It’s tailgating season friends!!! I love this time of year. The excitement, the rush when your team wins. But most of all the food. Oh the deliciousness of gluttonous tailgating food.
I know not everyone is a sports fan, but you definitely do NOT need to like sports to stuff your face with this insane new fully loaded guacamole dip. And that vegan cotija cheese crumble? Um yes. I’ll have extra please.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Casabella. The opinions and text are all mine.
I am officially obsessed with avocados. And so is the rest of my family. We must go through like 20 a week. I know, insanity especially with how expensive they can get, but hey, it’s still cheaper than filet! But it is time to mix up my guac game.
So when Casabella got in touch and asked if I’d be interested in coming up with a new recipe for tailgating season using some of the products they created, I pretty much spent no more than 3 seconds before replying YES. YES. I. WOULD. I received 3 products, all amazing, and two of which are made for the amazing avocado.
3 products I received from Casabella:
- Clip N Strip Shears– great comfortable to use kitchen shears perfect for not only clipping the herbs but chopping them (easier than using a knife!). I love that they have a strip feature for things like rosemary and thyme, and also a little tab you can activate to keep them closed for storage.
- 4 ‘n 1 Avocado Tool– Ummm, this is perfection. This thing has a sharp edge to cut the avocado in half (it works SO well), a scoop to get the avocado out of the peel, the top smashes avocados perfectly, and a flat edge to slice avocado ribbons.
- Guac-Lock– Holy of all things that needed to be invented. This is they only thing I have ever successfully used to store my guacamole WITHOUT BROWNING. Yep, no brown avocado. You put the guacamole in, push it to the top until it reaches the small hole, then seal it with the tab. It is amazing.
The tableside guacamole from a restaurant we have been to a few times here in San Diego inspired me to create this fully loaded guacamole. They make it right in front of you and fill it with yumminess. I put a little twist on mine to make it my own, but I’d say in flavor I got really close. They use real cotija cheese as a topper on theirs, so as soon as I came up with this idea, I KNEW I had to create a vegan cotija cheese.
The Vegan Cotija Cheese Is Insane!
I did a little search online and found that there actually isn’t another recipe anything like what I was thinking of doing, in fact there is only one other recipe at all. The only one I found was this one that uses white beans (if you’re nut free give it a try).
The vegan cotija cheese really makes this recipe. It’s tangy, salty, everything that cotija cheese should be. We’ve actually been sprinkling it on a ton! So let’s just put it out there, you saw vegan cotija cheese made this way here first!
Ways To Serve This Loaded Guacamole Dip With Vegan Cotija Cheese;
- with chips (of course)
- Add it to burritos like my Fall Harvest Burrito
- Add it to vegan burgers
- Enjoy with baked sweet potatoes
- Nachos
- Use to fill tacos
- 3 avocados
- 1 cup finely chopped tomato
- ½ cup finely chopped red onion
- ½ cup finely chopped cilantro
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 4 teaspoons finely chopped garlic about 5 cloves
- 1-2 teaspoons finely chopped Serrano chiles optional but recommended
- 1-2 teaspoons fresh orange juice optional but recommended
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Vegan Cotija Cheese for topping see recipe below
- 1 cup raw cashews do not soak
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice can also use lime juice, I liked the lemon tang better
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- ½ - ¾ teaspoon sea salt
- Make Cotjia cheese by placing the dry cashews in a food processor and blending until they are in a fine crumble. Do not overblend or it will make cashew butter. Add the lemon juice, vinegar and salt and pulse until incorporated. It will be wet and crumbly, set aside.
- Cut and scrape avocados into a bowl, do not mash yet.
- Add the rest of the ingredients (except the cotjia cheese), and roughly chop and mix. You don’t want to make it too smooth, keeping this chunky is what makes it so good.
- Sprinkle cotija cheese over the top, use as much as you want, dig in and enjoy!
The orange juice trick was a little secret a friend told me who used to work in a Mexican restaurant. It really adds a great twist of flavor! So although it's optional, I highly recommend it!
Emily Kemp says
This looks amazing, I’m so interested to try adding orange juice!
Lindsay Brandenburg says
Feeling a bit under the weather, so I’m not making this today, but it will happen soon – I have avos in the drawer that I need to use up and love guac – the addition of your “cheese” sounds great! 🙂
veggiesdontbite says
Oh no! I hope you feel better soon! Thank you so much, let me know how you like it!
Joe says
Romaine Heart Tacos
veggiesdontbite says
That sounds delicious!
Ashley says
Whaaaat?! Guacamole storage that prevents browning??? I MUST own this! 🙂
veggiesdontbite says
I. KNOW. Insanity!!
Kristen Morris says
Honestly, I just love avocado by itself!! It’s seriously my favorite snack…. Sometimes I slice it nice on a plate and toss some pink Himalayan salt on it or if I’m feeling hangry I grab a spoon and eat it right out of the peel LOL
veggiesdontbite says
I love it alone too!! Just a little salt and lemon. Yum!
Johanna M Woodbury says
I love it as a garnish tossed on anything that I’m eating.
veggiesdontbite says
Perfect!
Natasha says
I love using avocado as a mayo on sandwiches.
veggiesdontbite says
Yes! That’s a great one!
Michel says
I absolutely love Guacamole!
veggiesdontbite says
Me too!