Homemade Pico de Gallo

Fresh tomatoes are just around the corner. . .which means so is fresh pico de gallo (also known as fresh salsa)! It’s one of my favorite recipes to whip up and the flavors are a million times better than you’ll ever find in store bought salsa, promise. It’s a recipe you can’t really screw up – just add more of the ingredients you like and less of the foods you don’t.

Homemade Pico de Gallo

 

Save Print

Author: Heather

Ingredients

• 4-5 fresh tomatoes – I used tomatoes on the vine, but varieties with fewer seeds are good
• ½ – 1 cup cilantro
• ½ – 1 whole onion – I used red because it’s a milder flavor, but any onion will do.
• 2 limes
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 fresh jalapeno pepper
• I strongly advise having a pair of disposable plastic/latex gloves for de-seeding the jalapeno.
• Optional: Avocados, Mangos

Instructions

1. Wash and dry all your vegetables.
2. Dice tomatoes and onion up. You can go super chunky or you can start with putting the tomato chunks into the food processor or blender if you like it a bit more runny. Toss into a large bowl.
3. Put on plastic gloves and slice jalapeno in half. Pull out all the seeds inside and discard. (The gloves protect you from getting the seed residue and juice under your finger nails and on your skin – which can be hard to wash off. I’ve rubbed my eyes a long time after making it before and ended up with burning eyeballs – not fun.) Dice very small. It’s hard to know how much punch the jalapeno will have until you try the salsa – you can always start with half and add more if you want it spicier. Add diced jalapeno to bowl.
4. Juice two limes, add juice to bowl.
5. Mince two garlic cloves, add to bowl.
6. Finely dice cilantro and add to bowl.
7. Salt and pepper to taste!
8. Mix it up! And enjoy immediately with chips or toasted pitas. I recommend splurging and spend $1-2 more bucks for locally sourced tortilla chips. If you’re in Thurston County area we have a couple different chip companies – one in Shelton and one out in Aberdeen that make great chips – which you can find at the farm stands, the Co-op and fancy stores like the Bayview.
9. Optional – I like to add avocados to mine, but I recommend making the salsa without the avocados and adding them in as you eat it. This way, if you have leftover salsa, you can just pop it in the refrigerator without the avocado, as those don’t tend to keep well after they are cut.

3.5.3208

(Thanks to my mother-in-law for her recipe!)