The Blender Tip For Guacamole That Lets The Avocado Shine
To make basic guacamole, you only need a knife to cut the avocado and a fork to mash it up. If you were to use a blender instead, you'd end up with something a lot closer to salsa de aguacate, or avocado salsa. Avocado salsa is made with many of the same ingredients as guacamole, but because they're blended up, sometimes with a splash of water, it has a runnier consistency. Many people prefer it over guacamole because you can taste all the flavors in a single bite, which isn't always the case with guacamole. That's because how you use your blender is important: For the most flavorful guacamole, keep your avocados away from the device and blitz everything else.
Guacamole traditionally calls for mashed avocados and diced-up onion, cilantro, and chili peppers. But when these ingredients are cut into larger chunks, it's easy to end up getting a mouthful of onion or a massive hit of spice. An easy way to prevent this from happening is to simply chop everything more finely. However, using a blender is a much more effective way to go about it.
How to make guacamole with a blender
Considering one of the mistakes you could be making with guacamole is over-mashing the avocado, using a blender might seem like the last thing you'd want to do. But you don't have to worry about ending up with overly mushy guacamole because Michelin-starred chef Justin Bazdarich's method involves only blending up all of the other ingredients.
At his New York restaurant Oxomoco, Bazdarich makes his signature guacamole by first adding onion, serrano chili peppers, cilantro, lime, and salt in a blender. He purees this mix until it's completely free of chunks and, in a separate bowl, roughly mashes the avocados. "This way, there's no large chunks or bold flavors, like onion, that could deter the flavor of the avocado," Bazdarich explained to Insider. Finally, he folds everything together, and as a finishing touch, he hits it with a bit of extra salt and lime. The result is a guacamole with perfectly balanced flavors.
What to do if you don't have a blender or food processor
If you don't have a special kitchen appliance that can puree your ingredients, the good news is it's still possible to achieve similar results without one. Chef Roberto Santibañez, who runs restaurants in New York City and Washington D.C., makes his guacamole almost exactly like chef Justin Bazdarich, but he uses a molcajete (a type of mortar and pestle) instead of a blender. According to the recipe he shared with Bon Appétit, He starts by chopping up white onion, serrano or jalapeno chilies, and cilantro, then puts them into the molcajete and grinds them down to paste. To help the process along, Santibañez also adds coarse kosher salt.
Since the end result isn't as liquidy as when using a blender, and the lime juice is added later, it'll take a little extra effort to seamlessly combine this paste with the avocados. Once the dip comes together, though, you'll be able to taste the difference, and you may never go back to simply chopping up your guacamole ingredients.