Umami in Guacamole

Umami in guacamole:

I find that guacamole needs some umami flavor— an underlying funky, roundness of flavor often associated with fermented foods (soy, black garlic, aged cheese, cured meats, red wine), funky seafoods like sea urchin or anchovies, nutritional yeast, truffles, garlic and onions. Umami is the fifth flavor profile in foods — the other four being sweet; sour; bitter; and salty. As seen in the simple drawing above, the umami flavor profile merges with all the other taste categories.

Most guacamole recipes call for chopped red onion or shallot. They are perfect. But in this recipe, we are blending and blending onions is dangerous. How many times have you food processed onions or blended onions to end up with soupy bitter mess that ruins a salsa, sauce or stew? So, with many Sweetcycle blended recipes, I macerate a little garlic with salt and add it to my blended dips, dressings and aiolis to get that umami flavor.