This week’s recipe is a simple, easy guacamole for summer! I also did a recipe roundup over on the YouTube channel with a bunch of my favorite summer recipes, many of which I’ve released over the last couple of months, along with some I’m pulling from last year. If you try out this recipe or any from the video, please share it with me by commenting here or on my YouTube channel, or even tagging me in a photo on Instagram @plantsnotplastic. I read every comment and love hearing from you. Enjoy!
Simple Easy Guacamole
Equipment
- knife & cutting board
Ingredients
- 3 large avocados
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 medium onion red, white or yellow; diced; ~1/2 cup
- 1/2-1 regular jalapeno finely diced
- 2 medium Roma tomatoes diced
- 1 clove garlic optional; minced
Instructions
- Seed, slice and remove avocado from the skin and transfer to a medium mixing bowl.
- Mash the avocado, then add lime juice and spices and stir well to combine.
- Fold in onion, jalapeno & tomatoes.
- Serve right away with chips, in a burrito or however else you'd like, or refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour to chill it first.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Video Transcript:
Welcome back to Plants Not Plastic. I’m Nikita, and today I’m gonna show you how to make some of my favorite summer recipes, all of which are delicious, inexpensive, simple, healthy, whole foods, plant based, low fat and oil free.
With the Fourth of July just a couple days away and being thick into summer, I wanted to make this video to give you a bunch of last-minute options for the upcoming holiday. I’ve been working on quite a few this month already and I also did a couple last month, with entrees like Black Bean Burgers or Mushroom Pulled Pork with Vegan Coleslaw, sides like Macaroni & Pasta Salad, and my summer dessert from last week, Strawberry Cobbler, which can really be made with any or a mix of berries, fresh or frozen. So if you haven’t seen those yet or they sound like the good makings of a celebratory meal, I’ll leave all of them linked below so you can go check them out. Today, though, I wanted to pull even more options together from last year and provide you with one more simple, traditional dip, guacamole.
But before we dive in, if you’re you’re new here or have been lurking around for awhile but you’re not already subscribed and you like this video, click the subscribe button and the bell so you can get notifications whenever I upload a new video. I release new content weekly, would love to have you stick around and appreciate the support. We’re going to quickly run through these dishes, all of which require little or no cooking, just a few ingredients and taste great.
Starting with the refried beans, I typically make these with black beans and spice them up with a habanero, but you can make them with the classic pinto beans and a milder chili like jalapeno or serrano if you want to, or you can leave the pepper out altogether and they still come out awesome. Here’s everything you’ll need for this recipe. For each recipe, I will leave everything in the description box below along with a link to the blog post with printable recipe card. You’ll do the veggie prep by dicing the onion, mincing the garlic, and finely dicing the pepper. I recommend using a glove or washing your hands right away, or even using lemon or lime juice to get the pepper oils off you hands as quickly as possible once you’re done cutting it so that you don’t suffer for hours after cutting them. I’ll be honest here, I did not use gloves, I did not wash my hands quickly enough, and they did burn for a little while after. Throw all three of these ingredients into a small pot and sauté over medium heat, stirring frequently until you get some browning on the bottom of the pan before adding your beans to deglaze. I’m using canned beans here because I forgot to cook some dry ones in advance, but if you’re using dry you want 1 dry cup of beans which will make 3 cups of cooked, reserving 6oz of their cooking water to include when you re-fry them in the pot. Bring everything to a boil before reducing to a simmer and cooking for 25 minutes uncovered, stirring every so often to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom. Remove them from the heat, mash them to your preferred texture, season with salt and they’re ready to eat.
Next up we have the fresh, spicy Pico de Gallo though you can make it mild if you want to by just leaving the peppers out. Here’s all the ingredients you’ll need for this one. This is really as simple as cutting everything up and throwing it together, dicing the tomatoes, finely dicing your peppers, dicing your onion, mincing your garlic, and adding your lime juice and optional chili flakes. Season with salt and dig in.
Next we’ve got this weeks’ new recipe, a simple, classic guacamole, because you can’t do summer without a guacamole. Here’s the ingredient rundown. Prep your veggies, dicing the tomatoes, mincing the garlic finely dicing your pepper, again, if you’re using it. You can leave it out and it just won’t have that little bit of kick. Then half your avocadoes, remove the pit, and get the flesh out of the skin. Can we also just pause for a second, though, and appreciate how freaking beautiful these avocadoes are? In a mixing bowl, mash the avocadoes before adding lime juice, cumin, cayenne and salt and mixing well. While the lime juice adds some really great flavor, it will also prevent your guacamole from oxidizing and turning brown as quickly. Add your veggies, the tomato, garlic and peppers, and mix evenly to incorporate them and then it is either ready to serve right away or you can store it for 30 minutes or more so that it develops a little more flavor and you can serve it cold.
And then last up we’ve got the outlier recipe that does into go in a burrito like everything else could, but this is a one that is a great cold dish to enjoy for lunch or dinner during the summer. Ingredients again here for this one. Dice your celery and onion, then add your chickpeas to a large mixing bowl. I used canned because I forgot to cook dry beans before this, but either way you’ll want to drain them completely before mashing them using a pressing and twisting motion until there are almost no whole chickpeas left. You can also do this in a food processor, but I just prefer to make less of a mess, and you can also use white beans in place of chickpeas but keep in mind that the mixture is going to end up softer and wetter, so you really want to make sure that you drain the white beans if you use them in place of the chickpeas. Add all the rest of your ingredients; the celery, onion, pepper, salt, mustard and relish and mix everything together. And that’s it, it’s ready to enjoy or you can store it in the fridge for weekly meal prep.
All of these recipes are super tasty and better yet, easy. I love to make the salsa, beans and guacamole for burritos throughout the week, and the chickpea salad has been a staple in our house for years. You saw they require limited cooking so you’re not heating up your kitchen during the summer, they’re fresh and flavorful and will definitely impress anyone you have over during summer or you can just enjoy them all to yourself. Also if you’re looking for more summer recipe inspiration, you can check out my full playlist which has all of these and more. And if you’re trying to stick to a whole food plant based diet, they’re all just more recipes you add to your collection. For how they stack up against an alternative you can check out the full nutritional label on the blog for each recipe that links out to Cronometer. All of these recipes, though, are the same as my others. When comparing it to a non-vegan or processed vegan option, without specialty items or animal products they will cost you less to make, with plant-based ingredients they’ll have more fiber, and without oil or butter you’ll get to eat more of them for the same number of calories. So that’s it for today’s folks! If you try any of these out, please let me know in the comments. Also just feel free to say hi. I love hearing from you guys! You can also subscribe to my blog for recipes right to your inbox and connect with me on social media for day to day content. And don’t forget to subscribe, click the bell, give this video a thumbs up, and come back next time. Bye!
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