Can You Microwave Guacamole? – Is It Safe?

Guacamole, made form delicious avocado, is used in many different dishes. From burritos to stuffed chicken breasts, and with nachos, guacamole is a great addition to many meals.

As avocados continue to grow in popularity, more and more people are finding new ways to incorporate them into meals, usually in the form of guacamole.

With the increase of guacamole used in meals, you might find you have some lovely leftovers in the fridge with some smashed avocado that you want to heat up.

But can you microwave guacamole? Yes, you can microwave guacamole, even if it is already included in a meal. The guacamole will not brown or spoil when heated in the microwave, but it might have more of a softer, mushy texture, and have a slight change in taste. However, this is barely noticeable when the avocado is mixed in with other ingredients.

How To Microwave Guacamole

If you have a dish that needs to be reheated, which contains guacamole, the best way to reheat it would be in the microwave.

The oven would expose the guacamole to heat for a longer period and possibly ruin the taste even further. A microwave allows you to warm up the dish and the guacamole in small bursts, and you can better control the power level and heat.

Heating up a dish with guacamole, such as a burrito bowl or nachos, is fairly easy. To heat up the dish, ensure that it is in a microwave-safe container.

Place the dish in the microwave for one minute, take it out, stir it around, and microwave it for another minute. Test the heat of the dish, and if it needs to be warmed further, you can heat it up for another 30 seconds.

Warm Guacamole

For many people, warm guacamole might seem a bit odd, but when made and eaten correctly, it can be pretty delicious. This doesn’t include warming up last night’s nachos altogether, but instead creating dishes from scratch that involve warming up the guacamole.

Added to certain dishes, warm guacamole can add a whole new level of flavor and is a great way to incorporate good fat into your diet. It can also add some creaminess to a dish as well!

Dishes that taste great with warm guacamole include sandwiches, stuffed chicken breasts, heated in a cheeseburger, or warmed in a bagel.

Included in these dishes, guacamole is fine to be heated up in the microwave, oven or even on the skillet.

Enjoying Guacamole With A Microwave

To be able to make the perfect guacamole, you will need a ripe avocado. However, avocados can be quite tricky at times, and take a good while to ripen.

If you cannot wait for your avocado to go soft, there is a trick you can use that entails heating the avocado in the microwave to make it ripen faster. This way, you will be using the microwave to help you make some delicious guacamole.

To ripen an avocado in two minutes, you just need the avocado, a microwave, and some plastic wrap.

• Cut the avocado vertically into two pieces and remove the pit.
• You will then need to wrap each half of the avocado in microwave-safe plastic wrap.
• Place the skin of the avocado down in the microwave and microwave on high for 1 minute.
• Remove the avocado and test its firmness, if it is not soft enough, you can place it back in the microwave and reheat for another minute.

The reason this works is that avocados produce ethylene gas, which is what allows them to ripen. When the avocado is wrapped up, the ethylene is concentrated around the avocado more, which helps to speed up the ripening process.

If you have a particularly stubborn avocado, you could wrap it in tinfoil and place it in the oven for up to an hour, but the microwave is the quickest and most efficient way.

Should Guacamole Be Microwaved?

It is fairly common for guacamole to be served warm, especially with more traditional recipes. Guacamole should be served warm, or at room temperature, and can be microwaved if necessary. If served at a cold temperature, the guacamole could have a dull palate.

It is also more pleasing to eat warm guacamole with a warm meal, instead of the contrast of cold guacamole and warm rice or tortilla chips, so heating up the guacamole in the microwave might make the experience that much more enjoyable.

Another factor that should encourage people to heat up guacamole, is that avocado dishes, such as guacamole, can carry foodborne diseases. Heating up the guacamole helps to wipe out any bad bacteria, making it safer to consume.

The same goes for when storing guacamole. It should be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days and can be kept fresher, and less brown is some lemon juice is added in.

If you are reheating guacamole, you should discard any leftovers. The risk of the guacamole spoiling after being reheated and stored for a second time is high and creates a breeding ground for bacteria. Try to plan your guacamole meals to ensure that you will only need to heat it up twice at most.

Tips For Great Guacamole

Before you can get around to microwaving your guacamole, you will need to make some good guacamole. There are a few important things to note about guacamole, all that work towards making it as delicious as possible.

Picking Your Avocado

If you are unsure how to pick out the avocado in the store, and are not sure which are brown inside or which are not ripe, you can pull off the stem, and take a peek at the flesh inside.

If it is brown, do not purchase it, but if it is a soft green, then the avocado is ready to be made into guacamole.

Pick Out Two

The best way to ensure that you have a good avocado to use is to purchase an extra one. Often, some parts of the avocado have gone bad, so it is good to have a replacement avocado to fill in any of the bad bits.

Ripening Avocado

There are a few tricks to ripening avocados. As mentioned above, you can try and ripen it in the microwave.

If you have a few days to spare, you can place a banana alongside the avocado in a brown paper bag. This quickens the ripening of the avocado, so it will be ready to use when you need it.

Too Ripe

On the other hand, if your avocados are too ripe before you need to use them to make guacamole, you can place them in the refrigerator.

Refrigeration stops the ripening process from happening too quickly and will keep your avocado at the perfect ripeness for a while.

If you have half an avocado that you need to place in the fridge, you can use this cool avocado keeper on Amazon.

How To Store Homemade Guacamole

You can make guacamole ahead of time, and keep it from turning brown until you need to use it. A good way to do this is by placing a thin layer over water over the guacamole when storing it in the fridge.

When you are ready to use the guacamole, you can pour the water off the top. The water helps to stop the oxidization process, and will not turn the avocado soggy or slimy.

Related Questions

Can you microwave avocado?

Now you know that microwaving guacamole is a valid option, but what about a whole avocado?

Can you microwave avocado? While you should not microwave a whole avocado, you can microwave avocado halves in order to help them ripen faster. Do to so, you will need to wrap the avocado halves in microwave-safe plastic wrap and microwave in 30-second intervals until the avocado is soft. This method works if you plan on using the avocado to make guacamole. If you want to eat the avocado plain or slice it up to use in a sandwich or salad, we recommend letting the avocado ripen naturally.

Can you reheat a burrito with guacamole?

You can heat up a burrito with guacamole and still enjoy the great taste.

To do this, you should heat up the burrito in the microwave for 1 minute, and then let it remain in the microwave to rest for 45 seconds, this will allow the heat to spread evenly in the burrito.

Then reheat the burrito again for 1 minute, and allow it to sit for a further 30 seconds. Heating and then leaving the burrito to rest allows the heat to be distributed evenly throughout the burrito, without leaving it to heat for too long.

You can do the same for tacos, only use less time since tacos are usually smaller than burritos.

Can you heat sour cream in a microwave?

Sour cream is a common accompaniment with guacamole in many dishes, so you may find that you will need to heat up both guacamole and sour cream.

To do this, you should heat the dish up in short intervals in the microwave, to prevent the food from becoming too hot, but to allow the heat to travel throughout the meal for a more even temperature.

It is a good idea to allow the sour cream to come to room temperature before heating.

Microwaving Guacamole

There is no reason that you cannot heat up your leftover dinner with some guacamole. The guacamole keeps most of its texture and taste when heated up in the microwave, only becoming slightly mushier.

Be sure to heat it up in short intervals to not overheat the guacamole, and to ensure that you will not have some blazing hot bites in between some colder ones.

The flavor of guacamole can actually be enhanced when warmed, so why not heat up your guacamole for your next round of tortilla chips?