Mexican Salsa aka Salsa Fresca
Salsa means sauce in Spanish. Mexico is a very diverse country in which the many regions yield a big variety of dishes and salsas. Every family has their favourite recipes, their favourite type of salsas they like most. But one thing is for sure: in Mexican homes you will always find some sort of salsa on the table. It may be based mostly on dried or fresh chilies (the choice of peppers alone is mind blowing), with our without tomatoes, spicy or mild. The salsas are used for snack and/or appetiser, to top your tacos, or to cook with meats — the choices are many. Salsa is also a foundation for many dishes which can make something that is ordinary and bland and transform it to something that arouses your senses and tickles your taste buds. When cooking certain dishes, like a good mole, it is not uncommon to spend nearly all of the preparation time on getting the salsa just right. A good salsa doesn’t have to be the spiciest thing you’ve ever eaten, and it definitely should not overpower your dish. It should bring all your ingredients together and make for a very happy dinning experience.
4 medium ripe red tomatoes
2. Place the chopped tomato, onion, peppers and cilantro into a bowl. Next squeeze in the lemon juice and mix. Then start adding your spices and keep stirring to mix all those yummy flavors. You can taste it to see if it needs any more salt.
That’s all, you can let it sit for some minutes to let all the flavors combine or you can serve right away with corn chips or as a topping. The taste should be very fresh with a slight tartness from the lemon, and it will be a tiny bit spicy but not overpower the other ingredients. You should be able to taste all the ingredients complimenting each other.
If you don’t eat spicy you can still enjoy this salsa, simply omit the pepper. It doesn’t hurt the salsa it’s still mouth watering. In fact my mouth is watering now just writing this, gotta go make some more!
- 4 medium ripe red tomatoes
- half a medium white onion
- 1 lime or 1 lemon
- 1 big handful of chopped cilantro
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, optional
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 hot pepper like a fresh jalapeño or Serrano, or you could even use 1 teaspoon of cayenne powder
- You’ll need a big bowl to combine your ingredients
- First you need to finely chop your onions, cilantro, peppers and tomatoes.
- Place the chopped tomato, onion, peppers and cilantro into a bowl. Next squeeze in the lemon juice and mix. Then start adding your spices and keep stirring to mix all those yummy flavors. You can taste it to see if it needs any more salt.
- That’s all, you can let it sit for some minutes to let all the flavors combine or you can serve right away with corn chips or as a topping. The taste should be very fresh with a slight tartness from the lemon, and it will be a tiny bit spicy but not overpower the other ingredients. You should be able to taste all the ingredients complimenting each other.
Love pico de gallo and this looks divine! Always make it with lime but when I was living in Italy it was hard to find…Now I can find limes no problem but the tomatoes aren't always very tasty… Sigh!
Hi Frank, Thank you :) I have the same problem, sometimes just have to do with the ingredients at hand. Specially when the cravings are strong,