My homemade salsa and guacamole are some of my most requested recipes from friends and family alike. The salsa is actually technically pico de gallo, not a salsa, since it is all fresh ingredients and not cooked; but everyone always asks for my homemade salsa. I am publishing these recipes together as you need my homemade salsa to make my guacamole recipe.
There are two things that make my recipe unique and although you can make the recipe without them, it is always better when using the following two ingredients:
Roasted garlic cloves: I buy a very large bag of garlic clove heads (approximately 30-40 heads) which you can find at your local warehouse store. Prepare notebook paper sized sheets of tin foil. Make a shallow 1/4 ” cut across the top of the heads to expose the cloves. Douse each head with a generous drizzle of EVOO (about 1-2 teaspoons per head) and then wrap 3 heads each in tin foil packets. Place all the tin foil packets on a sheet pan and bake at 400 F for 30 minutes. Be prepared, your house will fill with the smell of garlic and it will last a while. I love the smell, but plan accordingly, you really do not want to roast 40 heads of garlic if you are entertaining anytime soon. Let the tin foil packets cool to room temperature before opening. Use a small knife to pop each soft clove out of it’s casing and into a mason jar. Just cover with EVOO and you can keep in your pantry for several weeks and use as needed. If you do not want to go to this trouble you can use purchased roasted garlic paste in a jar or even granulated garlic instead. But I promise you, you will find many uses for roasted garlic if you do make it. I add to soups, almost all pasta dishes and stir frys, and it is heavenly combined with butter and parmesan cheese and spread on Italian bread.
Persian Lime Olive Oil: Flavored olive oils are one of my favorite ways to add unexpected boosts of flavor to salad dressings and condiments! And citrus oils like lemon, lime and orange are some of my favorite flavors. You can use regular EVOO in this recipe if you cannot find the Persian Lime, but it lends a depth of flavor you cannot achieve without it.
Additionally, you will notice some specific ingredients and tools that I use in my recipes. For example, sea salt instead of regular table salt for the health benefits. Cholula hot sauce, but you can use your favorite hot sauce instead. And finally for the seasonings, lime pepper or steak seasoning. These two seasonings are a staple in my kitchen and find their way into most of my recipes, so I buy the large commercial kitchen size bottles of them at my local warehouse store.
I am a sucker for kitchen gadgets and you can certainly do without them, but those shown here in this recipe are all ones that are well worth the expense. The Pampered Chef Food Chopper is used every week in my kitchen. The Cutco knives you see pictured are a splurge, but one or two really great knives make cooking a pleasure instead of a chore. And the funny green avocado tool pictured in the ingredient lineup picture was a gift from my twin on my last birthday and I love it! It cuts, grabs the seed out and then slices the avocado while scooping out the flesh, all with the different parts of the tool. So slick!
Without further ado, on to the recipes:
- 10 Roma tomatoes, diced small
- ½ large sweet onion, chopped finely
- 1 jalepeno pepper, seeded and ribs removed, diced finely
- 1 bunch cilantro, chopped finely
- 2-4 cloves of roasted garlic, chopped finely
- 2-3 T. Persian lime olive oil
- 2 limes, squeezed for their juice
- 1-2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon lime pepper seasoning or steak seasoning
- 2-3 teaspoons of Cholula sauce, or your alternate favorite hot sauce
- 2-3 ripe avocados
- Prepare tomatoes by slicing in half lengthwise, cutting out core at top, and then, using your thumbs, remove seeds and most of juice from tomatoes. Slice prepared tomatoes into very thin strips and then into a very small dice.
- Prepare pepper by slicing in half lengthwise, removing core at top and then cutting out ribs and seeds. If you like a hotter spice in your salsa, leave in ribs and seeds. Chop into fine dice.
- Prepare onions by chopping very finely with Pampered Chef food chopper.
- Place diced tomatoes, onions and pepper into a medium non-metal bowl.
- Add in chopped cilantro, roasted garlic, olive oil, lime juice, 1 teaspoon salt to start, pepper and hot sauce.
- Stir together well and taste test for balance of flavor.
- Depending on amount of lime juice obtained, juiciness of tomatoes etc. you may need to add more olive oil, lime juice or salt to balance flavors to your liking.
- This salsa is best if let to set in refrigerator for an hour or so before eating to allow the flavors to blend and fully develop.
- Leftovers will only last 2-3 days in the fridge, but that has never been an issue in my house.
- To make guacamole, peel and seed avocados and mash with a fork until chunky. Stir in one cup of my fresh salsa.
- Enjoy!
Thanks!