4 Ingredient Guacamole

Easy to make version of the traditional guacamole recipe with just four ingredients. Great for serving with nachos, bread sticks, savoury crispbread or homemade buckwheat crackers.

If you’ve tried my simple avocado dip, creamy but dairy free guacamole dip or matcha infused guacamole dip before, you’ll love this simplified version.

Making guacamole dip is very easy – just mash the avocado first and add the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth.

If you want to you can blend everything in a food processor, but you don’t need to. I certainly don’t use a food processor if I’m making just a small amount from one or two avocados.

Tips on making my 4 ingredient guacamole

• Make sure your avocados are ripened fully
• Use whatever you have available as additional flavour (see my suggestions bellow)
• To get light creamy texture, use a food blender/processor or a handheld blender stick
• Taste the avocado dip before you take it out of the food processor and adjust the flavour to your taste (if it’s bland it needs more lemon juice and salt)
• Use it on the same day to prevent the avocado dip going brown

How to ripen avocado at home

One of the most important things about great tasting guacamole is to have a perfectly ripen avocado. Unless it’s specified on the packaging, avocados are often not ripen when you buy them in the shop.

Buy avocado as close to being ripen as possible – gently touch the avocado to feel if it’s at least a bit soft (but not too mushy).

You can also have a look in the frozen vegetables aisle to see if there are any frozen avocados. When food grovers or producers make frozen vegetables or fruit, they pick them as close to their natural ripenes as possible.

When the vegetables or fruits are sold fresh, they have to be picked practically un-ripen to withstand the long yourney to the supermarket and then to your kitchen.

Leaving avocado in the room temperature (instead of storing them in the fridge) overnight or 24 hrs will help with ripening the avocado.

Notes on Ingredients

Avocado

Your avocado needs to be perfectly ripened. This means that the avocado should be soft (but not brown or blotchy inside) and the avocado flesh should just come off easily when you scope it out.

If your avocado is not ripen properly, don’t use it as won’t be able to achieve that intense avocado flavour – your guacamole could taste like a watery cucumber.

Avocados are full of good nutrition – they are rich in vitamins C, B and E, have the right type of fat and also contain minerals such as potassium.

If you are on the low FODMAP diet (like me – most of the time), you need to be a bit careful about eating too much of avocado. I find that about 1/4 is fine with me, so I make the guacamole dip and then make sure I don’t have more than about 1/4 of the amount a day.

Salt

You can of course go with just regular table salt and there wouldn’t be anything wrong with that! But, the flavour of your guacamole dip (especially if we are making it with only 4 ingredients) will change significantly depending on the type of salt you choose.

Now, I don’t want you to go to a shop just because you don’t have one of these specialist salts at home, merely want you to be aware of them, so that next time you do go shopping and see one of these, you can buy them and then use them in your cooking.

Salts are great for flavouring all savoury (and to some extend sweet) dishes.

• Sea salt
• Sea salt with seawead
• Sea salt with herbs
• Rosemary seasalt
• Black salt – infused with charcoal
• Chilli sea salt
• Chipotle sea salt

Lime Juice

Lime or lemon juice will add a bit of zing to your guacamole dip and will sharpen the flavour. If you can use fresh lime or lemon juice, but if you have one of those concentrated lemon or lime juices that’s fine too.

The lime or lemon juice (or rather the natural citric acid inside) will also prevent the guacamole dip turning brown, so it will last a little longer and can be prepared in advance.

Garlic

I choose to go with garlic as my 4th ingredient, because it has a lot of flavour and it’s both more powerful and subtle than an onion.

The amount depends on how spicey you want your guacamole to be.

If your digestive system is sensitive to garlic (like mine is…), you can replace the garlic with herbs. Chives or parsley is the safest option here, although the flavour will be much milder than if you used garlic or onion.

I also often use ground smoked paprika powder, which does add a hint of spiciness and flavour without making my stomach sore.

Don’t have garlic or don’t want to use it? Swap it for these alternative ingredients

If you don’t have garlic or don’t want to use it, you can replace the garlic (as the fourth ingredient) for any of the following ingredients.

You can of course add more, but we are making this guacamole real simple this time, so no need to buy more ingredients.

I also often use my own mix of guacamole spice, which has ground and dried versions of many of the flavours below. I know that’s a bit of cheating, but it’s really quick and simple to make.

Plus I often use the guacamole spice mix to add to regular cooking, because it has a lot of lovely flavour.

• Chopped Onion
• Onion dried powder
• Garlic dried powder
• Hot Sauce
• Salsa Sauce – replaces the flavours of tomatoes, garlic, onions, peppers and cilantro
• Ketchup
• BBQ sauce
• Other flavoured red sauces – usually contain tomatoes, garlic, onions etc
• Jalapenos
• Scallions
• Cilantro (fresh coriander)
• Fresh parsley
• Chillies
• Ground Cumin Seeds – add a great rich flavour
• Chives

How to make 4 ingredient guacamole dip recipe

Cut the avocado in half and remove the pip.

Scoop out the avocado flesh into a bowl and mash with a fork.

Add all the other ingredients (garlic, salt, lime juice) and mix until smooth.

Taste and adjust the flavour to your liking by adding more lime juice, salt or garlic.

Serve straight away or cover and keep in the fridge for 1-2 days.

How to prevent guacamole going brown?

If you’ve ever peeled avocado and left it on the kitchen counter by mistake, you know that it turns brown in few hours. This is caused because the avocado is reacting with air or more specifically the oxygen in air. It’s the same problem you might have with apples turning brown.

The browning is just a change of colour and it doesn’t mean that the avocado or guacamole can’t be eaten. But it’s not very pretty, especially if you are making a feast for your family or friends.

The easiest thing you can do (and in the same way as preventing apples going brown) is to add the lime or lemon juice in the guacamole. The more you add the more citric acid will be present in the guacamole, which will delay the browning (or oxidation) process.

To make the guacamole safely ahead of the time when you want to serve it, I’d recommend to add the lime or lemon juice in and cover it very tightly with a plastic wrap. The closer the plastic wrap is to the surface of the guacamole the better (don’t be afraid to smooth it down on the guacamole itself). This prevents the air getting to the guacamole dip and again it will slow down the browning process.

Make sure that you store your guacamole in the fridge.

Can I freeze guacamole ?

Whilst I prefer to eat my guacamole straightaway and don’t tend to have a lot of leftovers, sometimes it’s handy to freeze the guacamole, especially if I make too much.

Freezing guacamole is not ideal, because defrosting makes it bit more liquid than before, but if you can live with that, you can easily freeze your guacamole sauce.

You can safely freeze your guacamole for 1-3 months (4 months at a push) in a suitable container (ideally the same size as the amount of the guacamole you have to prevent any browning).

I find that freezer bag works great as it’s easy to deflate it and push all the air out before freezing.

To defrost guacamole simply take the frozen guacamole from the freezer and defrost overnight in the fridge. If you are in a hurry, you can defrost the guacamole in the room temperature, but use it up straightaway. The same goes, if you use the defrost setting on your microwave.

If your guacamole is a bit runny and not as flavoursome as before, add some extra ingredients to it. Extra ground pepper, lime or ground spices or fresh herbs from my list above will improve the texture and flavour of previously frozen guacamole.

Eat it ideally on the same day and definitely don’t freeze it again.

What to serve your guacamole with

• tortilla chips
• tacos
• toast
• bread sticks