, easy guacamole recipe with you. Prepare to fall in love just like my Tony.
Everything you’ll need to make the best guacamole recipe
The best part about making homemade guacamole is that it’s EASY and uses all fresh ingredients. It’s truly the ultimate summertime appetizer or snack. My best guacamole recipe contains the perfect amount of avocados, heat, spice and herbs. Here’s what you’ll need for my guacamole recipe:
- Avocado
- Fresh lime juice
- Grape tomatoes
- Red onion
- Jalapeño
- Cilantro
- Salt and pepper
Choosing the right avocados for guacamole
Before we dive into the guacamole recipe, let’s chat about avocados! Because avocado makes up 99% of a guacamole recipe, it’s important to pick the right ones for the best texture and flavor. Here are my go-to tips for picking them:
- Check the color. The outside of your avocados should be very dark green, almost black in color. If they’re bright green that means it still needs to ripen a bit.
- Give it a gentle push. Press on the avocados to see how soft it is. Choose avocados that have a little bit of give but aren’t mushy. This will allow you to easily mash them. If your avocados are too hard, place them next to bananas or mangos on the counter to help ripen them up (it may take a day or two)! Alternatively, if your avocados are already ripe, you can place them in the fridge to help prevent any additional unwanted ripening. Ripe avocados should be used with 1-2 days.
- Remove the stem. Try taking the little nub of a stem off of the top of your avocado. If your avocado is ripe, the step should remove easily and it should be green underneath.
How to make simple and delicious guacamole
- Start by cutting your avocadoes open and removing the seed. Use my tips & tricks here to safely do so! Add your peeled and de-seeded avocados to a bowl and use a fork to mash them just enough like the photo below. You want some nice chunky pieces.
- Add in your lime juice, grape tomatoes, cilantro, jalapeño and a little salt and pepper.
- Give it a stir with your fork to fold in all of the ingredients. Taste and add more salt and pepper to your liking. The guacamole is ready to be served!
Don’t forget these easy guacamole tips
Now, guacamole recipes seems simple, right?! But when you’re trying to perfect something, then you really need to take the time to do it right and to do it really, really well. Here are some of my tried and true tips for the best guacamole recipe:
- Leave some chunks. The perfect guacamole should be a cross between creamy and chunky. You’ll want a mix of avocado chunks and creamy mashed avocado. My tip is to use a fork to mash the avocado but avoid over-mixing the first time around, this will create too much creaminess and be more like avocado puree rather than guacamole. Plus you’ll be adding in other ingredients that you’ll need to fold in.
- Use flavorful onion. I love using red onion for a little sharpness and additional flavor in my guacamole. Try it out! Don’t worry though, white onion will also work.
- Add tomatoes to your guac. In my opinion, all guacamole should include tomato for texture and flavor. Regular tomatoes tend to be too watery, so go for grape tomatoes instead! You can quarter them and they’ll stay nice and firm.
- Go easy on the lime. I really dislike when I go to restaurants and the guacamole tastes like lime juice rather than creamy avocado goodness. So I recommend using only 1/2 lime (or about 1 teaspoon lime juice per avocado).
- Add freshness. I always recommend adding a good amount of cilantro. I don’t know about you, but cilantro is my favorite herb to create a fresh flavor and essential to a good guacamole. Do not skip it!
- Finish the guacamole with some heat. If you can tolerate jalapeños, then go for it! Personally, I like to keep a few seeds in just to give it a little kick of heat, but it depends on your spice preference. It is important to finely dice the jalapeño.
Fun ways to customize your guacamole recipe
This recipe is for a more traditional, simple guacamole, but you can absolutely jazz it up with fun mix-ins if you’d like! Try adding:
- Your favorite regular salsa or fruit salsa
- A little crunch from pepitas or even sunflower seeds
- Extra heat with your favorite hot sauce
- Savory goodness from crumbled cotija cheese and/or minced garlic
- Creaminess from greek yogurt
How to store homemade guacamole
The best way to store fresh homemade guacamole is to reduce the amount of air exposure since guacamole turns brown when exposed to air. If you’re not going to serve your guacamole right away:
- Place it in a bowl and press the guacamole into the bowl with a spoon to compact it. This helps to get out the additional air within the guacamole itself.
- Immediately cover with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap into the top of the guacamole and sealing on the edges.
- Another option is to add a small amount of water on top of the guacamole. Once ready to serve, you can dump out the water, give it a stir and serve!
Once made, guacamole should be consumed within 1-2 days. I say the quicker you can eat it, the better it is!
Ways to serve homemade guacamole
This recipe is for the real deal guacamole lovers out there. Serve it with:
- Your favorite tortilla chips
- Carrot sticks or red bell pepper strips
- These amazing paleo crackers
- Or on top of tacos, sandwiches, grilled chicken, salmon, burgers and even vegetarian enchiladas
More appetizers you’ll love
- Avocado Strawberry Mango Salsa
- Fresh & Healthy 7-Layer Dip
- Grilled Crostini with Roasted Cherries, Goat Cheese & Basil
- How to Make Super Creamy Hummus (+5 different flavor variations!)
- Tortilla Chip-Crusted Baked Jalapeño Poppers
Get all of our appetizer recipes here!
I know you’re going to love this easy guacamole recipe, please let me know if you make it by leaving a comment and rating the recipe below. I’d love to hear from you and it helps encourage others to make the recipe too!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
The Best Guacamole You'll Ever Eat
Ingredients
- 3 ripe avocados
- ½ lime, juiced (about 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice)
- ¾ cup grape tomatoes, quartered
- ⅓ cup diced red or white onion
- 1 jalapeno, finely diced (or two if you like it really spicy!)
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- ¼ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- Optional: 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Mash avocado in a medium bowl, but not so much that it becomes overly creamy. You want a mixture between chunky and creamy consistency.
- Next add in lime juice, grape tomatoes, diced onion, jalapeno, cilantro and salt and pepper. Give it a stir. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary (add more salt if you like it a little bit saltier!).
- Garnish with extra sliced grape tomatoes, cilantro and jalapenos. Enjoy with your favorite tortilla chips!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
This post was originally published on March 16th, 2017, republished on April 25th, 2019, and republished on June 13th, 2023.
43 comments
Oh my gosh those stories are amazing. Also guac is life and this looks insaaaane
Tony, make me some soon! I crave your amazing quac salad that is so fabulously fresh and bursting with incredible flavor! ❤️
I’m sort of embarrassed to say that I’ve never made guacamole by myself before! I usually buy it at Whole Foods for a wicked expensive price, like what am I doing? This guac looks EPIC and so flavorful!
Definitely pinning this to try later. We love guac in our house 🙂
This looks like my kinda guac! I hate it when the avocados are super creamy – I need some chunks in there! Gorgeous!
All about the ratios when it comes to tasty guac! I have never made it with grape tomatoes or white onion- usually a garlic girl. But this sounds amazing!
he’d never had an avocado before you?!?!? thank goodness you guys met (; my usual guac is avocados, tomatoes, garlic, onion and lemon; but i’m not picky about my guac as long as it’s chunky and fresh, so this version sounds delicious too!
I hate to admit it, but I never ate avocados growing up and I have never made my own guacamole. I need to make this!
Gosh I love avocados so much it’s ridiculous. But I too thought they seemed weird and gross until I finally tried them about 5 years ago. Now I make guac probably 2-3 times a month. I’m a tiny bit more of a purist though – no tomatoes in guac for me! And I often like to add a little fresh garlic. But otherwise – you and I are in total agreement! Spicy, chunky, creamy food of the gods!
Try with red onions rather than white – I think they are tastier
I love your story and it somewhat resonates with my story with my now hubby. Long story short, I grew up in Northern California where good real deal ripe avocados were not plentiful, so I simply disliked them because well they were usually brown and stringy inside…GROSS! Then I went off to college, met my husband (he grew up growing delcious Hass avocados) and re-introduced me to the lovely fruit. Now that I know what a REAL avocado tastes like, I cannot get enough! Good thing I married an avocado farmer 😉 I also love a chuckier style guacamole + YAAASSS to keeping the jalapeno seeds! Love your recipes and work!!
Omg that is so cute!!!
I’ve been introducing my boyfriend to so many foods too in the 3 years we’ve been together. Problem is: he’s suuuuuper picky. But I’m making slow progress. He went from saying avocado is “gross” to saying it is “slightly edible”. I think that’s progress? LOL. Anyway I can’t say I’m that mad about it because it means more guac for me!
I love the idea of “chunky guacamole.” This looks like it would be an awesome sandwich and burger topping too!
Mmmmmm…..yum. This looks totally amazing. I’m just starring at the screen looking at how delicious they look.
This is amazing diffuse, i on an astoundingly focal level need to extra about this surprising site page. A commitment of appreciation is all together for take a gander at with us.
Gorgeous photos, colors, and recipe! And, ohhhh your words. Always so meaningful and honest. LOVE.
Thanks so much!
I was told to keep the avocado pit in the middle of homemade quacamole and it would stay fresh longer. Seems to work for me.
Perfect! Great tip.
This really is the best guacamole 😋 I’ve tried several other make at home guac recipes and nothing can even touch this one!! My hubby is a super picky guac person and he loved it😍😁
Amazing!! So happy to hear that, Lisa 🙂
I appreciate the ease to make next time I think I would try putting Roma’s and perhaps substitute onion with green onion and then have it all diced like salsa prefer or might just add my salsa since the ingredients are similar.
Feel free to customize! 🙂
I made this on a whim tonight! I knew I could count on you for a delicious recipe and you did not disappoint. So yummy! I am the only one who likes guac in our home (crazy right?!) so I only used two avocados and just used a little less of the other ingredients and it turned out great!
Perfect! So glad you loved this one!
Soooo very good!!
Glad you loved it!
I use basically the same ingredients for my guac. Although I do tend to add a bit more lime juice to mine because it keeps the overall salt content down for me when I increase the juice! It is sublime, pun intended! 😬
Perfect! Love that 🙂
One comment:
Original guacamole has serrano chile, NOT jalapeño chile, and avocados must be clean fresh green, never brown dots. A mexican is telli g that, try it with serrano chile.
Delicious!!!
I’ll have to give that a try! 🙂
Made this exactly as written! It was amazing… thank you for another great recipe. I have learned that all of your recipes that have “damn delicious” or “The Best” truly live up to the name.
So glad you loved it! And yes, they’re my all-time favorites 🙂
Hands down best guacamole ever!! Simple to put together and beyond delicious!
So glad you loved it!
Thank you very much for the specific How to make guacamole tutorial. I will definitely give it a try this weekend. I love avocado and it’s also a healthy fruit so I’m always looking for new ways to prepare it. However, I also had a lot of difficulty in finding a dish that suits my taste.
@happy wheels unblocked
Thanks so much for sharing ways to enjoy beet hummus. I don’t like beets very much. However, my husband loves it. So I also regularly prepare beets for my husband to eat. But I wanted to find a way for both of us to enjoy beetroot. I think this formula is suitable.
@rocket soccer derby
Obsessed with this recipe
YAY! I am so glad you’re loving this recipe ❤️
My family loved this dish, and I felt like a gourmet chef when serving it. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe
YUM! Glad to hear you and your family are loving this guacamole, Shaheen! Thank you for your review, I appreciate it!
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