The Pico

Pico de Gallo!

A bowl of gold!  Not the exact translation...but it should be.  The literal translation is a little off-putting.

This is one of my favorite recipes!  I got the general idea of the dish from one of Emeril's recipes back in 2008.

Pico de Gallo is a hand-chopped, chunky salsa-type mixture that is good in salads, omelets...you name it.  I have no shame, I'll eat it right from the bowl.

Since making the switch to clean foods, this dish has been a life-saver.  Every morning I make an egg white omelet with pico and mozzarella.  I wasn't a fan of tomatoes for most of my life.  This is a great way to actually get the tomatoes into my body with zero gagging.

What you'll need:

• 1 medium to large tomato (or the equivalent with smaller varieties)
• 1 medium to large sweet onion (or more if you're an onion lover like me)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 Jalapeño (not pictured, I ran out for this batch)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Salt and pepper
• Juice from 1 lime (about 2 tbsp from the bottle)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Pretty simple from here.  I'm horrible with knife cuts, so I'm proof that it doesn't have to be perfect!
Everything goes in the same bowl:

Roughly dice your tomato and onion.  I leave the seeds in the tomato, it's just easier. 

Smash, peel and mince the garlic.  A garlic press will work as well.

Pick any large stems out of the cilantro and chop as fine as you'd like it.  I usually keep the leaves pretty big because I love cilantro.  It's somewhat spicy, so you may want to substitute fresh parsley.

Very carefully remove and discard the seeds from the Jalapeño, then dice the pepper.  Chefs will recommend that you use gloves...I never do (use them, not recommend).  Just wash your hands after making this and don't put your fingers in your eyes, up your nose...etc.

Add the lime juice, salt and pepper to taste and drizzle with the olive oil.  Toss the mixture with a spoon.

Cover with plastic wrap and stick it in the refrigerator to let the flavors "marry."



Keep in mind, this picture is the Jalapeño-less, Onion-overload version and it hadn't been placed in the fridge yet.  I honestly don't know if this bowl really made it to the fridge.

One thing that I can definitely advise against with this recipe...is don't throw it all in the blender/food processor and expect the same result.  I like to cut corners, but hand-chopping the ingredients for this dish will preserve the natural colors (and flavors!).  Throw it all in the blender, and you'll have a brown, gloopy, liquid version.  No bueno.

Immediately following this post:  my opinion on sweeteners.

Want a clean, easy version of a recipe?  Comment below, I'll run some experiments and post the results!