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| Photo credit: All over social media - You figure it out. |
Recently this recipe popped up on my Facebook feed, piquing my interest and appetite. I must eat some! The Mexican-inspired recipe is all over the internet and seems to have been around since the 1950s so I have no idea who to give credit to, and there's a debate going on that it's plain ole salsa.
I agree with the camp who thinks the recipe needs lemon juice, salt, and pepper, so below is the recipe I'll make. Be sure to give the recipe that was on my Facebook feed below, over to the right, a glance too. It looks to be one of those dishes everyone can improvise and adjust to his/her own tastes and spice tolerance. I can also see tossing some fresh or frozen cooked corn and/or celery into the mix.
Pico De Gallo
Ingredients:
3 jalapeno peppers - I like hot (although they will be less hot if you remove the seeds and aren't cooking them). Also, feel free to use fewer jalapenos for milder heat. In variations of this recipe, people substitute banana peppers, poblano chiles, or serrano peppers, listed in order of their hotness. Jalapenos fall after poblano chiles in hotness on the list.
1 large onion, chopped - I'll eyeball the amount as I like onions and might use more.
1 cup cilantro, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped, or 1 tablespoon dried garlic
1 tablespoon cumin - I'll reduce the cumin to 1 teaspoon. I like it, but a little goes a long way.
3 lemons or limes, juiced
1 teaspoon salt to start with, then taste if more is needed.
1 teaspoon pepper = 24 turns of the peppermill (or chili powder)
Directions:
1) With a sharp knife, dice all the ingredients medium fine (eyeball them, not too big or too small) and toss them into a mixing bowl.
2) Spice, mix, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
If you're lucky enough to have a tomato garden, this recipe is for you! You'll know exactly what to do with your abundance of tomatoes in late summer.
After making the Pico de Gallo if you desire to keep it for longer than a week, I suppose it could be tossed into a stockpot to blanch for 5 minutes to can in Mason jars. Although far from an expert, I don't see why not.
Golly, I'd love to dip my spoon into the overflowing jar at the top of the blog! It's waiting to be eaten!!!😋
🌶🍅🍽🍽🍽🍽🌶🍅🍽🍽🍽🍽🌶🍅🍽🍽🍽🍽🌶🍅🍽🍽🍽🍽🌶🍅
This weekend I made Joy Bauer's Buffalo Cottage Cheese Yogurt Dip, a healthy condiment you can use as a vegetable/chip dip, sandwich spread, or to flavor chicken. Usually, I use low-fat mayonnaise, or hummus as a sandwich spread with ham, beef, or turkey, but this is cheaper and packed with protein, so in the future, I might keep a batch of it in the refrigerator. I'll save the more costly hummus for snacking on crackers. If you're curious, Buffalo sauce derives its name from Buffalo, New York.
Buffalo Cottage Cheese Yogurt Dip
Ingredients:
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
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| Photo: Joy Bauer's website |
1/2 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
3 tablespoons hot sauce
2 1/4 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
Optional ingredients - what I added to Joy Bauer's original recipe:
1 teaspoon dried garlic
1/2 of teaspoon onion powder
a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar, next time I'll use white vinegar
A sprinkle of Worscheshire sauce
A sprinkle of cayenne pepper
Extra salt to taste
Directions:
Toss all the ingredients into a food processor and blend.
I love how healthy the dip is, however, when I tasted it finished, it was too bland. The hint of heat was fine, but to give it more zest I experimented by adding the above optional ingredients. After you make the original recipe, taste and adjust it to your own liking.
Next time I prepare the dip, I'll replace the lemon juice with white vinegar because it's traditional in real Buffalo sauce. Frankly, Joy's Buffalo dip doesn't taste as good as hummus or low-fat mayonnaise but it's certainly healthy and packed with protein. I think the dip is worth keeping and experimenting with to improve its flavor. Perhaps adding a little low-fat mayonnaise and Dijon mustard or Wasabi or American horseradish to the mix is the answer (reduce if you can't eliminate the mayonnaise).
Now that these condiment recipes are on THE SAVVY SHOPPER we can return here instead of searching all over the internet to make them time and again.
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