Homemade Pico de Gallo

This homemade pico de gallo (salsa fresca) is full of fresh flavors from tomatoes, red onion, jalapeno, cilantro, and lime juice. It’s great with chips or serve it with tacos, nachos, burritos, and eggs – basically, anything that needs a pop of fresh Mexican flavors.

If you need something to pull you out of the doldrum that is known as winter, might I suggest making a batch of homemade pico de gallo? This uncooked medley of fresh flavors is like a little bowl of sunshine.

And I realize it’s best when made with sun-ripened garden tomatoes at their peak during the summer, but after the year we’ve all been through, I say screw it- even with so-so grocery store tomatoes, this easy pico is a breath of fresh air.

If you’re a stickler for the summer-ripe toms, then my best advice is to tuck this fresh salsa recipe away for a few months while the rest of us get a head start.

Ingredients

• Roma tomatoes – I like Roma tomatoes because they’re meatier and have fewer seeds.
• Diced red onion – you can also use white onion.
• Diced jalapeno – I like to remove the seeds and ribs because I like my pico de gallo on the mild side. Serrano peppers are also an option if you like the heat.
• Chopped fresh cilantro
• Fresh lime juice
• Kosher salt

How to Make It

In a nutshell, all you do is dice everything up and toss it together with lime juice and salt. So easy! But, yeah, all the dicing gets in the way and is probably the main excuse for not making it yourself – so much work! So, I thought I’d share my dicing tips in case you need some encouragement.

Before you do anything, heed this advice: use a sharp knife. It makes all the difference and is safer! I found a helpful knife sharpening video if you need to brush up on the topic.

Dicing Tips

Tomatoes: Start by slicing one in half through the center crosswise. Next, slice it lengthwise into thin slices. Then you can slice across to create a dice.

Onion: You can do the same steps with the onion except you will need to make several slices through the middle. Start at the bottom of the onion and cut into it towards the root end stopping just before you reach it. Repeat this to create several crosswise cuts (2nd photo).

Slice the onion lengthwise as shown in photo 3. Then cut across those slices to create the dice.

Jalapeno: Once you’ve removed the seeds and ribs, slice the each half into strips and then cut in a dice.

For all three, how wide you make your slices will determine how big your dice is. For pico de gallo, it’s good to have a small dice.

Recipe Tips

It’s always a good idea to make it at least a few hours in advance. This gives time for all of the flavors to mix and mingle together.

It will keep for several days in the refrigerator, but it will get a little juicier as it sits.

Feel free to play around with the amounts – add more jalapeno, less onion, a little more salt. You can also scale the recipe up or down – it is yours to customize!

Put it on all the things! I love it with:

• Burrito bowls and taco bowls
• As a garnish for chicken enchilada soup
• Spoon it over eggs for breakfast
• Add it to breakfast tacos
• Serve it with nachos
• Perfect with quesadillas
• Scoop it up with lots of tortilla chips
• Add an ice-cold margarita to up the amazingness

Basically, it will go with all your favorite Mexican food options!

I hope you give this fresh pico de gallo recipe a try – it’s a great excuse to practice some knife skills and the reward is fresh salsa and chips!

Happy Cooking,

More Dips to Serve with Chips

Nothing better than chips and dip! Here are a few more appetizers that are totally dippable:

• Easy Microwave Cheese Dip
• Homemade Salsa
• Salsa Verde
• Quick Guacamole

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