Mangoes And A Little Heat Are The Secret To Transcendent Guacamole

Guacamole is like the holy grail of dips — it's creamy, a little salty, a little tangy. It's one of those snacks that you start eating, telling yourself, "Oh I'll just have a few bites with some chips" and the next thing you know the bowl is empty.

At its core guacamole is quite simple. An easy recipe for guacamole includes avocado, onion, lime juice, tomato, cilantro, and salt. Tweaking the dip by adding extra ingredients can be controversial and could be considered a guacamole mistake. Remember the firestorm when The New York Times suggested adding peas? Even President Obama weighed in on that guac recipe!

There are those, however, who throw tradition to the wind and encourage adding new and exciting ingredients. One unique recipe for guacamole instructs you to blister your limes and tomatoes in the oven and also adds corn and oregano to the mix. Celebrity Chef Marcela Valladolid's famous recipe also switches up the script a bit with two additions that bring both the sweet and the heat.

For her guacamole, Marcela Valladolid adds diced mangoes and finishes with chili oil. Yup, mangos and chili. This makes sense given her Mexican background — mangoes with chili, lime, and salt (or a sprinkling of Tajin seasoning) is a popular Mexican snack.

In the recipe she shared with People, Valladolid introduces those classic street food flavors into her guacamole. She also has a few more tricks up her sleeve. For instance, she mashes her avocados with a potato masher to get the perfect mix of chunky and smooth. She also doesn't just squeeze in a little lime, she adds an entire half cup of lime juice!

From there she folds in the mangoes, salt, and some red pepper flakes, and then finishes the whole thing by drizzling with chili oil. That's it, no onions, no cilantro, no extra muss and fuss. Her version of guacamole hits all the right notes of sweet and spicy, salty, and sour. For cookbook author Jesse Szewczyk, her guacamole recipe was a home run, coming out on top in a taste test he conducted at Buzzfeed – it even beat Beyoncé's version.

Even if you're a guacamole purist, the next time you decide to whip up a batch give Valladolid's tropical twist on this classic dip a try, you just might surprise yourself with how tasty it actually is!