Lucila’s Salvadoran Style Guacamole, a dish from the free e-cookbook “Tastes from Home”. © UNHCR/Deirdre Doyle
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Lucila fled El Salvador in 1990, leaving behind a country plagued by civil war where citizens were disappearing. She waited anxiously for five years to come to Canada. When she finally arrived with her two young children, she felt overwhelming relief.
In the beginning, Lucila’s husband worked a variety of jobs to help support the family while she went back to school to study English and accounting. She began volunteering at the Catholic Centre for Immigrants and was soon hired. It was during these early years that she taught herself to cook traditional food from El Salvador.
Lucila Cabrera at her home in Ottawa August 14, 2020. Lucila is a participant in the free e-cookbook “Tastes from Home”. © UNHCR/Blair Gable
Lucila’s refugee story is one of fourteen from UNHCR Canada’s free e-cookbook “Tastes from Home: Recipes from the Refugee Community“. The e-cookbook will be released on December 14, 2020 and will contain more than a hundred pages of beautiful photography, recipes and stories. Here’s a sneak peek from the cookbook – the recipe for Lucila’s Salvadoran Style Guacamole!
Here is Lucila’s recipe for Salvadoran Style Guacamole:
Serves: 4-6 people
Ingredients:
- 4 avocados, medium, ripe
- 3 eggs
- 1 to 2 limes (to your preferred taste)
- ½ pound feta cheese, crumbled
- 1 tablespoon of finely chopped cilantro (leaves and stems)
- 1 tablespoon of chopped Spanish red onions
- 1 tablespoon of jalapeño, finely chopped (optional)
Preparation Instructions:
- Hard-boil your eggs. Put your 3 eggs into a small, but deep pot. Then, fill the pot with cold water – until all eggs are covered. Bring water to a boil and leave the eggs to cook for 15 minutes.
- While eggs are boiling, chop your cilantro, onions and jalapeños and place them in a medium sized bowl.
- Once eggs are boiled, drain the hot water and replace it with cold water. Let them sit until they cool, for about 2-3 minutes. Peel the shell off the eggs.
- Cut the avocados in half and remove the seeds. Then, with a small knife, gently cut at the flesh (still inside the peel) in a crisscross pattern. Next, with a tablespoon scoop out the flesh and add it to the bowl (do not mash avocado while doing this).
- Once the eggs have been peeled, cut the eggs into small pieces, including both the whites and yolks. Add all the egg pieces into the bowl. The egg whites add a bit more texture to the guacamole, while the yolk helps bind it all together, making it slightly fluffier and especially tasty.
- Next, add the crumbled feta cheese into the bowl to add texture and flavour.
- Lastly, cut your lemon(s) in half and squeeze the juice out of them and into the bowl . With a large spoon gently mix all the ingredients together until you see an even spread.
To serve, pair the guacamole with any crunchy tortilla chips or include it as a side to a heartier meal (for example, with steak, black beans and rice).
Tips
● Personal preference – you can mash the avocado for a more even spread.
