I was at the store to pick up milk before heading into the April Eat From The Larder Challenge and there was a screaming good deal on organic avocados. At $5 for 6 avocados I’ll admit I did sort of stock up. A dozen ripe avocados later, it was guacamole time.
Even someone like me, a girl who will eat a cup of guacamole with a spoon in one sitting, has avo-limits. Thankfully, you can freeze guacamole! The trick is – you can’t add a bunch of watery stuff like raw tomatoes or onions or dairy like sour cream if you are going to freeze your guacamole. These items just don’t freeze well. The tomatoes and onion throw a bunch of water that make your guac all watery and gross. Dairy often separates upon freezing, and besides, why dilute the richness of avocado with anything?!
So stick to the basics: avocado, salt, lime juice and maybe a bit of cilantro if you have it on hand. Luckily, this is how you should always make guac. I think anything else is just unnecessary, but if you disagree, add the extra components to your frozen guacamole after you thaw it, just before serving.
To make guac in bulk, halve your avocados and remove the pit. Use a spoon to scoop the flesh into a bowl. Then, employ a small helper to mash the heck out of the avocado with a fork or potato masher. If absolutely necessary you can do this step yourself, but then you might miss the joy of cleaning avocado splatters off every cupboard in your kitchen.
Add in salt and fresh lime juice. I season to taste with kosher salt and typically go with about half a medium lime per large avocado, but I like it on the acidic side, so adjust to your taste. Don’t skimp too much on the acid though – you don’t want your guac to turn brown on ya.
If you happen to have some cilantro in your fridge or garden and you like cilantro, chop it up and add a bit.
Fold everything together and do a final taste to make sure it is the way you like it. Set aside any guacamole you want to eat fresh in the next few days, cover it tightly, pressing plastic wrap or parchment tightly against the surface of the guacamole, and pop in the fridge.
To freeze the rest of your guacamole, set a quart size or smaller plastic freezer bag inside a cup or wide-mouth mason jar.
Scoop a reasonable meal-sized portion of guac into the bag. For us, that’s about a cup-and-a-half, but as we’ve covered, I have a guacamole-eating problem.
Shake the guacamole to the bottom of the bag, then squeeze gently towards the top of the bag. The goal is to get out the air bubbles that are trapped as best you can. Close the bag nearly closed, and work the guacamole up and toward the bag seal while squeezing out all the residual air. Close up your bag and repeat until your guacamole is bagged up.
Smooth out your closed bags so they are uniform and even. Lay flat to freeze. When the bags are fully frozen, you can stand them up like books to save space.
For best texture, use within about 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge. If you have a guac emergency, you can rush thaw your little packets of yum in a bowl of cold water as long as you are sure your bag hasn’t gotten any holes in it. Do not attempt to thaw in the microwave.
That’s it!
Do you freeze guacamole?
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Who had organic avocados on sale?? Must make a trip today.
Denise — avocados are one of the safe fruits that you don’t need to buy organic…. because of their skins and the way they grow, any pesticide residue is not going to get into the avocado. 🙂 YAY!!
Buying non organic does hurt the earth and the pollinators though sometimes our economics make us do it – organics at that price probably came from a country with no certification proof of organic growing like Mexico
Rebecca’s point is that because avocado trees don’t require spraying of herbicides or pesticides, buying conventional is the same as buying organic, both in terms of personal health of consumers and affects on the environment, farm workers, etc.
You are right. I live in Southern California and my hairdresser’s family has avocado business and she said they actually don’t spray any avocados, they are pretty pest resistant.
Interesting! I’ve never thought to do this!
I am salivating now. I LOVE avocado especially with cilantro, salt and lime. I live in Panama, and you would think we would have a ton of avocados here, but while they do, it is hard to plan which ones are ripe, you have about a 4 hour window it seems.
They don’t have HASS avocados here, which is a huge bummer. They have some larger ones that are not as flavorful…. occasionally you can find HASS avocados but they are imported!! Crazy.
Same with coconut oil. Very hard to find here in Panama, and everyone has coconut palms in their yard (we have about 10-15 coconut trees in our yard alone!) I need to figure out how to make my own.
So I had some vague recollection that the Hass is a California cultivar which is probably why you couldn’t find it in Panama. I looked it up on wikipedia and sure enough it was “created” in southern ca and every “Hass” is propagated by cuttings from that original tree. According to wikipedia at one point it went for (inflation adjusted) $15 each! I remember my parents while living in Hawaii, land of avocado, bemoaning the lack of Hass as well.
Here’s another tip. Avocado skins make a beautiful old rose natural dye for wool. I simmer dried accumulated skins for about 90 min, strain, dye.
I haven’t dyed textiles in a long time, and no one I worked with ever told me about that one! Filed away under things I might like to know again someday. Thank you!
Cool!
Bravo! I’ve been wondering if this could work. I eat more avocados & guac now instead of cheese, but don’t always have ripe avocados on hand when I want them, or forget to eat them at the perfect moment of ripeness & then they’re past their prime so I end up wasting too much. Plus, they are a bit spendy when not on sale. This will solve those problems!
Always such valuable info here, thank you!
Thank you! I love avocados and I appreciate the great information!
Have you successfully done this before? My SIL and Bro have an enormous avocado tree (they live in San Diago) and my SIL said she’s tried freezing it before and it never comes out tasting right. I don’t think she’s preparing it any different than what you are doing here.
Hmmm…I’d say the texture is softer (smoother) than fresh, but the flavor doesn’t change too much. Fresh is better, but to me homemade frozen guac tastes way better than, for example, store-bought pre-made guac. Certain ingredients like garlic can get a bit overwhelming in mixed foods when frozen. But yeah, I’ve been freezing basic smashed avocado guac for many years and it’s good enough for me.
Well, she is Mexican, so maybe her threshold for good guac is different.
Cool! I like you, suffer from a lack of control regarding guac. I probably take it to the extreme though. I tend to eat four to five avocados worth at a setting. But I saw that you left out critical elements…Garlic an jalepenos…
http://recipes.eserver.org/guacamole-of-the-gods.txt A little too much lime for me but otherwise great. I also add cilantro.
Up here in Alaska, we are more often closer to $5 per avocado, so when they go on sale this would make it much more affordable…
Never thought about freezing it and I’d love your guac thawed (with a tad bit of fresh garlic or garlic salt). Thanks for another great idea. Hmm, I have one more day to stock up!
I had no idea you could do that! I’ll remember that the next time I see a great avocado sale. They’re such a treat, since they’re soooo non-local. (I don’t think I could keep a plant alive in my house, let alone get fruit from it.)
I hadn’t. I Buy the frozen. Didn’t think of doing it myself. :/ I’m taking the larder challenge so i better stock up today too! Thanks for the great idea!
When I was in school and short on time I made Guacamole in large batches and froze it in ice cube trays. As soon as they were solid I put them into plastic bags and could take out small amounts at a time to add to a sandwich or eat on the side. I also freeze berries and grapes on a cookie sheet before I put them in the bags, easier to take out small individual servings.
So for the really busy (lazy) has anyone tried freezing a whole avocado then make guac from it?
What a great idea! I never thought you could do this…I have thrown too many avocadoes in the compost!
I suggest you try adding chopped onion to yor guacamole, and if you feel up to it, chopped chilli.
Once your avocados are ripe, put them in a Tupperware before you put them in the refrigerator. They’ll stay fresh for another month. The Tupperware holds the moisture so the avocados don’t shrivel up and rot.
I too have a guac addiction.
I took a trip to Mexico last year and they served it with grasshoppers which were delicious. Sadly they are not available in the U.K.
Great post – Most useful.
This I brilliant as I had no idea you could freeze guac. I love avocados so this is possibly the best news I’ve had all year – thanks!
Salt, black pepper and ground cayenne pepper, that is all it takes to make excellent guac. People always rave how good it is and are blown away when I tell them the ingreidients.
My husband and I like it simple too. Avocado and garlic salt to taste. ..easy and delicious every time.
Having an old avacado tree in my backyard in So. FL it’s good to know I can feeeze my guacamole. This year has been a good crop and they do seem to ripen all at the same time once off the tree. I do add lots of garlic and hot sauce to mine to give it an extra kick.