Guacamole!

I made guacamole with homegrown cilantro, because it adds so much flavor to the dish when the cilantro is homegrown! Try it for yourself and see!

• Cilantro seeds
• Soil pods for planting
• Water
• Soil
• Spray bottle
• Plant growing lights
• Avocados
• Tomatos
• Red onion
• Limes
• Pink Himalayan salt
• Large Stone Molcajete
• Your favorite Tortilla Chips or veggies for dipping!

Buy cilantro seeds from your local gardening center. In New England, where I live you would want to plant your seeds in potting pods at the end of April or beginning of May.

During this step you will add soil to the planting pod and then plant your seed in the soil. Follow the instructions on the back of the seed package. The package I used specified to "plant 1 seed 1/4" deep." You can plant 1 seed in each pod to increase your chances of growing more plants!

Ensure that your plant is near a window to help it grow, and make sure you water the seeds everyday. While the plant is still in the pod you can water it with a spray bottle. I use Plant growing lights, which were purchased on Amazon to help the plants grow quicker and reach their full potential. I turned them on every night, and during the day they were turned off and uncovered so the cilantro plants could get natural light.

Over the course of 2-3 weeks you should see your plant start to grow! Once it gets warm enough outside, you should transfer it to a garden so it has more room to expand, because the pods will become too small.

When you see enough leaves on your cilantro plant and you are ready to make guacamole, go outside and clip them to ensure they are as fresh as possible! If you see flowers growing, be sure to pluck them off because they can stop the plant from growing.

You can use as much, or as little chopped cilantro as you would like depending on the flavor you prefer. I tend to use 1 tablespoon chopped. The other things you will need to make guacamole are 4 avocados, 10 cherry tomatoes, 1 lime, 1/4 cup of red onion diced, and salt to taste. You can buy these at your local grocery store, or if you live in an area with a good climate year round, you can grow everything yourself!

Chop up the ingredients and add them to your stone molcajete. The lime will be cut in half, and the juice squeezed into the molcajete.

Mash all the ingredients together and combine them using the grinder stone. You can taste the guacamole during this step to see if you need more of anything, and make it to your liking! I like to save one avocado pit and add it to the molcajete for "looks". You can top the guacamole with extra salt and sprinkles of cilantro if you would like to.

After you finish making your guacamole, use your favorite tortilla chips or cut veggies to dip in the guac and enjoy! YUM!