Pico de Gallo (aka the Simplest Dish You Can Make)

I don't know what it is about Mexican/Latin American food, but I cannot get enough of it. I can get eventually get sick of Italian food, Irish food, good ol' American cuisine ... but I could probably live on a steady rotation of tacos, milanesas, guacamole, and so on. It would be a very short life, but, man, what a way to go.


One of my favorite snacks is tortilla chips with pico de gallo. It's pretty hard to find premade pico de gallo that isn't stuffed to the gills with preservatives, so I've started making my own.



All you need is:
- two tomatoes
- one to two limes (depending on taste preferences)
- three jalapeño peppers
- 1/3 to 1/2 of an onion (again, depending on taste preferences)
- cilantro


Chop up the tomatoes, jalapeños, onion, and cilantro as finely as you can. Try your best to save the tomato juice. I prefer the tomato juice to "liquify" the pico de gallo way more than water or vinegar. Start by mixing the tomatoes and peppers into a bowl, adding in the onion and cilantro until you have a mix that best suits you (some like it primarily tomato, some like it to be mostly tomatoes and peppers, some like an even mix. I'm an even mix person myself, but everyone is different). Cut the lime (or limes) in half and squeeze the lime juice in.


Mix everything up, cover the bowl with saran wrap, and let it settle in the fridge for at least 2 or 3 hours.



And now enjoy! I personally like creating guacamole at the same time and alternative between guacamole and pico de gallo.