Simple winter salsa

December 16, 2009 at 10:35 am (Mexican & S. American, Mom’s recipes, Sauce/dressing, unrated, Winter recipes)

Last night I made the recipe for pico de gallo from my mom’s blog, to accompany some black bean and sweet potato burritos.

Ingredients

• 4 cups of canned small-diced tomatoes
• 1/2 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup of lime juice, from one lime
• 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1 cup finely chopped cilantro, from 1 bunch
• 1-2 jalapenos, with seeds

Instructions:

1. Chop cilantro including stems to make about 1 cup.
2. Chop onion, jalapeno and garlic, finely.
3. Combine garlic, onion, cilantro, jalapeno and tomatoes.
4. Add salt and lime juice.
5. Let sit for at least 30 minutes to combine flavors.

My notes:

I used a large can of tomatoes with the juice, but only got about 3.5 cups total.  After letting the salsa sit for 30 minutes it tasted a bit bland.  I had added 1/4 tsp. salt but I added a little bit more, some chipotle powder, and some fresh ground cumin.  Those additions helped.  It wasn’t the greatest salsa ever, but it was perfectly fine.  I served it with the burritos and although I thought the sweet potato burritos actually go better with a green salsa verde, my guests seemed to like this red one–almost the entire bowl of salsa was eaten.  I only had about 1/2 cup left after the six of us were done with dinner.

The homesick Texan’s pico de gallo recipe is similar

4 cups ripe red tomatoes diced (about 8 medium tomatoes)

1/2 cup diced onion (about 1/2 of a small white onion)

2 tablespoon minced garlic (but she says from 2 cloves–she must have some massive cloves of garlic!)

4 Tbs. lime juice limes (but she says from 4 limes? are her limes very tiny?)

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

4 jalapenos (stems and seeds removed) diced
1 tablespoon olive oil (she says it’s for flavor and texture, but can be omitted)
Salt to taste