Holy moly it’s Guacamole Day!

Oh I know, everyday seems like it’s a day for something else, but why shouldn’t we celebrate the things we love? Chocolate, bread, guacamole or pizza, everything deserves to be celebrated in it’s own right.

The great thing about these “food” days is it gives us a chance to look at our favourite foods in a different light. Whether we’re cooking something from scratch, learning how to grow it organically or learning to use the ingredient in something new it’s a growing process. The moral of this story is use these food days to learn something new!

Back to Guacamole! If you have read some of my previous blogs you’ll no doubt know that I am a lover of Mexican food, a purveyor if you may.

Before we can jump straight into guacamole you really need to know how to choose the perfect avocado when you’re shopping at the supermarket. What’s ripe? What isn’t? If you haven’t grown up eating avocados you may not know when an avocado is at it’s peak ripeness, and it isn’t just a case of knocking on it or squeezing it, unfortunately. When it comes to checking the ripeness of an avocado it is all about removing its stem. There are three stages of ripeness that you can see just by looking under the stem:

Green: The avocado is not yet ripe. It may have only 1-2 days left until ripe. The skin on the outside may still be a bright green. These are not ready to eat.

Even coloured Tan: This avocado is perfect. It may only be perfect for 1-2 days so you better eat it quick. The skin will be a darker shade of green but not yet black.

Dark Brown: Don’t even think about eating it. In fact, don’t even peel it! This avocado is overripe. It will be mushy and smell foul on the inside.

Ok, so now  you know when to eat and when to leave it. Now on to the much more important part, making and eating guacamole.

Guacamole isn’t just for nachos. Please, if you think that, place that thought in an “inside the box” category and let’s think outside the box for guacamole. This savoury delight is perfect for so much more.

The Ultimate Guacamole Recipe

That guacamole with those homemade tortilla chips look good enough to eat don’t they? There are so many different recipes for guacamole it’s hard to find the perfect one. To be honest, when I make guacamole at home it might be a little bit different every time depending on the ingredients I have to hand. I found this recipe from Refinery 29 and it ticks all my boxes for a flavourful, delicious guacamole.

Whip some of this green gold up and use it in these fantastic recipes!

Guacamole Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Is there anything that guacamole doesn’t make better? I’m completely unsure. What I do know is that these chicken breasts are a taste explosion. This recipe featured on The Wholesome Dish blog is absolutely fabulous. The only slight change that I made to the recipe was to mix a bit of cayenne pepper and smoked paprika with the panko bread crumbs when breading the chicken. It gives the chicken a more Mexican taste, something I highly enjoy. Juicy chicken stuffed with creamy, delicious guacamole, now that sounds like dinner.

Salmon, Guacamole and Bacon Wraps

Have you been looking for a way to spruce up your lunches? This recipe from Taming of the Spoon may just be the solution to your lunch woes. The perfect combination of delicious salmon, smokey bacon and creamy guacamole it’s one succulent lunch. No fiddling with this recipe for me, nothing to fix when there is nothing broken. A word of caution….if you work in an office you just may want to bring a lunchbox, with an ice block, just in case anyone spies your salmon guacamole wraps and gets a bad case of wandering fingers!

Open Faced Breakfast Sandwich

Yes, I have even found a way to fit guacamole into breakfast without just adding a dollop of guacamole to a serving of huevos rancheros. This isn’t a recipe as such, more of an innovation by Cooking Jar. Lightly toasted, seeded bread topped with creamy guacamole, crispy, streaky bacon and a fried egg. Importantly, the egg must still have a runny centre as the combination of the runny yolk and guacamole is pure magic.

Let’s recap this phenomenal Guacamole day – we’ve introduced guacamole into nearly every facet of our food menus. We’ve combined it with runny egg, salmon and bacon and have learned it’s more versatile than mayo. In fact, just use it where you would use mayo, do something different, enjoy guacamole as it was meant to be enjoyed. Every single day.