Hello and welcome to Freshly Served the healthy vegan cooking show.
Iím Heather and tonight were gonna make Guacamole.
So anyway, what were gonna do is start with avocados and to make guacamole they absolutely
need to be ripe otherwise theyíre not gonna match very well.
So what Iíve did with this oneís because often avocados in the store donít show up
the ripest is Iíve bought this (let me think now) 5 days ago.
Ok, 5 days ago these were green.
They are now very dark brown which is what you are looking for and when I pushed them,
theyíre quite soft.
So thatís excellent.
To cut an avocado thereís a big pith in the middle and what you want to do is cut into
the avocado, youíre most likely not gonna be able to cut through the pith so what you
do is you just cut all the way around and then give it a twist and it comes apart like
so.
Ok! the pith is gonna be on one side and this pith has just a little bit of green stuck
to it that means itís not quite fully ripe but itís pretty close.
If itís not ripe at all, youíre not gonna be able to twist it apart.
And an interesting tip if you need to only use half the avocado which isnít the greatest
because then itís gonna lose nutrients out of here where thereís no skin and it will
go brown but if you leave the pith into the avocado somehow the avocado does not turned
quite as brown.
So, to get the pith out what you do is whack it with your knife.
Not too hard, donít want to cut yourself but donít get the end of the pith because
that doesnít work so well, youíll want the very middle and then twist the pith and it
will come off with your knife.
This of course only works if itís ripe.
And how many avocados you use depends on how much guacamole you want to make.
So again were cutting it along all the way around the circumference I supposed that would
be of the avocado, give it a twist and it comes apart.
And this one also not fully ripe but you can see that the pith in there is brown and the
less green stuff stuck in there the better.
Give it a whack with your knife, give it a little turn again and youíll see the pith
loosens.
Once you have the pith out, to get the skin off, very easy you just cut it into quarter
and then the skin will just peel off, like so.
Sometimes itís a little bit brittle and it breaks but thatís fine.
Once all of your avocados are sectioned and in a bowl youíre going to need to mash them
up.
You can use a fork or I want to get a little bit heavy duty with them today so Iím gonna
use my potato masher.
And like I said they will only mash properly if they are fully ripe and the pith will only
come out easily if theyíre fully ripe and basically theyíll only good for you if theyíre
fully ripe.
So, make sure you wait until they are nice and soft and then you can go.
And a lot of people are afraid with avocados because they do have a very high fat content
but let me say this on their defense.
Number one they are a whole food so theyíre a much better source of fat than oil because
they donít have the chance to have gone bad but by having the oil separated out from the
rest of the food.
Secondly, the type of fat that they have in them is a good type of fat.
It does not raise the type of cholesterol that causes heart disease.
So once you get these all mashed up then were going to add seasonings and basically from
here you can do whatever works for you.
Now for me, I like lots of garlic so Iím gonna add a bunch of garlic.
You can add a member of the onion family.
A lot of people use red onions but I just canít stand to eat them raw.
So what Iím gonna do is add some chives because I have some beautiful fresh ones.
Green onions also nice, I like those raw, if you like onions go for it.
Sweet onions are a little bit less intense than the red ones.
I also love lime and citrus so Iím gonna use this little lime and then for seasoning,
oh!
A lot of people also like to put tomatoes in here.
Iím not going to do that today just because I donít feel like it.
And then seasonings and ñ yeah you can just feel free to play with this however you want
so Iím gonna start with the garlic.
I got my garlic ready and Iím gonna press it in here so that I donít get any big chunks
of garlic so you can see it comes from the other side nice and neat.
While I was peeling my garlic cloves, I was thinking a little bit father on the subject
of fat and I also wanted to mention that you need some fat in your diet.
Ok!
A lot of people these days forget that but your body needs to have some fat in order
to do what it needs to do to live.
So the best way to get that is through whole foods like avocados.
And fat is not what makes you fat, too much fat makes you fat, too much carbohydrates
especially refined carbohydrates makes you fat but thereís no need to be fat-phobic
is all Iím saying.
Ok!
Garlic in!
Next lime!
Zest is one of my favorite things; itís just the very outer skin of the citrus.
You can get this nifty little gadget called zesters, I actually got mine for free from
Philís aunt but theyíre very cheap.
They have it in the thrift store.
You can grate your citrus but itís kind of frustrating so not nearly so much fun.
I mean look how much fun Iím having right now.
Yeah Zest!
Ok!
Put that in there.
Chopped your lime in half and then to juice the lime because the juice is almost as good
as the zest, I just take a strainer, set if over my bowl.
Shot the zester into the flesh of this lime, wiggle it around.
Get all that juice out.
And you notice that my lime was really really small.
Thatís fine because you know what that just means that the flavour is more concentrated
and thereís not as much water.
When you see those really massive limes, a lot of the time when you squeeze them thereís
a lot of water but itís not as limey.
Stir that around coz I like the smell of lime.
You can use the lemon if you prefer.
I like the lime or you can leave them out entirely.
I know this, I did a student exchange when I was younger in Mexico and I noticed that
they always used lime.
They very rarely use lemon.
Ok!
Next are my chives and Iím using these because I got a ton of them from the garden.
They were growing a little bit out of control.
You donít need to use anyone from the onion family if you donít wish to.
I donít normally actually use any onion in my guacamole but like I said I had a little
ton of chives so Iím gonna use them.
Once you get all the solid stuff mix in here nicely then the next thing you can add is
the seasonings and salt ñ ok if youíre not eating salt for whatever reason you can leave
it out but Iím just gonna tell you that salt really brings the flavor of the avocados out
so I highly recommend putting some salt in there.
And what Iíve used here, this is my grinder.
It has part salt and part kelp crystals in there and what that does is it gives it a
salty flavour without so much salt so you can also try that with some dried kelps or
some dry dulls or something like that.
Give it a salty flavor.
Got some black pepper, got some cumin and I would normally put a pinch of cayenne in
here but because Phil and I are taking this on a picnic, my parents and the two of us
are gonna go for a hike and my dad is really not spicy person Iím not either but I like
a little bit but he doesnít like much at all.
So Iím gonna leave that out.
Alright!
All set to go!
Guacamole very easy, I donít ñ I donít usually get too strict with recipe but guacamole
is one where you can just go nuts and do whatever you like.
You could throw different flavors in here.
I wouldnít really recommend herbs, they probably wonít go very well and there we go.
Thereís the base, do with it what you will.
One thing Iím taking this on a hike tomorrow and the lime juice is critical to prevent
the browning of the avocado so if youíre eating it right away you can leave the lemon
or the lime but if youíre storing it I would highly recommend putting some citrus in there.
Citrus has vitamin C which is an antioxidant which prevents the browning or the oxidation
of the avocado.
So you can find the recipe such as it is at HealthyVeganRecipes.net.
Iím Heather and this is Freshly Served.