Smashed avo and its sway over café menus and mortgages has been grabbing all the headlines, but guacamole wants you to remember it was here first.
Here are six reasons why guacamole rules (and how to be a goddess or god of guac).
It could help you win at trivia
Memorise these (from The Oxford Companion to Food and McGee on Food and Cooking, by food science and culture guru Harold McGee) and score more at your next trivia night.
- The avocado is a fruit, not a vegetable (you probably knew that one)
- The avocado tree, Persea Americana, is native to central America
- The name of the avocado comes from the Aztec word abuacatl, which means “testicle”
- Unlike other fruits, avos are very low in sugar – only about 1 per cent
- World-conquering guacamole and all its incarnations are descended from the Aztec sauce ahuaca-mulli, made with mashed avocados, onion and tomato.
It can fix shark bites**
Okay, so that’s totally not true. But we get what outspoken chef Matty Matheson means. “Guacamole singlehandedly has cured many sicknesses. If a shark was to come up and bite your foot off, you just take a little bit of avocado and rub it on your nub, and your foot grows back,” he says with characteristic restraint while whipping up a bowl of guacamole during (watch the ep on SBS VICELAND Friday 16 February, 6.40 pm or catch it after on SBS On Demand).
Matty isn’t entirely off the rails with his praise for guac, tho. There’s been some research into the possible positive effects of avocado or avocado oil consumption on several health conditions, including. According to the authors of , published in Phytotherapy Research last year, on research into the effects of avocado on metabolic syndrome, “Avocado is a well-known source of carotenoids, minerals, phenolics, vitamins, and fatty acids. The lipid-lowering, antihypertensive, antidiabetic, anti-obesity, antithrombotic, antiatherosclerotic, and cardioprotective effects of avocado have been demonstrated in several studies.” The Iranian researchers concluded that avocado could have a role as a dietary supplement in the treatment of metabolic syndrome, although they cautioned that more studies were needed. Other suggests eating avocado could boost the amount of some nutrients you absorb from other food.
On the negative side, you really want to be careful when cutting open your avo. Hand injuries from avocado prep are becoming so common – and potentially serious - that surgeons about it.
So make Matty’s guac (it’s part of his ) but be careful with the knife, okay?
The It's Suppertime guacamole Source: VICELAND / It's Suppertime
It’s really easy to make
Skip all the hoo-ha about . Guacamole – which you can indeed choose to slather on a good slice of toast, should that take your fancy – is dead easy to make. Check out these (including one unusual tip for making sure your guac doesn’t go brown) if you want to wing it without a recipe, or try this .
If you like your guac with more kick, there’s this one for , which adds copped habanero chilli to the mash; or this , which brings two kinds of beans, coriander, jalapenos, spring onion and tomato to the mix.
Plaintain chips with guacamole Source: Sharyn Cairns
Our top tip, whatever sort you make, is to cover it carefully if you are making it in advance. Cover it with cling wrap, making sure the wrap covers the surface of the dip, and store if in the fridge. Exlcuding air and keeping it cold with ward off browning. Matty Matheson suggests putting the avocado stone into the top of the dip and smoothing the plastic wrap down over the stone and the surface.
Plaster the wrap over the surface and the embedded stone, making sure the entire surface is in contact with the wrap. Source: VICELAND / It's Suppertime
It makes you dance (we apologise in advance...)
This video has been viewed more than 9 million times on YouTube. We apologise in advance if this get stuck in your head. “Peel the avocado….” will never be quite the same again.
It can say I love you
Not only does , but it can express your feelings too. How cute are these cookies!
It can help sway fussy eaters
Guac makes pretty much everything taste better. Turn it into a dipping sauce (think of it as guac’s close cousin) and serve it up with these .
Catch Matty Matheson in It's Suppertime, Fridays 6.40pm on SBS Viceland or catch up via .
Coconut chicken strips with avocado dipping sauce Source: Brett Stevens
