fresh tomato salsa

Someday I'll have a garden, and I think I'll plant some tomatoes, which doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary for most people. But, none of the folks in my house like raw tomatoes; I know, we're weird. BUT we LOVE them in salsa! (Or more correctly Pico de Gallo. However I like my tomatoes very finely diced so it might be considered SALSA, but without the "cooking it" part. Read here for the difference between pico de gallo and salsa.)

Thankfully, my in-laws have a NICE garden with an ABUNDANCE of tomatoes and I think they were more than happy to get rid of a bunch of the tomatoes they had, knowing they'd have just that many more in 2-3 days. :) So, this is the recipe I've found for fresh tomato salsa/pico de gallo (aka pdg) that we really like. I better write it down so I'll have it for NEXT time I want to make salsa/pdg.

Now this looks good! Although, I want all my veggies a lot more finely diced so...

I run it through my BELOVED (which I use all the time!) food processor  in batches. I don't want MUSH so I pulse some tomatoes until they're the desired size, then swap out for more tomatoes, then swap out for the onion, etc. This way it's mostly evenly sized. I wouldn't want to be the person who got a BIG hunk of onion!

 

Ingredients:

•  4-5 large chopped tomatoes (or 6-8 smaller ones) I even seeded mine this time, but I don't think it really makes a difference
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 c. onion, diced
• 1/4 c. minced fresh cilantro (or if you don't have fresh you can use about 2 Tbsp dried- as in coriander? haven't tried the dried cilantro- not sure how it works...?)
• 2 T fresh lime juice (may need an extra splash of lime juice at the end)
• 4 teaspoons chopped fresh jalapeno pepper (include seeds if you want it hotter- add less if you don't like heat) my household does NOT do well with heat, but give it a try if you like it
  
• 1/2 t ground cumin
• 1/2 t kosher salt
• 1/2 t ground black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (or 1/2 t. garlic powder)

Mix all ingredients together and serve. Keep leftovers in fridge. This tastes amazing after about 24 hours in the fridge . . . the flavors all mix together and it is delicious!

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com.