Salsa Fresca

Since moving to Texas, I have fallen more and more in love with Tex-Mex food. While I enjoy eating it at restaurants, I've also been inspired to make more of it at home. One of the things I have enjoyed the most is fresh salsa--the stuff I had up north was also just so overly spicy and didn't taste good to me that I had sworn to dislike salsa. But now my mind is changed forever!

I came up with this salsa recipe based on the flavors I tasted in some of the fresh salsa I have had at restaurants: tomato, onion, pepper, lime and cilantro. This is a chunky salsa, and while definitely you could speed up the prep time by throwing everything in a food processor, you'll end up with a runnier dip that to me loses some of the appeal of the fresh flavors.

This is great with tortilla chips and on tacos, but I also love it as a topping for salad--it's so flavorful you end up using less calorie-heavy dressing.

Ingredients:

• 4 vine-ripened tomatoes
• 1/2 white onion
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 2 teaspoons garlic salt
• 1 bunch cilantro
• juice of 1/2 a lime
• kosher salt to taste

Directions:

1. Dice the tomatoes with a serrated knife and add to a large bowl, leaving most of the excess juice behind.
2. Dice half a white onion and add to the tomatoes.
3. Slice the jalapeno in half length-wise and remove the stem, most of the white inside part and some of the seeds (leave more seeds if you want a hotter salsa). Dice the pepper and add it to the bowl.
4. Stir the tomatoes, onion and jalapeno together with the garlic salt.
5. Remove the leaves from a bunch of cilantro and dice the leaves. Stir into the salsa.
6. Add the juice from half a lime and stir. Season with a pinch or two of kosher salt, to taste.
7. Serve immediately or store covered in the refrigerator for about a week.