The Super Simple Potato Masher Hack For Guacamole In A Flash

For all its delicious attributes, fresh, homemade guacamole is a little high-maintenance. You've got to buy the avocados at the peak of ripeness, otherwise they won't break down in the bowl. Plus it's not easy to get the flesh of the fruit away from the peel and pit without the risk of the dreaded avocado hand. When it comes time to smash all the ingredients together, however, you don't have to struggle with the back of a fork or invest in a mortar and pestle – as long as you have a potato masher.

Among all the flashy gadgets in your kitchen, the humble potato masher is a secret weapon. It usually sits in a drawer collecting dust until it's time to make mashed potatoes, but its mashing and mixing power cannot be underestimated. Whether it's cooked potatoes, burger meat, or beans, a basic handheld potato masher can make quick work of anything soft. If you've got a few avocados on your hands, you can get a bowl of guacamole mixed and mashed in a flash with this easy hack.

A hand-held potato masher is a simple kitchen tool that is either a round disk with holes or a curved wire, attached to a handle. It requires no special skills to operate — simply grab the handle and push down into whatever it is you want to mash. It's designed to squash cooked potatoes, but it can tackle any job as long as the food has the right texture. It's especially useful for soft, sticky mixtures that you can't quite combine properly with a spoon, but would be too messy to use your hands. Like mashing bananas for banana bread or mixing ingredients for veggie burgers.

A potato masher is the perfect tool for getting that chunky guacamole texture. Once you get the avocados out of the skins and remove the pits, all you need to do is toss them in a bowl and give everything a few good smashes with the masher. Then gently mix in your other guacamole ingredients. It's that easy.

A potato masher has a few distinct advantages over making guacamole in a mixer, food processor, or blender. The most important is that you have more control over the texture of the finished guacamole. A machine does not know when to stop, so it's easy to overmix a batch of guacamole. You don't want an over-processed, super-smooth guacamole — a few lumps are needed.

Potato mashers are also super easy to clean. Once you're done with a quick batch of guacamole, simply rinse off the masher and wash it with a little dish soap, or pop it in the dishwasher. There are no extra blades or parts to deal with.

Now that you know how easy it is to make guacamole with a potato masher, you can go ahead and scoop up ripe avocados on sale at the grocery store without worrying about them going bad. As long as there are tortilla chips around, you're ready to serve flavorful, hand-mashed guac any time.