Kale Guacamole

Before you wrinkle your nose at the very thought of kale and avocado all mushed up together, hear me out: I swear...double swear...that this is a delightfully delicious combination. I stumbled upon it a few weeks ago when I hit up the new Whole Foods in my hometown. I love guacamole. I love kale. So the idea of the two together as one was intriguing. To me, at least.

Now, a single small tub of this stuff ran me about $5.00 at the store. I told myself I'd pay that much for guacamole just once because, I mean, check out the ingredients:

There just had to be a way for me to make this at home. Guacamole isn't hard to make. I could make and eat it all day. But to include the kale? Tricky? Easy? Turns out: Super easy. And honestly, you can hardly taste it. The kale adds just a touch of additional flavor this already delicious dish, plus a whole slew of nutritional benefits like fiber, calcium, vitamins, minerals...total powerhouse.

Now, before I give you the recipe, let me share this one piece of guacamole advice: Use your food processor if you have one! I love me some hand-smashed, chunky guacamole. But let me tell you about the stuff that came out of my food processor: SO SMOOTH. Like whipped butter, but obviously better. And it pulled everything together in no time flat. This is key when you're incorporating kale, I think. It chops up the kale leaves nicely, incorporating them into the avocado quite easily. I'm not sure you can get this same effect by hand, but I didn't try it myself.

Anyway. The recipe. If you check the ingredients list above, I used everything but the tomatoes and the cilantro because (silly me) I forgot to buy them at the store. Verdict: Still delicious without those two things. Add (or eliminate) them if you want.

KALE GUACAMOLE
Inspired by: Whole Foods' Guac-Kale-Mole

Ingredients
• 2 Ripe avocados
• 4 Kale branches, leaves de-stemmed (stems discarded)
• 1 Jalapeno, de-seeded
• 1/4 Red onion
• 3 Cloves of garlic
• 1/2 Tsp salt
• Juice of half a small lime

Directions
1) Toss jalapeno and onion into your food processor and chop. Add avocados and process until smooth.

2) Massage the kale leaves to soften them up, then add them to your food processor. Process until smooth.

3) Add garlic, salt and lime juice. Process until smooth.

4) Serve!

Try not to eat it all at once. (Good luck!) Feel free to adjust the flavor by adding more or less of any of the above. With three garlic cloves, it was quite flavorful! But I do love me some garlic.

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Question: What two ingredients do you often combine that might sound like a funky combo but are actually quite tasty together?