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Finally Revealed: Jeb Bush's Secret Guacamole Recipe

Ingredients that make Jeb Bush's "mighty fine" guacamole.
Meg Kelly
/
NPR
Ingredients that make Jeb Bush's "mighty fine" guacamole.

It all started with a question about food labeling at the Iowa Agriculture Summit earlier this year and Jeb Bush's not-so-humble brag:

"When I go to Publix in Coral Gables after church to go prepare for Sunday Funday in my house ... I'll probably make a really good guacamole and I want to know where that avocado is from and I want to know where the onions are from and the cilantro and all the secret stuff I put in it."

Then, Bush sold molcajetes (aka mortar and pestle) — stone devices used to crush or grind food — in his campaign shop. They're listed as "Guaca Bowles" and cost $75 (that's even more than the Sur La Table molcajete shaped like a pig). Twitter had a field day with it. So did Stephen Colbert.

"Jeb and Columba love whipping up guacamole on Sunday Funday," the page on his online shop reads. "Now, you can get in on the act with this 'Guaca Bowle.' Jeb's secret guacamole recipe not included ... yet."

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush speaks with NPR's Steve Inskeep on Wednesday in Boston.
/ Kayana Szymczak for NPR
/
Kayana Szymczak for NPR
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush speaks with NPR's Steve Inskeep on Wednesday in Boston.

Bush hadn't given up that recipe ... until now. In an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep (the bulk of which was about the 2016 presidential campaign, national security and immigration), he said it's the first time he's shared the secret to his "mighty fine" guac — though he added he "didn't give enough specifics" so "it's still secret squirrel enough."

If you're settling in for a bowl game or cozy New Year's Eve here it is:

Jeb Bush's Guacamole

Avocados "Make sure they're not too ripe, but they gotta be ripe enough."

Cilantro

Onions

Jalapeño "rather than chile serrano"

Garlic "not too much"

Two ingredients Bush doesn't believe belong in guacamole: tomato and lemon.
Meg Kelly / NPR
/
NPR
Two ingredients Bush doesn't believe belong in guacamole: tomato and lemon.

Notes:

No lemon and no tomatoes.

And don't go making this in a bowl. "You gotta use a molcajete," Bush said.

One final note ... judging from Obama's preferred guacamole, it appears this recipe might include a pinch of bipartisanship:

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Amita Kelly is a Washington editor, where she works across beats and platforms to edit election, politics and policy news and features stories.