Healthy & Delicious: Tomatillo Guacamole
Editor's note: On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Take it away, Kristen!
[Photograph: Kristen Swensson]
My love affair with avocados began only recently, after many years of pointed avoidance. I thought their fat content was too high; they argued their health benefits more than made up for it. I thought they were expensive; they went on sale. I thought their color and inherent squishiness were kind of gross; they told me I was being a jerk.
Guac is the stuff of life.
Then, guacamole leapt onto my radar, and everything changed for the better. Guac is the stuff of life, see, and it's impossible to hate on any ingredient composing the stuff of life. I still have some concerns about the dip's fat, sure, but they're addressed easily enough with a few vegetables. Padding the guac with produce adds both texture and bulk, and does so inexpensively.
This Tomatillo Guacamole is a slightly tweaked All Recipes dish. I made it twice, and found it a tad too tangy the first time. So, for the second attempt, I dropped one of the tomatillos, added cilantro, and subbed a jalapeno in for red pepper flakes. A smaller dice helped to smooth things out as well. The result was about of quart of stellar, lighter guacamole, clocking in at 89 calories, 7.5 grams of fat, and 4.8 grams of fiber per serving.
If you're looking for another twist, my friend Rachel had great success with Gourmet's Charred Tomatillo Guacamole. Broiling the tomatillos brings out a deep, citrusy quality, eliminating the need for added lime juice.
If my only regret in life is not eating avocados sooner, I guess I'm doing OK. I still have 90 guacamole-filled years left, right?
Tomatillo Guacamole
- serves 12 -
Adapted from All Recipes.
Ingredients
3 avocados, peeled, pitted, and roughly mashed
2 medium tomatillos, husked and small diced
1 small red onion, finely chopped
3 plum tomatoes, seeded and small diced
1 medium jalapeno, minced
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Procedure
Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes, but preferably overnight.
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11 Comments:
I'm the same way! I've avoided avocados my whole life until about 6 months ago when I decided to try some fresh guac and it changed my life. Thanks for the recipe- I'll have to try it out!
Lindsay Spencer at 10:45AM on 11/16/09
I'm always surprised to hear about people that don't like avocados. I love them, personally-- scooped fresh, sliced up in sandwiches, the ice cream flavor, in sandwiches... and best of all in guacamole! I admit I've never made my own guac before, though. So thanks very much for your recipe, I will definitely give it a go.
frankweiler at 11:03AM on 11/16/09
Short cut for two dishes- make tomatillo sauce for another day.
Mash avacados, add more cilantro, jalapeno to taste if desired, sqeeze a little lime and chopped tomato, stir in some tomatillo sauce. Happy guacatillo.
CJ McD at 11:37AM on 11/16/09
serves 12? in my house, that would serve three. i generally allow an avocado per person, and i never have leftovers.
cybercita at 12:03PM on 11/16/09
Cybercita, this makes almost a quart of guacamole, which should be pretty sufficient for a party. The veggies pad it out a LOT.
Kristen Swensson at 12:15PM on 11/16/09
While you can still find them (at least in LA), you could also use green zebra heirloom tomatoes instead of tomatillos. I love using different heirlooms in guacamole - they add different flavors as well as colors
TruffleButterShuffle at 2:22PM on 11/16/09
if you love avacados, definitely try rick bayless' recipe for avacado ice cream. amazingly simple and quite possibly the best tasting thing i've ever made.
cooksultant at 3:02PM on 11/16/09
I was a late comer to avocados, and now can not get enough of them. In the 80's a colleague from Chile used to eat one for lunch every day, and we kept trying to tell her they were all fat (this was in the Snackwells fat-free cookies days), and she blithely told us she didn't care, she'd done it all her life. and she had a nice svelte body. It just goes to show.
I wonder if you'd thought about cooking the tomatillo a little - does that reduce the tartness? I always have lots of tomatillos in the fall (they're a self-sowing weed in my garden as I grow them as a trap crop for cucumber beetles) and I still haven't found something to do with them that really thrills me. I'll try this.
lemonfair at 3:50PM on 11/16/09
I could eat a quart of guac myself...
PoorOldMama at 8:06PM on 11/16/09
Naive question: don't you have to somehow cover up the guac to prevent it from turning brown overnight? I thought you had to wrap it really tight, with plastic wrap right on the surface of the guac, to prevent the air from turning it icky colors...
AdamB at 4:10PM on 11/19/09
AdamB, this stayed green a surprisingly long time (three, four days) in a plain old plastic container. I guess the tomatillo protected the avocado from oxidization?
Kristen Swensson at 10:11PM on 11/19/09