Almost a Guacamole Pico de Gallo

We have a pico de gallo recipe that’s packed with so much avocado that it’s nearly like a guacamole. Our take on this pico is all about simplicity. The fresh tomatoes and avocados are the stars of this recipe and we make their flavors shine brightly with a little lime juice, cilantro and salt.

Ingredients

• 2 large avocados
• 3 vine-ripened tomatoes
• Handful of fresh cilantro
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 lime
• Pinch of kosher salt

Preparation

Preparation is simple: it’s all about chopping and dropping ingredients into a large bowl.

1. Dice tomatoes and add them to the bowl.*
2. Dice avocados and add them to the bowl.*
3. Pull the leaves of the cilantro from the stems. Pile the leaves on your cutting board and use the chef’s knife to roughly chop them. Add the chopped cilantro to your bowl.
4. Pull the skin away from the garlic clove and mince it. A shortcut we like to take that actually results in better distribution of garlic flavor is to grate the clove through a microplane or zester. Add the garlic to your bowl.
5. Add a few squeezes of lime juice to the bowl, approximately 3 teaspoons.
6. Add a pinch (maybe two) of kosher salt.
7. Use a spoon to gently combine all of the ingredients. You’ll notice that the small dice you did for the avocado makes it a little creamier which is why this pico de gallo is almost like a guacamole. Transfer to a serving dish (or not!) and serve with your favorite tortilla chips.

*Technique

If dicing tomatoes and avocados is new to you, here’s our advice on the proper technique. The real trick is to dice everything so that the pieces are all uniform in size. A sharp chef’s knife will be the proper tool for the job to cut them into small pieces.

When you dice the tomatoes, it’s important that you don’t include the pulpy portion as this will make for a soupy pico. Cut the tomatoes in half, and then take the halves and cut them into quarters. Using your chef’s knife, cut out the pulpy part of the tomato. This will leave you with strips of tomato that are perfect for dicing.

Cut each avocado in half length-wise around the pit. Pull the halves apart. Hit the blade of your knife into the pit, and gently twist the knife to encourage the pit to pop out of the avocado. Using the pointy tip of the knife is not recommended for pit removal as it increases the likelihood you’ll end up stabbing your hand. Use a spoon to scoop the avocados out of their skins. Lay the flat side down on your cutting board and cut through the avocado length-wise so that you create two halves stacked on top of each other. Be careful with this step so that the avocado keeps its shape. Cut strips length-wise of equal width down the avocado. Cut strips of the same width across the avocado. The result is that you have a perfect dice of equally sized pieces.

Tags: Recipe

This entry was posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 12:42 pm and is filed under Cook Up, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.