(upbeat music) - Hey everyone, it's Natasha
from natashaskitchen.com and today, I'm gonna share with you our ultimate guide to
making epic guacamole. If you spend any time at our house, you know we are ridiculous
about our guacamole. It is on the weekly,
sometimes biweekly rotation, and these are our favorite three ways to make just the best guacamole, and I want some, so let's get started. When you're picking avocados
at the grocery store, you can tell if they're
ripe if you can push them and they feel slightly soft but not mushy. And when you pop off the stem,
it will be green underneath. To safely remove the pit from an avocado, use a knife to slice it in half. With the avocado half on the counter, lunge the knife into the
pit, then twist to remove it. Now, using a paper towel,
remove the pit from the knife. It should pop right off. (chuckles) To scrape the avocado out of its skin, you can either use a fruit scoop or just a regular soup spoon. You'll need three,
large avocados for this. Transfer those to a large mixing bowl. Next, use a potato masher and coarsely mash up those avocados. Remember, we're making a chunky guacamole, so you don't wanna puree
the avocados at this point. There should still be some good texture. Next, we'll add three tablespoons of freshly squeezed lime juice. That's one tablespoon of fresh lime juice for every one large avocado. Squeeze the fresh lime juice right over your avocados
to keep it from browning while you prep the rest
of your ingredients. Chop half of a large white onion, and white onion is classic for guacamole because it has a clean and sharp flavor. Next, dice up one medium tomato, and you can seed the tomato because tomatoes can be pretty juicy and you don't want the extra
juice in your guacamole, or you can just dice it up and then pat it dry with a paper towel to get rid of the extra juice. Roma tomatoes also work well, and if you have them,
garden-fresh tomatoes will take your guacamole
to the next level. Next, chop up 1/3 bunch of
cilantro or about half a cup, and we love cilantro for guacamole and it is hard to beat, so do not skip it. Add your chopped ingredients over your avocados as you prepare them. We've got the cilantro with
the white onion, tomatoes, and last but not least,
half a teaspoon of salt and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. Stir that together just until
the ingredients are combined. You don't wanna overmix because you don't wanna lose
that lovely chunky consistency. If you're not serving
the guacamole right away, here's a brilliant tip. Take a sheet of plastic wrap and place it directly over
the surface of the guacamole. Remember, air is the enemy of avocados, so this will help prevent browning. I'm gonna pop that in the refrigerator while I show you how to make
a super yummy corn guacamole. Since I've already shown you
how to peel those avocados, we're not gonna lose any time. Mash up another three large avocados. And add three tablespoons
of fresh lime juice. I'm using two ears of corn
on the cob that I've grilled, and I have a super easy
tutorial on my blog for this. I will link to it in the notes. I love that it has those charred sides and it's sweet and smoky. Once you've cut the corn off of the cobs, coarsely break up the
kernels with your hands. And there's no need for perfection here. I love big pieces of corn in my guacamole. Add that to your bowl
with your mashed avocados. For this guacamole, we're
using half of a red onion for a little bit sweeter flavor. Also add half a cup of cilantro,
half a teaspoon of salt, a quarter teaspoon of pepper, and half a teaspoon of ground cumin for a little bit of smoky flavor. Again, stir just until it's combined, then cover tightly with plastic wrap to keep it from browning. Even if you're storing this
in Tupperware with a lid, make sure you still put that plastic wrap directly over the
surface of the guacamole. This one tip has kept many batches of guacamole looking beautiful. Now, last but certainly not least, the third batch is a spicy guacamole, and this is my husband's favorite. Make sure to add that fresh lime juice, and I bet you've already
memorized these steps because this is so easy. Add half of a diced white onion, one diced tomato, and half
a cup of fresh cilantro. And now, for the fun part, because this is a spicy guacamole, you'll need some spicy peppers. If you're looking to keep it pretty mild, you'll wanna use two jalapeno peppers. For a spicier guacamole, we
love these serrano peppers, which are twice as hot as the jalapenos. And if you're really
serious about your heat, you might go for a habanero, but you might regret your
decisions in the morning. Serrano peppers are our happy medium, but they are still spicy so I do recommend using some
gloves when dicing them up. I will link to the gloves
I'm using in the notes. To dice up serrano peppers,
first, cut off the tops, then slice them each
in half the long ways. Use a teaspoon to scrape
out the seeds in the center. Leaving the seeds in will make for an even spicier guacamole. Hoo, and I can already
feel the heat from these in my eyes and in my throat. Wow, it's gonna be good. To chop up the spicy peppers, first, slice them into thin strips. Then finely chop them up
into small, even dice. And I do like to make sure
they are finely chopped up so they blend well into the guacamole and no one gets that surprising big bite of spicy hot pepper on their chip. Add those to your bowl of guacamole. And if you don't already have one, the food scraper makes prep
work so much easier and faster. I will link to this in the notes. I have my favorite garlic press here. I'm gonna press in two medium
cloves of fresh garlic. The garlic adds another
little spicy kick of flavor. To finish it off, season the guacamole with half a teaspoon of salt, a quarter teaspoon of black pepper, and half a teaspoon of ground cumin. The cumin is like a secret ingredient that we've discovered over the years as we perfected our guacamoles. Try it and you will fall in love. All right, all of my guacamole dreams are coming true right now. I'm gonna go get the other two batches and we are gonna do this taste test. It's party time. (giggles) All right. (laughs) I am ridiculously so excited right now because this is what I get to
look at right now. (laughs) Okay. All right, I'm gonna bring it down. I'm gonna bring it down so
I can do this taste test. We're gonna start with the
classic chunky guacamole. Ah, and I love the
texture in all of these. I love it when there are some
guacamole chunks on the chip. So good. I actually look for the bigger chunks. Okay, here we go. Mmm. Mmm. Wow. That, my friends, is a slam dunk. Authentic guacamole. It's simple and perfect
just the way it is. And that ratio of avocados
to lime juice is perfect. Limes are classic for guacamole, but if you don't have limes in the fridge, you can substitute with fresh lemon juice but make sure, make sure it's fresh. It makes all the difference. Ah, it's so, so delicious. I love this as an appetizer or a topping. Wow. Okay, moving on to guacamole number two which is our roasted corn. I should say grilled corn guacamole. Oh my goodness, look at that. This not only has big pieces of avocado, it has big pieces of
grilled corn. (laughs) This is one of my all-time favorites. It is so good. Okay, here we go. Mmm, mmm. Mmm. Again, so fresh with the lime juice. And I love the notes
of sweet from the corn, and smoky because it was grilled. And because it has that
little bit of cumin in there, makes all the difference. Don't skip that cumin. Creamy, chunky corn guacamole. And then last but certainly not least, the one we probably make the most often because we love spicy guacamole. And it's a really nice thing to do to put a little bit of
sliced peppers on top to let people know that
it's gonna be spicy, okay? Don't be vicious. (laughs) Give them warning. All right, here we go. Okay, I don't know, maybe
I should get some water for these (laughs) serranos. And you can also use
jalapeno, which is more mild, sometimes a little too mild
for me, but okay, here we go. Mm, I'm ready, brace myself. (laughs) Mmm. Wow. It's spicy and a little bit fiery but it's not overwhelming,
it is just right. And if you really wanna go
crazy, use the habanero. Just let people know that you did. This just made my day and I cannot wait to eat the rest of this. And also the cumin in this one too, it makes it taste like authentic guacamole that you got out of a really
good Mexican restaurant. It's hard to pick a favorite. It really is. Make them once and you'll
make them over and over. You are now a guacamole boss. (laughs) Thanks for watching and we'll
see you in our next video.
