Recipe Review: Glowing Strawberry-Mango Guacamole
Resource: Angela Liddon, The Oh She Glows Cook Book: Vegan Recipes to Glow from the Inside Out
Ingredients:
2 medium avocados, pitted and roughly chopped
1/2 cup (125mL) finely chopped red onion
1 fresh mango, pitted, peeled, and finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups/375mL)
1 1/2 cups (375mL) finely chopped hulled strawberries
1/4 cup (60mL) fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped (optional)
1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30mL) fresh lime juice, to taste
Fine-grain sea salt
Corn chips, for serving
Directions:
- In a medium bowl, gently mash the avocado, leaving some chunks for textures.
- Rinse and drain the chopped onion in a strainer to wash off the sulfurous compounds. This makes the taste of the raw onion more pleasant. Fold the mango, strawberries, onion, and cilantro (if using) into the avocado. Season with the lime juice and salt to taste.
- Serve immediately with your favourite corn chips. Avocado tends to spoil quickly, so leftovers won’t keep for longer than 12 hours or so. One more reason to dig in!
*Tip: For a spicy version, add 1 diced jalapeño to the mix. Omit the seeds for a just-a-bit-spicy version.
Prep Time: This recipe required about 15-20 minutes because you have to peel and cut the ingredients. The avocado and mango can also be tricky to cut so it may require more time than just a quick slice.
Ingredients Overview:
All ingredients can be found at the grocery store which makes the recipe less of a hassle to prepare. Because strawberries are coming into season, it is a perfect time to find the freshest strawberries to add in.
Kitchen Tools Overview:
All you need is a cutting board and a sharp knife for cutting; no fancy kitchen tools required! I personally have a fancy avocado cutter but that is definitely not necessary to cut them, it just makes it easier.
Ease of Recipe (1-5, 1 most difficult, 5 most simplistic):
4/5. This recipe is very straight forward and there are no tricks. You can easily adjust the ingredients, adding more or less of something, to appeal to your own tastebuds. I took one point off simply because mangoes and avocados can sometimes be more challenging to cut. This recipe is no bake so little room for error.
Flavour Review:
I was skeptical myself adding strawberry in but I have to say, WOW, this combination of flavours is amazing. It really does offer a nice change to the traditional guacamole we have become accustomed to. By soaking the red onion beforehand, the harsh taste becomes more mild once we fold in the other ingredients. I LOVE cilantro too!!! I love the fresh and powerful taste it offers, but I do know that not everyone does. Instead try adding in parsley, another green, with a slightly less powerful, milder taste.
Recommendation:
Highly recommended! So easy and tastes delicious! It is a great recipe because it doesn’t matter how you chop the ingredients as long as you do it because it all gets mixed anyways. It is a simple and fun appetizer to bring to your next summer party that everyone will want to dig in to!
Rachel’s Tips:
We all know that avocados are very difficult to work with because we can never get them at the perfect ripeness. I put my avocados in a brown paper bag with a banana and by the following morning they were perfect. To know if they are just right, you should be able to push the avocado in but have it come back out. If when you push it in and the skin stays in, then it is slightly past its optimal ripeness.
