4 Ingredient Guacamole Recipe and Variations (2024)

This 4 ingredient guacamole recipe (with variations) is creamy, tangy, savory, and simple. It has quite a following, and for good reason. Here's how to make it.

Why we love this recipe

This 4 ingredient guacamole recipe is for people who like big, bold, beautifully balanced flavor. It:

• Uses a generous amount of lime juice, salt, and cilantro, which amps up the flavor and creates the perfect, memorable balance that stands up to everything from tortilla chips to carne asada tacos
• Uses a clever method for taking some of the bite out of the raw red onion without dulling its flavor too much
• Shows you how to cut and mash your avocados to achieve the perfect, customizable texture

I've also included some optional ingredients and substitutions, each of which makes a stellar variation all its own. I first published this recipe here way back in 2009. In the ensuing years, I've updated the post for clarity and made a few small tweaks to the recipe.

What you'll need

Here's a glance at the ingredients you'll need to make this recipe.

The essentials

• Nice, ripe Hass avocados form the base of the best guac. They're creamy and buttery and fabulous. If, like me, you don't live in an area where avocados grow, you'll still probably be able to find them at various stages of ripeness in your local stores. If you do live somewhere with plenty of access to different avocado varieties, feel free to use your favorite creamy cultivar.
• Plenty of freshly squeezed lime juice gives this recipe its gorgeous tanginess. The recipe calls for a generous amount, which we — and many of you — adore, but of course you can adjust according to your preference. Here's a next-level tip: if you live far away from where limes are grown, they can be a little one-note sometimes. Using half lime juice and half lemon juice can restore some of the nuance in this and other recipes. Fine sea salt is a tool, not an ingredient, but it's important in this recipe. A generous amount balances the acidity of the lime and enhances all the flavors. I've suggested our ideal amount, but this, too, is amenable to your customization.
• Finely diced red onion is a little bit sharp and a little bit sweet, which perfectly complements the creamy avocado. It also adds some gorgeous color. You can substitute white onion or even shallot if that's what you've got.
• In my book, chopped fresh cilantro is essential to guacamole. You can use the leaves and also some of the small, tender stems. That said, if you simply don't do cilantro, I know I won't be changing your mind here. You can leave it out or substitute thinly sliced scallions, flat-leaf parsley, snipped chives, or a combination.

The additions

• To make it spicy, add one minced jalapeño pepper with the seeds and white ribs removed
• Two plum tomatoes, diced nice and small and with the cores and seedy pulp removed, add great color, texture, and flavor
• One to two minced garlic cloves add another layer of flavor. If you use garlic, stir it together with the onion, lime juice, and salt in the first step.
• I don't often add cumin to my guac, but it does make a nice, gently smoky variation. If using, stir in ½ teaspoon ground cumin when you add the avocados.

How to make it

Here's an overview of what you'll do to make a perfect batch of this 4 ingredient guacamole recipe. You can see the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post, and get all the details in the recipe card below.

1. First you'll stir together the onion, lime juice, and salt so the acid in the lime juice has a chance to remove a little bit of the "bite" from the raw onion.
2. Halve the avocados, remove the stones, and dice the flesh right in the skins. Then use a spoon to scoop the diced avocado into the bowl.
3. Stir the avocado to coat with the lime juice mixture, then mash it with a fork. You can mash it to any consistency you like. I really like to leave some of the diced avocado as-is to achieve a little bit of textural interest.
4. Stir in the cilantro and any additional ingredients. That's it!

Expert tips and FAQs

How to ripen an avocado quickly

Avocados are beloved — yet ripening is tricky business. So much so, that it's inspired several whole genres of humor, from puns to cartoons.

The best thing you can do is to seek out a local market that sells a LOT of avocados. They'll tend to have plenty of avocados at varying levels of ripeness, and they'll tend to be less expensive than elsewhere. We have a great Mexican market in a neighboring town that's THE place to go for avocados.

If that's not an option, try to buy avocados up to a week in advance. Leave them on the counter until they're ripe, then transfer them to the fridge to maintain peak ripeness until you need them. (Refrigerating avocados is approved by the California Avocado Commission, in case you were wondering.)

If you're short on time, there are a couple of great tricks you can use.

Brown bag method

Place unripe avocados into a brown bag (an old-school brown lunch bag works great). As they ripen, avocados give off ethylene gas. Keeping them in a breathable bag helps trap enough of the gas to accelerate their ripening, without creating an overly funky environment.

Banana method

If you're really short on time and have the flexibility to keep a hawk-eye gaze on your ripening avocados, add a banana to the brown bag. Bananas produce lots of ethylene gas as they ripen, and this will help your avocados ripen even faster. Just pay attention, because they can get overripe quickly.

How to tell if an avocado is ripe

First things first: when you live in a place that's far from where avocados are grown, there is no such thing as a perfect method for determining what your avocado will look like on the inside. There are just too many variables at play. This holds for both ripeness and any funkiness (brown bits, etc.) that you may encounter. I like to joke that I just offer up a little prayer to the universe each time I open up an avocado.

That said, a prayer is not a strategy.

The stem method

The best thing you can do to gauge whether your avocado is ripe is to pop off the little piece of stem at the top. If the stem:

• Doesn't come off fairly easily, the avocado is not ripe enough.
• Comes off easily and what's exposed underneath is green, you likely have a good, ripe avocado on your hands.
• Comes off easily and what's exposed underneath is brown, you may have an overripe or not-so-good avocado.

The simple observation method

Here's what Avocados from Mexico recommends:

• Check the color. If your avocado is ripe, its skin tone will be dark green to nearly black.
• Check the skin's texture. Ripe avocados will have bumpy skin.
• Gently squeeze the avocado. A perfectly ripe avocado will yield to firm, gentle pressure without remaining dented or feeling mushy.

More favorite Mexican-inspired condiments

• Pico de gallo
• Cilantro sauce
• Pickled red onions
• Vegan queso
• Cilantro mayo

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