{"id":75153,"date":"2026-04-14T10:19:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T16:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=75153"},"modified":"2026-04-14T12:25:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T18:25:51","slug":"cinco-de-mayo-recipes-guacamole-and-salsas-flap-steak-and-escabeche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/cinco-de-mayo-recipes-guacamole-and-salsas-flap-steak-and-escabeche\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with delicious Mexican dishes from traditional guacamole to roasted pepper salsa, flap steak and more"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"A
Traditional Mexican guacamole is a great recipe to enjoy for a Cinco de Mayo gathering. For your fiesta, enjoy fresh guacamole along with other Cinco de Mayo recipes. Photo: Bill St. John, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEl Cinco de Mayo\u201d<\/i>\u00a0is less a holiday in Mexico than it is here, in the United States. Begun in 1967 by students at California State University as a way of celebrating the \u201cunity, strength and history of Mexico\u201d for Mexican Americans, it commemorates the staving off, in 1862, of French forces against the Mexican Army at the Battle of Puebla (a state in central Mexico).<\/p>\n

The Fifth of May is not what often is construed to be \u201cMexican Independence Day.\u201d That date is September 16th and, like our Fourth of July, marks Mexico\u2019s independence in 1810 from its colonizer, Spain. Cinco de Mayo is largely a North American holiday about a Central American event.

More stories on Tex-Mex- or Mexican-inspired cooking:\u00a0Cooking with Fresh Chiles<\/a>,\u00a0Frijoles Charros<\/a>,\u00a0Tacos El Yaqui at Home<\/a>, and\u00a0Colorado versus Texas Chilis<\/a><\/div>\n

In the 1980s, American wine and beer companies began to market Cinco de Mayo and, as a result, its festivities<\/a> spread widely throughout our country.<\/p>\n

Mexican foods mark the holiday, too, both Stateside and South of the Border. The recipes here cover that territory, in the one aspect of flavorful \u201csalsas\u201d and a pickle that easily can be used to add oomph, texture and fire to other Mexican-inspired dishes such as tamales (a specialty of the state of Puebla), quesadillas, enchiladas and posoles.<\/p>\n

A final recipe, that for a marinade for what\u2019s known as \u201cflap\u201d meat (flank steak, for example, or \u201cskirt\u201d beef), flavors meat for the grill and could profitably be sauced, after grilling, with any or all of the other recipes.<\/p>\n

Traditional Mexican Guacamole<\/b><\/h2>\n

Attend to the last two syllables of the word \u201cguacamole\u201d to rediscover how, for millennia, the peoples of Mesoamerica ate their mashed avocado fruit. (And, for the most part, do today.) We norteamericanos\u00a0<\/i>didn\u2019t get into guacamole until the 1990s and after NAFTA.<\/p>\n

The OG guac was not a chunky chop-up of ripe avocado, spiked with pieces of red onion and chile pepper, leaves of cilantro, and some squeezes of lime.<\/p>\n

No, it was a \u201cmole\u201d\u2014from the original Aztec, or Nahuatl, language, \u201cahuacamolli<\/i>\u201d\u2014\u201cahuaca,\u201d\u00a0<\/i>\u201cavocado,\u201d but emphasis here on the\u00a0\u201cmolli,\u201d<\/i>\u00a0or \u201csauce.\u201d Traditional Mexican guacamole is a smooth mash, not a chopped salad.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s make it that way, to see (and taste) what the ancients had in mind and today\u2019s traditionalists keep alive. Adapted from Chef Roberto Santib\u00e1\u00f1ez of both New York City and Mexico City. Makes about 1 cup.<\/p>\n

\"ingredients
Guacamole, at its simplest and most traditional, is but a mix of a few everyday ingredients. Photo: Bill St. John, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ingredients<\/b>\u2028<\/b><\/h3>\n