The most magical thing about cooking from scratch…
…is how the simplest foods suddenly take on whole new life when combined in just the right way.
Tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, garlic. Basic ingredients most folks can easily grow in their garden or nab at the farmer’s market, right?
But when you toss them in a bowl with a splash of lime juice and a smidge of cilantro, they become something magical.
Pico de gallo (aka salsa fresca, aka fresh salsa) is my all-time favorite salsa in the whole wide world.
Sure, canned salsa is nice to have tucked away for the dead of winter, but nuthin’ beats a big fresh bowl of pico served alongside salty tortilla chips.
The tomatoes start the show with their sweet tang, as an unmistakable hint of cilantro envelops your taste buds. The jalapeños provide the perfect amount of heat at the end– not too little, yet not too much. It’s salsa perfection in a bowl.
The key to perfect homemade pico de gallo? You gotta taste it like crazy as you make it. The measurements below are simply a guide. The measurements greatly vary depending on the ripeness of your tomatoes, the intensity of your onion, the heat of your jalapeño, and so on. Plan to have a bowl of chips next to you as you make this recipe, so you can taste and tweak like crazy.
Homemade Pico de Gallo Recipe
- 4-5 plum or Roma tomatoes, diced
- 1/3 cup onion, finely diced (white, yellow, or red onions would all work)
- 1/2 of a jalapeño, seeded (or unseeded, if you want extra heat)
- 2-4 tablespoons fresh cilantro, finely minced
- Juice from 1/2 a lime
- 1 garlic clove
- Sea salt to taste (I use this one)
Toss the diced tomatoes and onion in a bowl, and add in the minced jalapeño and cilantro. Cilantro is vital to this dish, but it can be overpowering, so it’s OK to err on the side of caution and start with a smaller amount at first. You can always add more.
Now we’re going to make a garlic paste. Sure, you *could* just mince up the garlic all boring-like, but a paste is far superior. I learned this technique from my friend Trina who just-so-happened to win our local salsa competition with her amazing pico de gallo recipe.
Start with one clove of peeled garlic and start mincing it like you normally would.
But keep going. Make those garlic bits smaller and smaller.
Sprinkle some sea salt on top of your minced bits. And mince some more.
Now, take the edge of your knife and proceed to smash the minced garlic into the cutting board. We’re shooting for pulverized garlic here.
Switch off between smashing and mincing until the garlic has released it’s yummy juices and has turned into a mass of garlic pulp. This takes a bit longer than regular mincing, but it’s oh-so worth it.
Add the garlic pulp to the rest of the ingredients.
Squeeze on the lime juice, sprinkle in some salt, and taste and adjust as needed.
When it’s perfect, serve it with tortilla chips as a dip, or drop it on tacos, nachos, burritos or whatever your little heart desires.
You can serve your homemade pico de gallo immediately, or store it in the fridge for a while too. I’ve found sometimes letting it sit for a while improves the flavors as they have a chance to meld. You’ll want to eat it within a couple days, though. And keep in mind the peppers often increase in heat a bit the longer it sits.
Homemade Fresh Salsa Notes
- You can really use any type of tomato in this recipe. I favor Romas or plum/paste tomatoes since they have more flesh and less juice. However, regular ol’ slicing tomatoes are just fine here too. You might need to seed the juicier tomatoes first so you don’t end up with buckets of tomato juice in your pico.
- I know, I know… Cilantro can be a very polarizing flavor. People seem to either love it or despise it. I suppose you could omit it from your homemade pico de gallo if you had to, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It is really the star of this dish, in my opinion.
- As written, this recipe makes a somewhat small amount. Feel free to double it, quadruple it, fill up a feed trough, whatever…
- You can use other peppers besides jalapeños, if you wish. Serranos are good, or if you like it SUPER spicy (I don’t…), toss in a bit of habanero. The jalapeños in my garden didn’t make it this year, but I grew another small hot pepper that worked beautifully. (And of course, I don’t remember what it was called now… Lame.)
- I gotta admit, it’s rare I have limes and fresh cilantro on hand at the same time. When I get a hankering for fresh salsa and I’m missing those two key ingredients, I like to substitute in lime and cilantro essential oil. You can’t tell the difference in taste, and it usually saves me a trip to the grocery store. Just start with small amounts– one drop or less. These oils are super potent and can quickly ruin your salsa if you add too much.
Pico de Gallo Fresh Salsa Recipe
- Category: Condiment
Ingredients
- 4–5 plum or Roma tomatoes, diced
- 1/3 cup onion, finely diced (white, yellow, or red onions would all work)
- 1/2 of a jalapeño, seeded (or unseeded, if you want extra heat)
- 2–4 tablespoons fresh cilantro, finely minced
- Juice from 1/2 a lime
- 1 garlic clove
- Sea salt to taste (I use this one)
Instructions
- Toss the diced tomatoes and onion in a bowl, and add in the minced jalapeño and cilantro. Cilantro is vital to this dish, but it can be overpowering, so it’s OK to err on the side of caution and start with a smaller amount at first. You can always add more.
- Now we’re going to make a garlic paste.
- Start with one clove of peeled garlic and start mincing it like you normally would.
- But keep going. Make those garlic bits smaller and smaller.
- Sprinkle some sea salt on top of your minced bits. And mince some more.
- Now, take the edge of your knife and proceed to smash the minced garlic into the cutting board. We’re shooting for pulverized garlic here.
- Switch off between smashing and mincing until the garlic has released it’s yummy juices and has turned into a mass of garlic pulp. This takes a bit longer than regular mincing, but it’s oh-so worth it.
- Add the garlic pulp to the rest of the ingredients.
- Squeeze on the lime juice, sprinkle in some salt, and taste and adjust as needed.
- When it’s perfect, serve it with tortilla chips as a dip, or drop it on tacos, nachos, burritos or whatever your little heart desires.
- You can serve your homemade pico de gallo immediately, or store it in the fridge for a while too. I’ve found sometimes letting it sit for a while improves the flavors as they have a chance to meld. You’ll want to eat it within a couple days, though. And keep in mind the peppers often increase in heat a bit the longer it sits.
Hey Jill,
I am looking at your “canning pears” suggestions. So nice, as I’m looking for something without sugar. I live in the lower elevations of the Rocky Mountains…4500 feet. We must process pears for at least 30 (pint) to 35 (quart) minutes here. The higher Rockies above 6,000 feet add 5 minutes each to the times as water boils at a lower temperature the higher in elevation. The safest idea is to check with the local county extension agent as to times. Safe food for those babies!!!
My brother is allergic to cilantro. Is there a suitable substitute that we could use?
A certain percentage of people actually taste cilantro differently than others (google this for more info) and my husband is one of them. He says it tastes like chewing aluminum foil…I substitute fresh basil chopped and added the same way. I think it’s actually better than cilantro; there’s not much that fresh basil doesn’t improve.
Interesting! I wouldn’t have thought to sub in basil!
Hi Jill. I was wondering if your pico could be preserved through canning and if so, if you would make any adjustments to the amount of any ingredients? Would it continue to “heat up” as it sits? I LOVE pico but would rather make a BIG batch and can it if I can rather than make a bunch of small batches as I need it. THANKS!
Yes, I have seen different canned pico recipes. Here’s one: http://heartlandrenaissance.com/2012/08/canning-pico-de-gallo-style-salsa/
It’s possible it might continue to heat up a bit, but it depends on the peppers.
A certain percentage of people actually taste cilantro differently than others (google this for more info) and my husband is one of them. He says it tastes like chewing aluminum foil…I substitute fresh basil chopped and added the same way. I think it’s actually better than cilantro; there’s not much that fresh basil doesn’t improve.
This year for the first time I tried growing poblano peppers, also known as pasilla. They were really easy and the flavor – WOW. Not as hot as jalepenos and with a smoky flavor that made me determine to plant a whole bunch of it next year. A bonus is that the skin is very thin so when you roast them (a flavor bonus for any chile pepper plus it takes a lot of the “hot” out) any little bits of the charred skin you can’t get off easily don’t really matter that much as they’re too fragile to add any tough texture to your dish. These are the chiles traditionally used to make chile rellenos. Jalepenos still hold a place in my cooking (cheese-stuffed/bacon-wrapped YUM) but for salsa I much prefer the poblanos for their special flavor.
Thanks, Jill, for the recipe. I learned something from the garlic paste part and will definitely try that!
I definitely want to try it with poblanos next year– thanks for the tip Crystal!
I’m one of those who can’t stand cilantro, so ours is always without. One other ingredient that we add to our fresh salsa is cucumbers. That adds another level of depth to the flavor. I usually have the other salsa ingredients available from the garden about the same time I’m done canning the pickles that we need for the next year, but the cukes are still producing.
Love the cuke idea!
Do you peel your cucumbers first? I love the idea of cucumbers in salsa!!
Thanks!
You had me a Pico..I love salsa
I’m not a fan of cilantro. I substitute lovage. Its a close second in my opinion. Love your work! Thanks
I’ve never tried lovage– thanks for the tip!
I love cilantro so in the very similar recipe we use, we have lots more cilantro. We also add a half each of red and yellow bell peppers to give it a little different flavor than standard salsa.
Another addition that works great is if you have a left over corn on the cob. About half of a cob added to this recipe will add a great flavor.
Well, this Texas girl LOVES Cilantro – we use it in all kinds of recipes here. We had our first ‘crop’ of it actually in our new garden. I love the smell too! It’s always interesting to see how different parts of the country eat certain foods and drink beverages in certain ways. I Love AMERICA!
I personally don’t care for cilantro. I sub parsley, flat leaf or curly, whichever I have on hand.
I’ll have to try the garlic paste. I like a lot of color in my salsa so I use white, yellow, and red onions. Sometimes I also use red and yellow bell peppers. I like mix up my peppers, usually using both Jalapeño and Serrano, but whatever peppers are in the garden get used (manzanita, Fresno, Hungarian etc.). My 2 major tips when people ask for my salsa recipe are these: you have to start with good flavorful tomatoes and I use lots of black pepper. My favorite salsa tomato is a Cherokee Purple.
I also like throw some corn in sometimes.
Your recipe is very similar to mine. A few years ago I made a gallon jar full, added about 1/2 cup of whey, let it sit on the counter for3 days, then into the fridge. This was in late Aug/early Sept I think. It still tasted great when we finished it in January. Gotta love lacto-fermentation.
This is such an informative post from your suggestion of using lime and cilantro oil to the substitution suggestions if needed for cilantro! Thank you for offering such a great forum. I love to add fresh peaches to our salsa, made very similar to yours.
adding peaches sounds amazing!
Made this recipe, it was so great I couldnt stop eating it!! I again love the cilantro, but glad for the other tips, love the basil idea…
Thanks Jill!!
So glad you enjoyed it Carol!