Once again while scrolling through Instagram recipe reels – it’s becoming a thing! – I came across one for pan-grilled calamari topped with pico de gallo and I realised that I had never made pico de gallo before. Mostly because dicing veg is not a favourite pastime. Then I remembered how YEARS ago back in Toronto I had this a handy manual veg chopper (I think it was Braun) where you put an onion or pepper on a cutting board, placed the chopper over the veg and went BAM BAM BAM until everything was finely chopped. So I wondered if such a thing still existed and that very day found one (on sale!) at El Corte Inglés. Different brand, same simple mechanism. So I bought it!

For any of you wondering what pico de gallo is, it’s a type of fresh salsa typically used in Mexican cuisine. Main ingredients include tomato, peppers and onion, with many variations on that theme. For this one I used tomato, two types of peppers (red bell and italian green), sweet onion and a few jalepeños. For herbs I went with a mix of fresh parsley and cilantro, and dressed it with lime juice and olive oil (salt and pepper to taste). Some recipes I saw don’t use olive oil, others add this and that, or only use green peppers… but really it’s up to you! So this is kind of a non-recipe in the sense that it is up to you to choose which ingredients sound good to you. This version was fabulous and I will make it again very soon, and probably quite often. It’s an easy and simple way of adding freshness and a bit of zing to pretty much anything. And now that I have my new chopper it’s also extra easy to make.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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