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These days it seems like you can’t go out to a restaurant without avocados appearing on the menu in some fashion. Guacamole is not only the most popular avocado dish in the US, but it is also my favorite avocado dish. One thing that makes guacamole so appealing is that it is very diverse, not only in the way it is served, like as a dip or inside a burrito, but in it’s ingredients as well. This variety of ingredients is what I want to touch on today. Pretty much anyone who makes guacamole regularly has their own recipe for it, myself included. But I wanted to go outside of the box a bit and come up with some new twists to this familiar dish. I feel like I have come up with a few combinations that are very interesting, and might even make it into your rotation.

A brief history of Guacamole:

Archaeological evidence shows that even though avocados have been around in the Americas since roughly 750 BC guacamole wasn’t created until the 16th century by the Aztecs. Literally translated guacamole is avocado sauce and originally consisted of avocado, onion, and tomatoes mashed together into a paste in what we would refer to now as a molcajete. This early version of guacamole was later adopted by Spanish settlers and adapted over time to the version we all know and love today.

My Basic Guacamole:

• 6 avocados

• 1 jalapeno finely diced

• 1/2 red onion diced

• 1-2 tablespoons lime juice

• small bunch of cilantro finely chopped

• Salt to taste

Mash the avocados together, then fold in the rest of the ingredients. Serve immediately.

Watermelon Guacamole:

• 1 recipe of my basic guacamole

• 1 cup small diced watermelon

• 1/4 cup feta cheese (or other crumbly cheese of your choice)

Start with the base guacamole recipe and fold in 3/4 of the watermelon and half of the feta. Place into a serving bowl and top with the rest of the watermelon and feta.

*This combination makes the whole dish feel lighter, and adds a brightness. The duo of the sweet watermelon and salty feta is classic, and I feel compliments the avocado nicely. The texture the watermelon adds almost gives it a ceviche like quality.

Cucumber and Tomato Guacamole:

• 6 avocados

• 1/2 red onion diced

• 1 jalapeno diced

• 3-4 vine ripe tomatoes

• small bunch of cilantro finely chopped

• 1/4 cup lime juice

• 1 cup finely diced cucumber (peels on)

• Salt to taste

Mash the avocados together, then fold in the rest of the ingredients minus 1/4 cup of the cucumbers and 1/4 tomatoes. Place into a serving bowl and top with the rest of the cucumber and tomatoes.

*A lot of guacamole recipes call for tomatoes but I really enjoy the addition of the cucumber with the tomatoes. It adds a different textural element to it and helps lighten the dish up, as well as providing an additional element of freshness.

These are just a few examples of what you can do with guacamole, I urge you to give them a try and see what works best for you. What I like to do when I entertain is I will make multiple varieties of guacamole and let everyone try a few different ones to see what they like. I also enjoy putting a few additional toppers out such as roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) for a textural element, cojita cheese for a little extra salt bomb, or even a bunch of chopped scallions or chives.