- We're coming up on one of my favorite foodie holidays,
and that, my friends, is Cinco de Mayo.
Now I know Cinco de Mayo is not
a widely celebrated holiday in Mexico,
but it sure is here in Southern California.
There's parades, parties, mariachi music,
and everyone is outside enjoying delicious Mexican food
including tacos, fajitas, margaritas,
and today's recipe for pico de gallo.
Pico de gallo is an authentic Mexican salsa recipe
made from a handful of fresh ingredients, including:
tomatoes, onions, cilantro,
serrano pepper, lime juice, and salt.
It's chunky, spicy, easy to make,
and it's the perfect party appetizer.
But I've got a bit of a bonus for you today,
because in addition to showing you
how to make authentic pico de gallo,
I'm gonna share with you three not-so-authentic,
but very Downshiftology-appropriate recipes,
and that's for a creamy pico de gallo,
a pico de gallo stuffed avocado,
and a Mexican chicken zucchini noodle recipe,
and I'm pretty sure you're gonna love them all,
so let me show you how to make 'em.
First we'll start with the pico de gallo,
and to make that we'll need four Roma tomatoes,
Roma tomatoes or plum tomatoes
are the best for this recipe as they have more flesh
and less juice than your average tomato,
but we'll still need to remove the seeds,
and to do that you can use your finger
or cut out the middle portion
and seeds with a small knife.
What differentiates pico de gallo
from restaurant-style salsa recipes
is in fact its chunky texture,
so removing the juice and seeds is key.
You might also hear pico de gallo
referred to as salsa fresca,
and that translates to fresh sauce
because all of the ingredients in pico de gallo are raw.
In other salsa recipes, some of the ingredients
may be cooked or flame broiled.
Once you've sliced and diced all of your tomatoes,
add them to a mixing bowl,
and then we'll get started on the onion.
You'll want about 2/3 cup finely diced onion,
and I'm just gonna dice the entire onion
and save the leftovers to add
into other recipes throughout the week.
When it comes to the heat in this salsa recipe,
that's from the serrano pepper.
Traditional pico de gallo recipes in Mexico
almost always use serrano pepper,
unless you're in a more touristy spot
where they might sometimes use jalapeno pepper.
Slice your serrano pepper in half,
remove the seeds and membrane,
and then dice it up very finely.
Next, you'll take a small bunch of fresh cilantro,
which I absolutely love, then chop that up,
and add it to your mixing bowl.
To help all of these flavors meld together and stay fresh,
just squeeze the juice of one fresh lime on top
and add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt,
which I forgot to show on the video,
but you don't wanna leave it out.
Stir all of that together until it's well combined,
add it to a serving bowl and then enjoy
your fresh pico de gallo with tortilla chips.
Traditional chips, of course, are corn tortilla chips,
but cassava flour tortilla chips are delicious as well.
(relaxing music)
All right, so let's move on
to some of these less traditional,
but still incredibly delicious ways to enjoy pico de gallo.
First up is a creamy pico de gallo dip,
and all you have to do is mix Greek yogurt
with pico de gallo in a 1:2 ratio.
So I'm adding one cup of Greek yogurt,
and two cups of pico de gallo.
I also recommend scooping out the pico de gallo
rather than tipping the bowl,
so you leave out any watery portion
from the bottom of the bowl.
Then just give it a stir, and enjoy.
This is great for those who like
a slightly less spicy salsa,
and I explain how the yogurt calms the heat
on the full recipe post on my website.
Next up is pico de gallo stuffed avocados,
and yes, this is as easy as it sounds.
Just slice an avocado in half, remove the seed,
and add some pico de gallo.
This is always fun for a party
as you can have them lined up for your guests
to take as an appetizer,
and it's a great way to enjoy this salsa
in a low carb way without the need for any chips.
The last recipe is Mexican chicken zucchini noodles,
and it's a delicious meal that takes
less than 30 minutes to make.
All you have to do is slice and dice
two boneless, skinless chicken breasts,
and add them to a saute pan along with a tablespoon
or so of olive oil, or avocado oil.
Give them a stir, add two teaspoons of cumin,
which is another great Mexican flavor,
and cook the chicken for about eight to 10 minutes,
or until it's cooked through.
While the chicken is cooking, spiralize two zucchini,
and if you've never spiralized zucchini before,
make sure to watch my separate video on how to do that.
At this point the chicken should be fully cooked
so add one recipe of pico de gallo,
and gently stir that for about a minute,
then turn off the heat.
The key here is not to cook
the pico de gallo or zucchini noodles
because they will go watery, you just wanna warm them up.
So add the zucchini noodles
and then toss everything to combine,
and before serving you can also
crumble on some cotija cheese, or queso fresco.
(relaxing music)
I hope you guys enjoyed today's video and new recipes,
and if you did make sure to give it a thumbs up.
I have several more Mexican-inspired recipes on my website,
so make sure to check those out,
and I hope you all have a wonderful
and festive Cinco de Mayo.
(relaxing music)