4 Ways to Add Avocado to Christmas Eve Tamales

The holidays are a magical time, filled with traditions and good times with family, many of which take place in the kitchen. Like many families, our favorite tradition is Christmas Eve tamales — but we put a few spins on them. This year, make a new memory with the fam by adding creamy, festively green avocado to the mix!

Here are four fresh ideas for how to add avocado to Christmas Eve tamales.

1. Avocado Crema

   Spicy, savory tamales are a perfect match for cool, velvety avocado crema. Whip up a batch of avocado crema using soft, ripe avocados. (You’ll know your avocados are ripe when they’re dark green and yield to gentle pressure.) Allow guests to drizzle their own avocado crema over the tamales to their liking.

2. Vegetarian Avocado Tamales

   Making an inclusive holiday table for family and friends sometimes requires creativity. Allow your loved ones who are practicing a plant-based diet to join in on the family tradition by making a little modification to your tamales: Substitute any meat with thick slices of avocado and an assembly of your favorite proteins and veggies, such as beans, butternut squash, peppers, or poblano chiles.

   Are you hosting gluten-free relatives and friends over the holidays? Good news! Harissa masa and avocados are gluten free. As long as your tamale recipe contains no wheat products, your gluten-sensitive friends can enjoy your tamales to their heart’s content.

3. Avocado Masa

   One of the avocado’s finest qualities is its ability to bring people together. Likewise, avocado also brings and holds ingredients together, making it a great addition to your masa recipe. Add avocado to your masa in a 3-to-1 (masa-to-avocado) ratio or follow this avocado tamale masa dough recipe here. The resulting texture will be a little lighter and fluffier — and a little greener too!

   As a Christmas bonus, avocados are superfoods filled with all the good stuff: good fats, nearly 20 vitamins and minerals, and zero cholesterol. When you add avocado to the mix, you’re bringing nutritious essentials to the table such as fiber, folate, and Vitamin K.

Related: What is “good fat”? Get the skinny about monosaturated and poly saturated fats here.

4. Tomatillo Guacamole on the Side

   The best tamales are soft and juicy — and begging for a fresh zing! Enter: guacamole al tomatilla con queso fresco. Since tamales are made overnight, you have ample time before serving to whip up a fresh batch of guac. Serve with tortilla chips and leave a spoon in the bowl for family members to spoon straight onto their tamales. (And if this recipe isn’t quite your tempo, we’ve got plenty more.)

Make this year’s tradition of Christmas Eve tamales one for the books, and make the holidays even brighter with our library of avocado recipes to find crowd-pleading appetizers, main courses, and desserts.

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