Recipe: Add some exotic flavours to your meal with guacamole and pico da gallo

While pico da gallo is made with tomatoes, onions, and jalapenos and a squeeze of lime, guacamole on the other hand uses avocado, onions, garlic, tomato, peppers, lime and more and tastes delicious as a topping for many dishes, especially a spiced up avocado toast.

Mexican cuisine is quite similar to Indian cuisine, where we have paranthas they have quesadillas, they have nachos to our papads and the many chutneys of Indian cuisine are comparable to salsa verde, pico da gallo, guacamole and many other such dips found in Mexican cuisine. And these sumptuous dips are not only healthy but also super quick to make, you can eat them with your Mexican dishes like quesadillas, tacos, nachos, enchiladas, chalupas and more, but you can also lather them on thick slices of bread and enjoy them just as they are. While pico da gallo is made with tomatoes, onions, and jalapenos and a squeeze of lime, guacamole on the other hand uses avocado, onions, garlic, tomato, peppers, lime and more and tastes delicious as a topping for many dishes, especially a spiced up avocado toast. Read on:

Pico Da Gallo

Ingredients:

1 medium tomato, diced

1 onion, finely chopped

½ fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

2 sprigs fresh cilantro, finely chopped

1 green onion, finely chopped

½ teaspoon garlic powder

⅛ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon pepper

Method:

In a medium sized bowl mix in together all of the ingredient which is the tomato, onion, jalapeno pepper, cilantro and green onion. Season the mix with garlic powder, salt and pepper and stir it all together until evenly distributed. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and serve with nacho chips or whatever you please.

(Recipe courtesy All Recipes)

Guacamole

Ingredients:

1 avocado – ripened

¼ cup finely chopped onions or 1 small onion

¼ cup finely chopped tomatoes or 1 small tomato

½ to 1 teaspoon finely chopped serrano peppers or green chillies or jalapeño pepper

1 small garlic clove – finely chopped or minced

¼ teaspoon freshly crushed black pepper or ground black pepper – add as required

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (coriander leaves)

2 teaspoons lemon juice or add as required

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

salt as required – can use rock salt, black salt, kosher salt or crushed sea salt

a few coriander leaves – for garnish, optional

Method:

Start by cutting the avocado in half, deseeding it and taking out all of the pulp with a spoon. This should happen easily if the avocado is appropriately ripe. You can either mash the avocado with the back of your fork or chop it with a knife, depending on how you like your guacamole.

In a bowl, mix the avocado with the other chopped up ingredients like tomato, peppers, onions, garlic etc. To this add your salt, olive oil and lemon juice and other seasoning including salt and freshly crushed black pepper.

Mash the avocado while mixing. Serve with toast, nachos, chips, burrito or anything that you like. Enjoy!

(Recipe courtesy Dassana's Recipes)