Loaded Pico de Gallo

With the abundance of fresh fruits and veggies available right now, I've been trying to incorporate as many as I possible can into what I am cooking. We aren't quite at the point where I can get everything I need out of our garden, but the time is coming very soon!  To hold us over until then I pick up things at the grocery store or the local farmer's market stand (my new favorite place to buy fresh produce in town).  One of my favorite fresh dishes to make that ends up being super versatile is fresh Pico de Gallo.  It can be anything from chip dip, taco condiment, chicken topping, and it delicious on a pulled pork sandwich. I have made several variations over the years, but I recently stumbled on this recipe/technique and it's our new favorite for sure.

What You Need:

1 medium onion

juice from 1 lime

1- 8oz can whole kernel sweet corn

1- 8oz can black beans

2 large tomatoes

1 jalapeño pepper

1 cup cilantro

salt and pepper to taste

How to Make It:

In a small bowl, combine onion and lime juice. Stir to saturate onion with juice and set aside to marinate while you prepare the rest of the pico.

Rinse and drain corn and black beans in a colander, leave in colander to dry.

Dice tomatoes, removing the excess juice/seedy part of the tomatoes and place in a large bowl. Seed and dice the jalapeño pepper, place in bowl with the tomatoes. Chop cilantro and add to bowl.  Add corn, black beans, and onions along with lime juice to the bowl. Toss mixture with salt and pepper until combined.

You can serve it immediately with chips or refrigerate until you're ready to serve. We can never resist eating is as soon as it's ready, but the flavor is always so much richer the next day!

This dish was the first thing I have made that included a little something from the garden.  I used a jalapeño pepper that I harvested the day we got home from the beach.  Speaking of our first harvest...here it is! It might be small but I am so proud of it!

 Thankfully it rained while we were gone so the entire garden looked super healthy when we got back!