Pico de Gallo

I know, I know.  The only two recipes I’ve posted on here so far have been for Mexican food.  What can I say?  I’m from the Southwest!  And I do love me so Mexican food.  In fact, one of our favorite places to go out to eat in town is the Mexican restaurant.  I say “the” because there is only one.  Not that it has much competition with other restaurants either.  But that’s beside the point.

Back in Arizona, pico de gallo is a salsa staple.  Fresh, spicy, and great on anything.  Did you know it’s easy too?  It’s takes just a few simple ingredients and five minutes of time, and you have a delicious dip for chips or veggies (my fav).  It also goes great on just about anything, and mix it with mashed avocados to make the best guacamole you’ve ever tasted.  The best part?  It’s stinkin’ cheap! 

All you need are:

Tomatoes (preferably roma, but any will do)

One jalapeno (or any other hot pepper you’d like to use)

Yellow onion

Cilantro (this gives it a great flavor, but its optional…my husband actually doesn’t like the taste)

Salt

One lime (you can also use lime or lemon juice, but fresh is just so much better)

That’s it!  You can experiment to get the ratios you like.  For mine I used two large roma tomatoes (70 cents total), part of a yellow onion (cost me about $1.50, so about 40 cents for this recipe), one jalapeno (literally cost me 6 cents, and I only used half…these are the best things ever!), no cilantro (for the hubby), a pinch of sea salt (like literally 1 or 2 cents), and half of a lime (18 cents).  The grand total was $1.36 for a good deal of salsa that will last me and the hubby awhile…so much better than store bought!  If you have a nice little garden outside, you can save even more. 

So, this is how you do it.  I slice everything by hand, because I like chunky salsa, but if you prefer a more liquid-ey salsa you can use a food processor or blender…just cut everything into large pieces and blend. 

First, dice up your tomato. 

Now dice up your onion.

Next comes your jalapeno.  I only used half of mine.  If you don’t want your pico de gallo to be very spicy, cut out the white center and the seeds.  If you like it spicy, you can add them in.

You want to chop up the jalapeno really fine so you don’t get a mouthful of spicy chunk.

Put them all in a bowl.  If you were using cilantro, you’d chop it up finely and add it in here as well.

Add a pinch of salt.

 

Then squeeze your lime into the bowl.

Mix it all up.

…and enjoy!  Experiment with the tastes and proportions, and have fun adding new things.  Chopped mango adds a great flavor, as does pineapple. 

Do you have a favorite salsa recipe?