- I'm Lena and today, I'm on the quest
to make the best guacamole ever.
I'm going to test some celebrity recipes,
some classic recipes, and some downright strange recipes.
We'll taste test along the way until I find my perfect guac.
Recipe number one. Have it right here on the shelf.
We must always do what Beyoncé tells us to do.
(laughing)
♪ Okay, ladies, now let's get in formation ♪
- All right, I'm gonna hop to it.
So, I'm gonna get this pit out.
Safety first. Always use one of these to avoid avocado hand.
Avocado hand is when someone tries to take a pit
out of their avocado without the proper safety precautions
and they just take it and they just whack it
and then they cut their hand and it's just gross,
and if you've seen the pictures, you know.
So, I like to use just a little kitchen towel,
just for some added support.
And then you wanna use the base of the knife
to get into the pit. Ta-daa!
One of my favorite people, Beyoncé.
Hers is a very classic; it's a good way to start.
Nothing crazy, although she does require you to smash
the avocado with a spoon.
I will be making smaller versions of all these
because avocados are expensive,
and I don't wanna waste too much ingredients.
So, we're gonna do small batches of each.
Recipe number two: our girl Chrissy Teigan's recipe.
- I'm like, it's happening!
- [Lena] Ground cumin, cayenne, garlic powder,
diced tomato, chopped cilantro, yellow onion, garlic.
She uses cheddar cheese in her guac.
She's a nut-job, but we love her.
- I love it!
- Recipe three: peach guac.
I've had guac with mango before, but peach sounds really
good to me, so I'm excited to try it.
Besides that, it's a pretty normal recipe.
You got your typical avocado, lime juice,
jalapeños, red onion.
It also is our first recipe of the day with jalapeño,
which is kind of crazy to me.
It's like an integral part, I feel like.
My perfect guac has to be spicy.
Without it, it can just taste a little flat.
So, our next recipe, we're grilling
our avocados,
so we're putting the avocado straight on the grill,
until it gets like, a little bit charred.
I'm really, really stoked to see how this turns out,
'cause I feel like some smoky flavor
could be really nice with our guac.
And then we'll mash it up; proceed as usual.
Recipe number five comes from the New York Times,
via this restaurant in New York called ABC Cocina
that makes a green pea guacamole!
- [Man] That's nasty!
- I've always wanted to try this recipe
because it sounds crazy. It's a lot more difficult
than your average guac recipe.
You have to use a food processor,
which is like, one of the great things about guac
is that you don't need any special equipment.
So I'm already a little salty at this recipe,
but I'm gonna try it, starting with (mumbles) the peas.
I just put this jalapeño under the broiler
and got it super duper charred.
It's been sitting covered under plastic wrap for 15 minutes,
just to sort of allow the skin to steam
and be easier to release.
We're just peeling off all that charred bit
and leaving the nice, cooked jalapeño below.
I just put the peas in the ice bath to stop the cooking
so they wouldn't get too mushy and overcooked.
Going in to our food processor:
roasted jalapeño, fresh jalapeño, cilantro, salt.
I feel like I'm making baby food right now.
This recipe got a lot of attention.
Obama tweeted, I don't want peas in my guac.
New York Times was never the same.
I think once Obama throws shade at you, you're just over.
- Obama out.
(audience laughing)
- So these are five guacamoles that we are trying today.
- [June] Okay. Beyoncé.
- [Lena] Beyoncé. Very classic.
- It looks the most, like loose. Almost watery.
- But it looks like the most classic like,
normal homemade guac.
- Yeah. I feel like it could go a little harder
on the lime-- - [June] Harder.
- [Lena] But I'm like--
- [June] It's still pretty fatty.
- [Lena] Yeah.
- That's like a six-point-five, seven.
- Yeah, yeah. It's passable. You guys might already be
familiar with Chrissy's recipe, but it uses cheddar cheese.
- Yeah.
- [June] Ready. It's spicier. Which I like.
- There is a lot of cumin. - Mm hmm.
- Cheese just doesn't belong.
- Lime juice plus cheese, just like, not a good-
- [Makinze] No. I like the spice level.
The cheese just-- I can't.
- But I think if this one could have a little more spice,
just to oomph it up, this one is
probably better than this one for me.
- Do you guys put tomatoes in your guac?
Do you like tomatoes in guac?
- I think I like it.
- I like tomatoes in guac, but when I'm normally making guac
it's like, oh, let me just throw some stuff together
really fast- - [Lena] Yeah.
- And I normally don't add tomatoes.
- [Lena] Yeah.
- But I do like it.
All right. Make sure I get peach.
- I got excited cause I thought those
were mangoes when I first saw them.
- It's not as bad as I thought.
- I would want the skin peeled.
- Grilled. So this has been sitting out for awhile,
so it's pretty much at room temperature.
But when I first pulled it off,
it was like very-
- [June] Do you want it to be warm?
- [Lena] I don't think I would want it to be warm.
- [June] 'Cause I don't think I would either, yeah.
- [Lena] Yeah.
- I don't know how I feel about warm avocados.
Okay, but actually, I like it.
- I kind of like it, too.
- This is my favorite.
- Yeah. It's got the like,
the cleanest avocado taste.
I could almost go for just like, more grill.
Like just keep grilling all the stuff, right?
- Also, acid. - Yeah.
- I was gonna say, yeah. It still needs a little more
lime juice or something. - [Lena] Yeah.
- But other than that, it's really good.
- Any peppers, jalapeños?
- Yeah. There's some jalapeños.
- [June] I just want more spice and more acid.
- [Makinze] Yeah. I'm a fan.
- [Lena] Maybe I'd grill the jalapeño too,
but not the onion. I feel like the onion needs to be fresh.
Finally we'll understand what everyone was so angry about.
- [June] I'm so upset about this.
- It's not guac. It tastes a little like baby food.
- Yeah, also really sweet.
- It kind of heightens the jalapeños'
fruitiness a little bit, which is very interesting.
I also see sunflower seeds in here.
- Yes. For garnish only.
- Okay, I actually like this quite a bit.
- [Lena] Yeah?
- I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but it's different
and it's quite refreshing for a guacamole.
- It's light. - Yes.
This one is great. It has solid avocado flavor.
- This is like service, to me, at a fancy restaurant.
- [Lena] Yeah.
- But this is what I would make and serve to people.
- [Lena] Right. Great. Thank you guys so much.
Lots to think about!
- Bye!
- Ready for round two. Five more recipes.
This time around, I'm really intrigued.
There's a lot of recipes online
incorporating various types of dairy into guac,
which I know sounds kind of intense,
but we have a dip on Delish that's like
a spinach artichoke avocado dip
with cream cheese that's really,
really good, so I'm trying a batch with cream cheese.
I'm trying a batch with low-fat greek yogurt.
Love me some yogurt. And a batch with mayonnaise.
And also, I saw a couple little interesting
flavor add-ins online that I wanted to try.
Worcestershire sauce and we have tequila.
(Lena humming)
- Tequila!
- Let's do it!
I think we should just start with
the one I'm most nervous about, which is the mayo.
I am a recent convert to mayonnaise,
and now all of a sudden I'm like,
kinda makes everything taste good, right?
I worry that mayo and avocado are super similar,
super fatty, and I'm just wondering
if it's gonna be too much, but you know,
there's nothing to it but to do it.
(drum roll)
It's heavy. It's really heavy. It's not bad!
You could not do a big scoop and feel good about it.
Just too much fat on fat, I think.
I understand the idea of why people would like it.
It is super creamy and smooth; it's just a bit too much.
Yogurt, on the other hand, much less fat.
Maybe I will like it more.
Also nice, actually. Much nicer than the mayo.
It is a little distracting. Like the flavor,
you know the Greek yogurt has a certain like,
astringency to it, kind of takes away from the avocado.
It's good; it doesn't feel guac to me.
Last dairy-heavy one. Cream cheese.
Sort of similarly to the yogurt,
there's like a nice tang that comes from the cream cheese,
but I again, just sort of worry about it
kinda sitting like a lump in your stomach.
It's like, very heavy. It's pretty intense.
It does taste good, I will say.
Cream cheese is delicious, and once again,
anything it touches makes it taste better.
Might be a little hard to snack on something that intense.
Worcestershire Sauce. Did I say it right?
A little bit like, malty. Salty and malty.
I kind of like it, but it also just kind of steers us
away from a classic,
rightly limey, citrus-ey, herby flavor.
It's got something to it, though.
I do kind of like it. I'm scared!
The texture doesn't look too good.
It's interesting!
If you really love the taste of tequila it's not a bad idea,
but it gives you that hit in the back of your throat.
To summarize this round,
I don't think I really loved any of these.
If you're gonna add some dairy to your guacamole,
I would choose something with more tang,
like yogurt or cream cheese, but realize that addition
is gonna make it pretty heavy.
From what I have gathered from the tests of the day
are that adding more fat, not so good,
but adding a little smoky flavor via charring, very good.
First, I'm gonna preheat my grill pan to medium heat.
Cut open my avocados and put them cut-side down onto my
grill pan along with two whole jalapeños
and two garlic cloves with the skin still on.
I'm turning the jalapeños occasionally,
along with the garlic cloves,
just to get them nice and charred.
And as soon as the avocados have a nice char marks,
and the peppers and garlic are tender,
I'm gonna just take them out.
We'll scoop our charred avocado into a bowl,
along with our garlic, which we will peel.
And we'll mash them together, add in some lime juice.
With the jalapeños, we're gonna take the stems off,
cut them open, take out the seeds,
and them flip them over and scrape off
some of the darker brown bits from the skin.
Chop those up, add 'em to the bowl,
with the avocado and garlic, and then we're just adding
some cilantro, onions, and some tomatoes.
Stirring it all together, seasoning with salt,
and good to go!
I'm tasting it one more time,
just to make sure it's all good.
It's really good, very avocado forward,
if you're into that kind of thing.
The onions lend a really good crunch, very crucial part.
A little heat from the jalapeños,
lots of freshness from the herbs and the tomatoes.
It's my ideal.
- This is so good, Lena! - This is really good.
- [Lena] I'm so glad you like it!
- I'm getting chips all over myself.
- I like the lime flavor.
- This is the kind of guac that
you just don't walk away from. - [Lena] That's okay.
- You all know what I'm talking about.
- Thanks guys. Really appreciate you guys eating some guac.
- It's very good. - Thanks!
- Can I keep it? - Yeah!
What do you put in your guac?
I would love to hear. Put it in the comments below.
(electronic music)