The Famous Candlelite Inn Guacamole Salad

4.78 from 9 votes

The Famous Candlelite Inn Guacamole Salad

In Arlington, Texas there is a cozy "hole in the wall" restaurant with an iconic guacamole dip, that they also served atop iceberg lettuce as a Tex Mex side salad. This iconic recipe remained a secret for years, but we think we've finally correctly reverse-engineered it. Give it a try on your next taco night!

Course Salad Recipes

Cuisine Tex Mex

Keyword Candlelite Inn, guacamole dip, guacamole salad, recipe, salad, tex mex

Prep Time 15

Total Time 15

Servings salads

Calories 249kcal

Author Sarah Penrod

Ingredients

3-4 c. Freshly sliced iceberg lettuce sliced thin in ribbons
1 c. diced tomatoes
2 Haas avocados
3 large tomatillos- measure them into 1 c. of puree
1 t. salt
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. onion powder
1 T. plain white vinegar
1 T. about ¼ of a large lemon
1 T. FRESH flavorless oil sunflower, canola, safflower
2 T. water
In the restaurant they serve them topped with a green olive and a thick slice of white onion we usually pick those off, but if you’re a purist you must have them!

Instructions

If the tomatillos still have the papery husky remove it and wash them well. Roughly chop them and put them in a food processor or blender.
Process the 3 tomatillos until they are a puree. Measure out enough puree to 1 c. Discard the rest. It should be very close to 1 cup.
Remove the avocados from their skins and place them in the bowl of the food processor or blender. Pulse just until smooth along with the tomatillo puree, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, 1 T plain white vinegar, 1 T fresh lemon juice, 2 T. water, and 1 T. oil. Make sure not to pulse it too long or it will become mousse-like from whipping so much air into the avocados!
Serve as a salad dressing on top of the thinly shredded iceberg lettuce. Top with a sprinkling of diced tomato.
Simple, yet refreshing and delicious! It’s easy to see why this is a beloved dish at this iconic Texas restaurant.

Notes

Serves 2-4 salads as a dressing, or makes a large bowl of guacamole to serve with tortilla chips.

The current owner has commented on the recipe saying this is pretty much accurate, but that he uses green tomatoes instead of tomatillo. I've never found green tomatillos in local markets but I can say that (to me at least) there is no noticeable difference when using tomatillos.

Nutrition