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It is summer, which means avocados and watermelon are the two main staples in my diet. While I love to eat watermelons straight from the source, I like to incorporate avocados into different recipes. The other day I was dreaming of ripe, summer avocados and I thought to myself why don’t we mix it up a bit? Don’t get me wrong, I love a classic guacamole, but sometimes it is fun to be different.

Keep reading for 3 different ways to make somewhat loaded guacamoles. Let guests enjoy each recipe separately or make yourself a trio flight. We won’t tell if you don’t share!

I’ll admit my food images are usually a little better than this and I had high hopes, but was in a bit of a time crunch. I prepped these to share with friends at an outdoor movie night - Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. If you’re in LA and have the chance to attend, do it. It would have been cute to shoot the guac on our new table in a bag, but the 16 oz prep containers I packed the guac in were a little less than aesthetically pleasing. Oh well. I can confirm that all three were a hit with our friends though!

Onto the recipes… Note that I made these as a trio, so there’s a smaller amount of each versus each being an average sized batch. You could easily double a recipe to make more of one, if you aren’t going to prepare them all. I used 8 total avocados, so about 2 2/3 avocado per batch, yielding in a little less than 16 oz of each kind. I know that avocados aren’t always the same size, so I wanted to share the weight in grams, which you’ll see below. One last tip I’ll give is to season slowly. Remember that you can always add salt but you can’t take it away. I hope you like these twists on a classic guacamole. Enjoy!

Caramelized Onion and Roasted Garlic Guacamole

I’ll admit that the prep part is a little time consuming, but it has minimal effort and less than a handful of ingredients.

INGREDIENTS

• 242 grams of avocado from its shell (about 2 and 2/3 of an avocado depending on the size)

• 3 TBS caramelized yellow or white onion, diced

• 1 garlic head (about 6 roasted pods)

• 1 lime wedge

• Salt to taste

• Pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat your oven to 425 F. While it is heating up, dice your onion and caramelize it, then set aside. Note that I cut half of the onion, caramelized all of them, then measured what I needed by taste. I used the rest of the caramelized onions in a scramble the next morning. So delicious!

Take your head of garlic and chop the top off so you can see the tops of all the pods and they are opened. Place on a sheet of foil, then drizzle some olive oil on top of the opened head, then sprinkle a pinch of salt on top. Fold the foil up and around so the top is sealed by twisting or folding of the foil. Place on an edged cookie sheet (in case the oil tries to drip off), then put in the oven and roast for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, take your avocado, place it in a bowl, then mash to a desired consistency. Squeeze in a lime wedge, stir, and set aside.

Check on the garlic. Once it is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool for about 15 minutes. Once it has, scoop out a pod at a time with a fork or your finger, then gently smash it on a cutting board. I used about 6 pods (there are more than that in a head), but you can always add them one by one and fit your flavor profile best.

Add your onions and garlic to the bowl with the avocados, then mix. Taste, then start to add in the salt and pepper as desired. Honestly it doesn’t need a ton of salt or pepper because of the wonderful flavor of the onions and garlic. This recipe is a great alternative for your friends who don’t enjoy the taste of cilantro!

BLT Guacamole

I was inspired by a classic BLT sandwich for this recipe. Note that it doesn’t have actual lettuce (or bread for that matter) in it, but it does have cilantro and that is leafy, so does that count? No ahead prep is needed for this recipe unlike the other two recipes here, though you can prep the bacon and onion ahead if you’d like.

INGREDIENTS

• 242 grams of avocado from its shell (about 2 and 2/3 of an avocado depending on the size)

• 2 strips of bacon

• 2.5 TBS yellow or white onion, diced

• 1 vine tomato, diced

• 1/2 TBS jalapeño, seeded and diced

• 1 TBS cilantro, chopped

• 1 lime wedge

• Salt to taste

• Pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Take your avocado, place it in a bowl, then mash to a desired consistency. Squeeze in a lime wedge, stir, and set aside.

Cook the bacon in a skillet on the stove versus baking it in the oven. We are going to use the grease! While your bacon is cooking, dice the onion. Note that you can use the leftover, uncooked onion from the first recipe if you’d like / are making the trio. After your bacon is cooked, toss your onions in the same pan and sauté them, then set aside. I made more onions than necessary and measured out what I needed, then kept the rest for a hot dog topping. Once your bacon has cooled you can slice or crumble.

Next take the tomato, jalapeño (seeded), cilantro and dice them. You can add these straight into the bowl with the avocado and mix. If your bacon and onions have cooled you can add them in now. If everything has cooled / isn’t warm, add in the cilantro. You don’t want to wilt it. Lastly, add salt and pepper to taste. Do not over salt this - remember it has bacon in it which is naturally salty.

Exotic Guacamole

I really didn’t know what to call this one, but exotic felt like the best word to describe it. Pomegranates are native to Iran, lemons are from to areas in and around China, and well, the parsley I used is Italian. According to the Oxford dictionary, exotic means “from a distant foreign country” and I felt like that fit the bill.

A bit of prep is required for this as you need to make pickled onions, but it is worth it. It’s not hard, it just takes a little time, but you can use the leftovers with other meals. I’ve used several pickled onion recipes like this one and the Defined Dish one (scroll down in her post for it) and they are all yummy. You can’t go wrong!

INGREDIENTS

• 242 grams of avocado from its shell (about 2 and 2/3 of an avocado depending on the size)

• 3 TBS pickled red onions

• 1.5 TBS pomegranate seeds

• 1 TBS parsley, chopped

• 1/2 TBS serrano pepper de-seeded, diced

• zest from 1 lemon plus a lemon wedge

• 1 lime wedge

• Salt to taste

• Pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Prep and make your pickled red onions. See above if you want a recipe suggestion.

Take your avocado, place it in a bowl, then mash to a desired consistency. Squeeze in a lime wedge and lemon wedge, stir, and set aside.

Dice your parsley and serrano pepper, then zest your lemon. Add to bowl with the avocado. Next add the pickled red onions, pomegranate seeds, and parsley, then mix. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I hope you try these and love them as much as I do. Let me know what you think and if there are any other flavors you would want me to try to incorporate into a guacamole recipe… or anything for that matter. I’m trying to get back into my recipe development, especially since cooking solids for the twins. Happy dipping or spooning? I won’t tell if you go in with a spoon instead!

Side note - I prepared these for a movie night at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. If you’re in LA and haven’t experienced it before, definitely check out Cinespia. You can bring your own food, drinks (even alcohol) and have a little picnic under the palm trees. Some people even dress up for theme of the movie showing! I always like to wear comfortable shoes like my Adidas Nizza Platform shoes because there ends up being quite a bit of waiting in line and walking. Honestly both Nick and I are very into Adidas womens athletic shoes and mens athletic shoes right now because of how comfortable they are! Buy tickets early, because a lot of the time they sell out! Enjoy and for sure tell me if you go, especially if you make my recipes!

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