Who doesn’t love a crunchy, salted tortilla chip with a heaping pile of fresh Pico de Gallo on top? If you don’t, you’re crazy.
I worked as a kitchen assistant at Sur La Table for the past six months, helping out with cooking classes. While I was there, I met a dear friend who is one of the most genuine, humble and talented women I know. She’s from Peru, and she’s one of the chefs I worked with. Her name is Freyka. Freyka taught me a lot while I was working with her, and one of the most valuable lessons was how to make a delicious Pico de Gallo. She taught me a few tips and tricks that definitely take the classic pico to the next level…
Tip #1: Soak the diced onions in salt water. Soaking raw onions in salt water for at least 30 minutes will help to soften the bite and it makes them much easier to digest. No tummy troubles here!
Tip #2: Carefully remove all the seeds and “gooey” part of the tomatoes by slicing them in half and digging out the core. This will prevent the flavors in the pico from becoming diluted from all of the excess water the seeds produce.
Tip #3: Drizzle in some olive oil. This adds a nice rich flavor and some added healthy fats.
Tip #4: Use cumin! One thing you need to know about Peruvians is that they love their cumin! (A fact that Freyka reminded me several times 🙂 )
Tip #5: Let your pico rest for about 30 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to mix together.
We love eating our Pico de Gallo with Taquitos, pork carnitas or even just tortilla chips! You’ll notice we added avocado…the typical pico de gallo doesn’t include avocado, but come on…we all love avocado on everything and anything, so we couldn’t resist! It’s like pico de gallo had a baby with guacamole and this was the beautiful result…enjoy!
To learn more tips and tricks from Freyka, check out her Facebook page!
Ingredients
- 1/2 white onion
- 1 1/2 cups tomatoes, chopped
- 1 jalapeño
- 1 avocado
- Large handful cilantro
- Juice of 2 limes
- 2-3 tsp. ground cumin
- Drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt to taste
- Tortilla chips for dipping
Instructions
- Dice the onion. (*Optional=soak the onions in a bowl of water with a Tbsp. of salt for at least 30 minutes. Drain and rinse well. This takes away the bite of the raw onion and is easier on sensitive stomachs.)
- Cut open the jalapeños (wear rubber gloves or put a small ziploc bag on your hand while you cut). Dig out the seeds and dispose. Dice the jalapeño.
- Cut the avocado into small bite-sized pieces.
- In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, onion, jalapeño and avocado. Add the lime juice, cilantro, cumin, olive oil and salt to taste.
- Mix well and allow to sit for a minimum of 30 minutes before serving. (We like to make it in the morning and refrigerate all day so the flavors mix together).
- Serve with tortilla chips or over your favorite Mexican dish.
57 Comments
This looks delicious! I can only imagine how good it would be with fresh tortilla chips!
Thanks Tess! Gotta love crunchy chips with fresh dip!
Sarah, you have touched my heart this morning. I am really trilled to know how well were you listening. Is been a pleasure to worked with you, you are a delightful young women. I do want to keep cooking with you, so Sur La Table is not going to be the last place we cook together. Thank you for your sweet words. Love Freyka.
Freyka, I meant everything I said about you. You’ve been such an inspiration to me on my cooking journey, and I look forward to cooking with you again soon! 🙂 Love you! XOXO
This looks so wonderfully fresh and delicious!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
Thanks Kari! Hope you like it 🙂
Sounds delicious! I’d bet this would be great topped on some soft tacos!!
Mmmm, tacos + pico = a dang good day.
I’ve got to agree with the olive oil drizzling. People don’t realize how much subtle flavor olive oil can add! Just found your site through the FBC facebook group and love your posts! 🙂
Right? Olive oil is where it’s at. I’m so happy you reached out! We just barely joined the FBC group, so we’re still trying to get to know everyone involved. We’ll definitely check out your site!
Thanks for the cumin tip. That does sound really appealing!
We can thank Freyka for that one! The cumin really is yummy in it. Let us know what you think!
This looks so delicious and easy to do. I love that Freyka showed you some new things that you can use whenever you need to =]
Right? I feel so lucky to have worked with such a talented chef. It’s surprising how much you can learn from someone just by listening. Hope you enjoy the pico!
I absolutely love pico for how fresh it is. I am always mixing guac and pico when I have both laying around, so I love that you added in avocado 🙂
Kim, I’m so glad you’re on the same page with us about avocado. It just makes it that much better 🙂
I totally didn’t know the onion trick!!
Right?! That one changed my life. 😉
I love pic de gallo, it looks so fresh.
Me too! Pico is the best. Hope you found our tips and tricks to be helpful!
Love and make pic de gallo all summer with fresh veggies from the garden.
Yes! It’s even better when it comes straight from your garden right?
I love that onion tip! I think I might use that for other dishes too :). How wonderful to learn these tricks straight from the source!
Angie, truly the onion trick was a life changer for me haha. Glad you found it to be helpful too!
I’d eat that any day. I love your pictures! It looks so fresh and tasty!
Thanks Jared! It is definitely a fresh and tasty dish. Hope you enjoy 🙂
A refreshing must have for summer meals! I can’t wait until my CSA starts and we can incorporate our veggies into this recipe.
Ooh yes! Gotta love putting local produce to good use. 🙂
I’m drooling! Pico is one of my favorites and I’m definitely going to try your tip for soaking the onions. We love cumin in our house!
We’re cumin lovers too. Let us know you like it in the pico!
This is delicious! I love pico de gallo so I am definitely trying this recipe out ASAP
Let us know how it turns out! Hope you love it 🙂
I have never tried this before, looks delicious and it fits in perfectly with my current diet lessons, will be trying it this week.
I hope you love it! Pico is the best. Let us know what you think!
My husband LOVES Pico de Gallo! I’ll have to make this for him 🙂 YUM!
Finding a healthy recipe that your husband loves is a true success story 🙂 Hope you and him love it!
Great tips! I’ve noticed that whenever I make homemade salsa, it always tastes better after resting overnight. I never know what spices to add though, besides salt and pepper. I will definitely be adding cumin and olive oil next time!
Emilee, it’s so true. Letting those flavors marry together overnight really does make a difference. I’ve noticed it with soup and stews too! Let us know how you like the pico with the cumin and olive oil in it!
Sarah, one more tip, i might have overseen telling you. Do not use the tomatoes with seeds. They keep watering your recipe as the pico sits and the good flavors you started with! get diluted. Remove all seeds. One day that we play together we can show everyone how to easy seeded the tomatoes, you are great with pictures and videos. Love you. See you soon
I’m so glad you reminded me of this tip! I’ll put it in the post!
never thought about using cumin, that sounds interesting
Leslie, it is an interesting little addition, but seriously takes it up a notch! Let us know how you like it if you end up trying it 🙂
This recipe looks delicious. Really like the tip about soaking onions in salt water. I’ll have to try it.
Truly, the onion-soaking tip was a life changer.
Everything you need for a good mood, there is! It’s delicious, it’s useful and it’s simple 🙂
Thanks Klauss! Hope you enjoy!
I could eat that whole thing all by myself. So yummy. Pinning!
Haha right? Once you’ve made a bowl of pico and opened a bag of chips, you’re doomed. 😉
We make fresh pico de gallo on a weekly basis and everyone in our house devours it! Thanks for the extra tips.
Kristen, I’m so glad you’re on the pico train with us haha. Doesn’t get much better than fresh pico to put on anything and everything!
I do love a good pico de gallo with Mexican food. This recipe sounds really good! I think the guys would enjoy it with some chips.
Thanks Liz! Give it a try and let us know how you like it 🙂
Lovely fresh recipe for the summer!
Sophie | MapleTreeBlog
Thanks Sophie! Hope you like it!
Looks fresh and delicious! Love me some pico de gallo.
Thanks Agnes! Oh ya, we’re all about that pico 😉
What an easy recipe! Yummy!!!