Pico De Gallo

When it comes to fresh, light, summery foods, really nothing comes close to some homemade pico. "Eat pico de gallo for dinner" you ask? Well, of course you can! Although it's preeeetty tempting to devour an entire bag of tortilla chips & a bowl of this goodness & call it dinner, I wouldn't always recommend that (although I sometimes would). 

We like to use pico as a fine, fine addition to our tacos (chicken, fish, steak, or bean). Usually we like to keep our tacos pretty simple: warmed corn tortillas (always corn, always warmed), protein of choice (best grilled with lime), pico, & cheese. If we're feeling particularly spunky, we'll add in some sliced avocado &/or Greek yogurt to top them off.

Tacos are great because they are so versatile, but also because they're a hearty, yet light meal, & they don't take much oven time at all. We like to use our grill as much as humanly possible in the summer, so that keeps this meal completely oven-free for us.

The pico, of course, doesn't use the oven at all, so you can whip up a batch without adding extra heat to your kitchen. And if you're actually into heat this time of year, you can play around with the amount of jalapenos or the amount of seeds you keep. I would recommend wearing some gloves while chopping the jalapenos so that when you're done chopping them & when you rub your eyes immediately after, they won't get smeared with hot jalapeno juice (is it just me that does that?)

Picco De Gallo

Ingredients

2 Roma tomatoes, seeded & chopped

1 medium white or red onion, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, seeded & chopped

1 medium jalapeno, seeded (unless you like it hot) & chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

A few handfuls of chopped cilantro

1-2 tsp lime juice

Salt & pepper to taste

Directions

It's very important that you take the extra time to seed the tomatoes so that the pico doesn't get really runny. We also patted the tomatoes with a paper towel to make sure they were extra dry. Once you've seeded & chopped everything, mix the veggies in a medium sized bowl. Mix in the cilantro & drizzle the lime juice on top of that. Mix until incorporated well. Season with salt & pepper to taste & serve with tortilla chips, tacos, or anything else you'd like.