Pico De Gallo: A quick treat!

Ready for a garden fresh snack?

This weekend kicks off College Football season! I love this weekend every year because it signifies the beginning of Fall for me. Fall is my favorite season and always inspires me to bake, host gatherings, and see life with a fresh passion. In our home, our favorite Collegiate team brings excitement every weekend and a tradition must have snack is my Pico De Gallo. I have been asked to can and jar it before, but honestly there is never any left! Another thing I love about it is that most of the ingredients come straight from my garden. This recipe is suited to our tastes, but I always encourage testing it out and playing with it until you get your perfect mix.

Ingredients:

Pico De Gallo

3 large diced tomatoes

1 diced medium sized onion

¼ bunch of cilantro (use more or less depending on your taste)

Juice of half a lime (lemon will work in a pinch)

1 teaspoon of minced garlic

1½ tsp of salt (I always seem to need a little more. I prefer Sea Salt)

2 jalapenos (or more if you prefer it hotter)

Optional ingredients 

(I do not use these personally, but know those who love them)

half a cucumber, peeled and diced

1 avocado, peeled and diced

Corn

Black Beans

Directions:

1. Wash tomatoes and cilantro.

2. Dice tomatoes, onions, chop cilantro, jalapenos, and the optional ingredients (avocado, cucumber)

3. Put ingredients in a bowl.

4. Add salt, garlic, the juice of half a lemon. Mix it up and serve.

*You can roast your tomatoes for great flavor.

Heat up a frying pan or skillet on medium high heat. Place whole tomatoes in the cookware and toast the outside of it until the skin begins to break and split apart. Remove from heat and continue with step two.

It really is as simple as that. Add in your favorite tortilla chips and you are set! This recipe was originally supposed to be for 8, but I have a man who loves to eat, and if you do also, figure this as more of 4-6. It does store well in the fridge if you want to make it ahead, but I prefer ours fresh. If you do allow it to sit in the fridge in a sealed container, certain flavors, like the onion or jalapeno, will intensify. I like to dice mine up a lot for more juice. I use a handheld chopper for that. 

This Progressive Food Chopper is one of my favorite kitchen tools, hands down. I use it to chop up everything from nuts, to cheese, to vegetables. It even features a measuring cup right on the side of it. How convenient is that? So, for my Pico De Gallo salsa, I halve, then quarter my tomatoes and onion, slide them a little at a time under here and chop away. I repeat with my jalapeno and cilantro. Sometimes, after I have everything mixed in the bowl, I even stick my food chopper right in the bowl and chop even more for juicer salsa.

If you want to speed up your already short prep time (Hey, football isn't a joke!), then our EZ Chopper cutting board is perfect. The knife is attached straight to the board with a swivel action and that speeds up your cutting time tremendously. Then you can swivel the knife out of the way and food chop right on the cutting board, which is what I prefer to do.

I hope you love this Pico De Gallo as much as we do. Don't limit it to just a game day treat with chips, because it is also great on tacos, eggs, in mac-n-cheese, on a salad, over chicken or fish. The list goes on and on.

All of the products featured today are available on our website www.lawn-gardening-tools.com, along with many other great kitchen helpers.