I’ve lived in my new place all summer now and apparently never bothered to look up when I walked out the door. My friend Shane last week mentioned there was an avocado tree right outside my door and I was surprised. He picked a whole bunch of them for me and I’ve been patiently waiting all week for them to ripen.

I decided to make 3 types of guacamole: basic, mango, and hot roasted pepper. The basic is just the traditional with some tomatoes, onions, garlic, and lime juice. The mango is the same, just add some chopped mango. The roasted pepper obviously has a roasted bell pepper, and for some kick, some Serrano hot peppers.

Basic Guacamole
1/4 cup onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 medium tomatoes 
2 large ripe avocados
Juice of 2 limes 
Pinch of salt

Chop the onion and garlic into desired sizes. I like my a little guacamole a chunky so I did mine into small chunks. Add to a large bowl.

Cut the tomatoes into about the same size the onion. Add to the bowl.

Avocados aren’t hard to cut up, but they can be messy. Alton Brown explains it better than I can, so watch from minutes 2:50 to 3:40 of this clip if you don’t know how.

Chop the avocado into equal size pieces to the onion and tomato and add to the bowl.

Now squirt on the juice from the limes and sprinkle on the pinch of salt.

Mix it all up, breaking up the avocado chunks a little bit as you go and now you have yummy basic guacamole!

Mango Guacamole
1/4 cup onion
1 clove garlic
1 cup mango
1 medium tomato
2 large avocados
Red pepper flakes
Juice of 1 lime
Pinch of salt

 
Peal and chop up the mango into desired chunks.

Follow all the directions above for the basic guacamole, but just add the mango and some red pepper flakes. I add the red pepper in this one because I like the contrast with the sweetness of the mango.

Hot Roasted Pepper Guacamole
1/4 cup onion
1 clove garlic
1 medium tomato
1 bell pepper, roasted
2 ripe avocados
2 Serrano peppers
Juice of 1 lime
Pinch of Salt

I decided to puree this version because I thought the flavors would mesh together better. This is my new favorite way to make guacamole now!

You can buy the jarred roasted red peppers if you like for this, but I roasted my own. Just spray a pan with cooking spray and the pepper as well. Place under the broiler until the skin is charred black.

Once it is cooled (unless you like burning yourself on hot vegetables), peal off the brunt skin and chop into chunks.

Follow the steps for the basic guacamole, but this time throw everything, including the roasted pepper but not the Serrano pepper, into a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.

Next chop the stem tops off the Serrano peppers. Then cut in half lengthwise. If you don’t like it hot, you can tone it down by scraping out the seeds.

I like it hot so I so i added the whole thing to the blender. Blend until it is incorporated.

I topped some homemade black beans with the basic guacamole for lunch today.

Good thing I like guacamole because I’ll be eating the rest of the week now!