Avocados have been my jam lately. I’m plowing through one a day and yesterday brought it up to nearly two. For those of you who detest avocados: there’s hope, I used to be one of you.
Two summers ago I forced myself to like them because they seemed so fun and mature. After a few force feeding sessions I slowly started craving the texture then sure enough the taste really grew on me too. My favorite combo then was hummus and avocado on toast.
Two years and hundreds of avocados later I’m still in love. These days all I need is a spoon and some sea salt and I can clean one up all in one sitting. I try to stick to 1/2 for economic reasons but sometimes a whole one gets the best of me.
Tangent: My new boss is a dietician and I got her curious (yet highly skeptical) about this paleo thing. We talked food for way too long and after giving her a basic rundown of my lifestyle she insisted I give her a 3 day food diary so she can run some statistics on me. I love experiments so I was in.
Well, I think I might scare her off (but hopefully not lose my job) when she sees that day one I ate two avocados, chicken liver, raw milk, and a carrot popsicle, among other oddities. I’ve come a long way from force fed avocados, hummus, and toast to say the least.
I plumped up some guacamole with the addition of kale and it came out way better than I expected. Out of one avocado came two good sized bowls of guacamole, one of which became part of my dinner with some liver meatballs. The guacamole literally doubled in size by adding in all the veggies so feel free to eat half the recipe. Or the whole thing if it gets the best of you 
So if you’ve learned to love avocados as much as I have, this recipe is totally for you. And if you haven’t, here’s your hope. No force feeding necessary.
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Plumped up Kale Guacamole
Perfect excuse to eat a heaping serving or the entire recipe of guacamole. Makes 3-4 cups of guacamole. Dairy, sugar, and gluten free.
- 1 avocado
- 4-5 stalks of kale
- juice of half a lemon
- Juice of half a lime
- Large handful of fresh cilantro
- 3/4 cup water (optional)
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- Salt and Cayenne Pepper to taste
- 1 small tomato
- 1/4 red or white onion
In a blender or food processor combine avoacodo, kale, cilantro, and juices from the lemon and lime. Start blending and slowly stream in water until combined but still a bit chunky. I needed about 3/4 cup of water to loosen it up but if you have a good blender you may find you need less. Remove mixture from the blender and put into a mixing bowl. Mix in spices and garlic. Taste and adjust seasoning. I added lots of salt and extra garlic too.
Chop tomato and onion and fold into guacamole.
Makes 3-4 cups of guacamole.
Do you love or loathe avocados? Have you ever tried really hard to get yourself to like a food?
Oh yes. I knew your post was calling to me this morning! This is totally why. I am such a sucker for avocados (especially in guac form!). Thank you for posting this, Katie! I can’t wait to eat it all by myself today… is that bad?
Go for it, that’s pretty much the point of the recipe!
Dude this sounds beyond delicious!!! Totally bookmarking
Just put some avocado in my smoothie for breakfast! This guac recipe looks amazing-can’t wait to try it! I’d love to hear more fun recipes you make with avocado & I’d be interested in crossfit updates! I am going to try crossfit for the first time and am so scared/so excited! I hurt my knee a few weeks ago running which is such a huge bummer so I am trying to let that heal before diving in. Have a great Monday!!
Yes definitely heal up before trying it out, it tends to be pretty intense. Although there are modifications for every single move so if something bothers your knee you can always change it up for the workout. But crossfit is said to be great for helping to prevent injuries because it varies the muscle groups and type of workout every single day (less chance for overuse injuries). I’ll try to get some more crossfit updates going on the blog! Good luck healing up
I’m obsessed with avocados. I’m up to one a day myself as well. I try to stop at a half to save money too, but I usually just end up caving anyway. Oops! But this looks fantastic and I will definitely need to try it. Probably need to restock my avocado stash first.
And thanks for the suggestions for artichoke. I have two, so I think I’ll have to try out both those ways!
That sliced one is so perfect! Mine always have one spot or two of ugly brown areas when I slice them open. Most likely b/c I buy them from my black market grocery store for 79 cents each which is practically stealing them so I guess I can’t complain
Love the addition of kale, sounds like a perfect way to bulk up. So interested to hear what your bosses comments are going to be of your food diary!
haha that IS a steal, I pay double if not more :/
I’ll probably do a post on the follow up with her about it, should be interesting to say the least.
Avocados are one of my faves. I’ve actually had to take small breaks from them to give other foods a chance! I once gave maca powder a chance in my smoothies after reading so many things about the benefits. I still think it tastes like bad breath…
I haven’t gotten into any of those superfood powders yet, and guess I should avoid maca haha. I think life is just simpler without them for now.
Maca supposedly tastes “malty,” so I’m particularly about my smoothie combinations when I do opt to use it. My coworkers thought my smoothie concoction tasted awful with it, but they also said it tasted ‘alcoholic.’ Malt–>fermentation–>alcohol? Makes sense. Anyway. I’m picky about where I use it, but I do like it on occasion.
I love that you used to force feed yourself avos until you fell in love.. I felt the same way with many foods, and even convinced myself to fall out of love with a few (since they lacked any real nutrition.) Avocados, me and salt are all besties, I think I might have to have kale join on it, this looks great!
Thanks and yes just avocado and salt is simple perfection right. Interesting about convincing yourself to fall out of love… I’d say I did that with lots of junk food too.
Like you, I used to loathe avocados, but now I love them! I think I started by adding them to turkey sandwiches, then to salads, and finally worked my way up to guacamole! I love the idea of adding kale. Great idea!
Funny, most people start liking guacamole first then come around to eating them more plain.
I’m drooling. I love avocados!
Keep us updated on the dietitian experiment. I love hearing about this kind of thing! I was actually going to major in dietetics, but dropped my major down to just Nutrition, Fitness, and Health because I don’t know if I like all of the stuff that dietitians are taught to tell their clients and patients. I don’t agree with the food pyramid, to say the least. =P
What exactly did you major in, and what’s your job, if you don’t mind me asking? Oh, and I have a few questions about the ACSM studying/exam. I will just message you on Facebook, if that’s all right?
My major was exercise and movement science. Feel free to shoot me an email or facebook message with specific questions about anything! I don’t agree with the pyramid either to put it lightly
I didn’t like a lot of veggies when I was little (broccoli, spinach, butternut squash, mushrooms, etc) so eventually I just started forcing myself to eat them, and now I can’t get enough! As for avocados, I constantly crave them. Every time I make anything, my first thought is always “wow, avocado would be really good on this!” Its and addiction, I would say…
Same here – I hated avocados my whole life, but now I’m a convert! I never had to force myself to eat them because I mostly ate them in guacamole form at first.
I hope you’ll share the follow up with your dietician boss!
I will! I told her I might have to write a little disclaimer at the top not to be alarmed by the strange food I eat. She laughed and says she’s seen everything like ketchup with fluff. So I guess I’m not too far out there.
KATIE! somehow your blog just totally deleted itself from my google reader. I knew something was missing in my life! I thought you stopped posting!!! So glad you didn’t — I’ve missed you
Glad you found me again
I just figured you’ve been super busy, which I bet you have been too!
pretty pics!! And I always beef up my guac with tons of veggies. I know not everyone is into it, but I am
I love your idea to add kale to bulk up guacamole! I am definitely going to try that next time.
Avocados are a staple in my diet. Mashed up on toast, in chocolate pudding, instead of a banana in smoothies…I can’t get enough. I only wish my avocados looked like the one in this post. The TJ’s ones have been so bad lately.
I want to make pudding again with avos. Have a good go-to recipe?
I really like this one from Choosing Raw – http://www.choosingraw.com/raw-chocolate-avocado-pudding/
If you give it a try, I recommend soaking the dates for an hour or so first though. They’re much easier to blend that way.
Thanks!
I adore avocado, I could eat it pretty much everyday and never get bored. On top of that guacamole is one of my all time favourite foods! This looks delicious and I love the addition of kale
I’m not sure that I’ve ever forced myself to grow to like a food but my taste has developed so much over the last couple of years and now there are very few things I dislike!
I love avacado but not so much on the kale, so perhaps I will like the kale if it is buried in the blended avacado! As always, great pics!
Truthfully it didn’t taste of kale at all. Then again i LOVE kale almost as much as I love avocados so I might be biased. If you mix it well enough though its hard to detect.
I’m really hoping this is the case because I adore avocados but could live without kale but know how good it is for me!
This looks sooo good. I love the concept because A) avocados are expensive and B) serving sizes for guacamole should be measures by bowls, not tablespoons.
My thoughts exactly! Just one of my expensive food habits.
Oh I’m very interested to hear what you new boss says about your paleo diet! I’ve started working with a dietitian myself (because it’s so darn challenging to see your own issues when you’re working in the field). When I gave her my 7 day food journal and she calculated that I’d been enjoying upwards of 100 grams a fat a day, I thought she was going to fall off her chair. In hindsight, probably wasn’t the best idea to meet with a dietitian just because we see things SO differently, but she definitely gave me things to think about so wasn’t a total waste of time.
PS: kale + avocado = brilliant! Totally making this tonight.
I’ll probably write a follow up post about it but I can already tell its going to be interesting hearing her thoughts. But she has a typical dietician mentality… basically vegetarian, keeps fat under 30g/ day, and thinks too much protein is awful etc. So yes it will be funny to see her reaction to my food journals. I’ll probably be right up there towards 100g too hah.
I hate saying this to people, but I’m so glad I discovered your blog! This looks fantastic and gorgeous (that green!) and I, for one, LOVE a good ‘cado.
I also eat them plain — a dash of salt and an itty bitty squeeze of lemon and I’m set! I tried to make myself like kale smoothies… can’t take the smell! Too grassy. I have to stick to spinach until my palate becomes a grown up 
Thank you
and thanks for saying ‘hi!’ You can start by adding in just a bit of kale and more spinach until you get used to it. I thought I’d be able to taste kale in smoothies but haven’t really so far.
Yum, love the addition of kale to the guac! I love avocado these days, I remember thinking it was weird the first time I tried it though (I was probably about 10 and really picky!)
Interested to see what your boss makes of your diet – always good to get a professional opinion, no?
Tried it tonight and LOVED it. I made a bunch of changes, but the whole concept of kale with avocado is brilliant. Thanks (again) for an awesome recipe!
What a great idea! I’ve heard of adding cucumbers to guac before…love the kale idea!
This looks so delicious! Do you think I can do it without the tomato? We are cleansing and can’t have nightshade veggies.
Definetely, throw in any veggies you like. The tomato was just added for more texture but it would be fine with just kale and onion mixed in.
Yum I can’t wait to try this!! I love guac but can’t get myself to eat a plain avocado…. but I’ll make it there eventually
Just came across your blog and I love all your interesting recipes!
Thanks so much micha
If you love guac the avocado love will come in time!
Hi Katie,
I add kale to everything but not guacamole yet! Need to try your recipe this weekend. I would perhaps blend everything but avocados, mush them with a fork and add them at the end. This way it is easier to clean the blender
Cheers
Olga
Katie, Do you trip the stalks off the kale as you would in other recipes or throw it all in there?
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