The Perfect Summer Snack

I went to college in Rhode Island and the summer before my senior year I interned in Manhattan and lived with my lifelong friend Katherine. That summer I started experimenting with raw foods and she would often come home to find me knee-deep in veggies, trying to tell the difference between swiss chard and collard greens. We were lucky to live near Lifethyme, an awesome market and raw food paradise (hey new yorkers!). She taste-tested some truly questionable meals but I’m happy to say that our friendship survived and she’ll still try out my experiments!

It was very, very warm out last night and Katherine stopped by with a bottle of chilled white wine (what a good friend!) She shares my love for dishes that are both sweet and savory so I decided to make us a snack, Basil Grape Guacamole.  This dish is uniquely sweet, salty and spicy all at once. We enjoyed it with slices of jicama, carrots and sugar snap peas. Yum!

Grape Basil Guacamole

makes 6 servings

What you’ll need:

• 3 ripe avocados
• 1/2 red onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 3/4 cup seedless grapes, halved
• 2 cloved garlic, minced
• 2 tbs chopped basil
• 1-2 serrano chiles, minced without stems and seeds
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

1. Cut avocados in half, remove seeds and scoop from peel. Mash avocados in a bowl with a fork, but don’t overdo it- some chunks are good!
2. Mix in all remaining ingredients. To avoid browning, make sure to keep  guacamole covered and refrigerated until ready to serve.

I usually do my grocery shopping on Monday so by Sunday there are often quite a few leftovers in my refrigerator. For lunch today I made a kale salad and topped it with last night’s guacamole and some leftover quinoa, refried black beans and salsa. It was the perfect lunch and my fridge is clean!