Mango Pomegranate Guacamole

I’ve never contemplated adding anything more exciting than cilantro, shallots or peppers to guacamole until I came across a recipe for mango pomegranate guacamole from Epicurious.

A few years ago this recipe would have been a major stretch for me. I never used to mix certain types of foods together–fruit and chocolate, sweet and savory, fruits and vegetables, to name a few. However, as I’ve aged, my taste buds have evolved and the idea of adding sweet chunks of mango and crisp, tart pomegranate seeds to mashed avocado immediately intrigued me.

It usually takes a get together for me to make an effort to throw together some fresh guacamole because I have a hard time polishing off an entire bowl of guacamole, though I’m sure it’s happened once or twice in my life. I have this weird thing with leftovers. I don’t love them. Some foods just never taste the same reheated or the next day (while admittedly, some taste even better) and guacamole is one of them. I know there are ways you can slow down the oxidation process (like using lime juice, adding avocado pits to the guac and/or covering the guac with saran wrap and making sure you have no air bubbles) but it’s such a food turnoff for me when avocado starts to go brown. So when making guacamole my choice is to either serve it to a crowd, eat it all or throw it out. While I don’t love leftovers I also don’t love wasting food. It physically pains me to throw food in the garbage.

For Cinco de Mayo I invited my cousin and her boyfriend over for food and margs. I had to run this recipe by my cousin before serving it because pickiness runs in the family. (She did give me the green light to serve this dish on Cinco de Mayo.) We actually got into a huge discussion about this on Cinco de Mayo. She is a few years younger than me and won’t touch certain things like onions and cabbage. I actually get where she’s coming from because I never used to like onions or cabbage. Cabbage is a recent addition to my taste palate, and I heavily favor the raw stuff. While I got turned on to onion long ago, it took me a while to be able to eat it raw and still there are times when I’ll pass on raw onion. On a burger? No thanks! But I’ll take fried or caramelized onions any day.

Whenever I entertain I try to have most foods either cooked or prepped by the time my guests arrive. I often fail to meet this goal. While my cousin was texting me to say they were on their way down to Long Beach I was frantically trying to get the guac ingredients ready to go. I had this plan to cover the large amount of onion in the dish with the avocado and other ingredients before my cousin arrived. But dangit- have you ever tried to cut mango without looking up instructions? If you haven’t, just don’t. It’s not intuitive at all. I was ineffectively cutting mango when my guests arrived but was still able to hide the copious amounts of onion in the dish from my guests. I mean I had extra onion in this dish, too. I added shallot to the recipe when it only called for white onion. (Incidentally, my cousin’s boyfriend admitted he’s been adding onion powder to almost everything he cooks for them. We are coming at her from all sides trying to get her past this strange onion phobia she clings to.)

This guacamole was a huge hit at the Cinco de Mayo party; it’s definitely a step up from your every-day-run-of-the-mill recipe and you have to be at least slightly food curious to try it. I, of course, packed up the leftovers and sent them home with my cousin and her boyfriend.

ingredients.

• 4 large ripe avocados or 8 small (about 2 pounds total)
• 1 c. white onion, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 small fresh serrano chiles or 1 large, finely chopped, including seeds
• 1 lime, juice of or more to taste
• ¾ c. pomegranate seeds
• ¾ c. diced peeled mango
• 1 bunch of cilantro, chopped (can use more or less to taste)