Recipe: Chunky Guacamole

Adapted from The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook, 2011, page 15, and appearing in Cook's Illustrated in May 1999. Prepared for dinner on Sunday, September 9, 2012. 

Makes about 3 cups.

Ingredients

3 ripe avocados
fresh cilantro 
onion
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons lime juice
¼ teaspoon table salt
1 small jalapeño chile (optional)
½ teaspoon ground cumin (optional)

Instructions 

1. Mince the cilantro to make ¼ cup minced cilantro.
2. Mince a portion of the onion to make 2 tablespoons minced onion.
3. Mince the garlic clove or crush it with a garlic press.
4. If using, remove the stem, seeds, and ribs from the jalapeño and mince it.
5. Scoop the flesh of 1 avocado into a medium bowl and use a fork to mash it lightly with cilantro, onion, japapeño (if using), garlic, cumin (if using), and salt. 
6. Remove the flesh from the other two avocados and cut it into cubes.
7. Add the avocado cubes to the mashed avocado mixture.
8. Sprinkle the avocados with the lime juice.
9. Gently mix the cubes into the mashed avocado with a fork.

You should have your ingredients ready to go before working with the avocados: lime juice, minced onion, minced garlic, minced cilantro.

Using a fork, mash together one ripe avocado with the minced vegetables.

After mashing, chucks of the other two avocados are added and gently mixed.