Avocado Salsa

This simple recipe is perfect for using up your fresh garden veggies. A little bit of dicing and prep work is required, but in minutes you can have a fresh and flavorful avocado salsa, perfect for parties and pot lucks. Today’s recipe is even easier than last week’s pineapple salsa because I don’t dice the veggies quite as small, it’s a heartier dip. While some avocado salsa recipes puree all of the ingredients together for a thin salsa (similar to my classic salsa recipe), I prefer a dip with a heartier feel. This one is more closely in line with my corn salad (and you can even add corn to this recipe, if you’d like). This is the best way to enjoy all of the flavors from the fresh garden veggies.

What You Need

Avocado. This should be ripe, more below on selecting a ripe avocado. Tomatoes. Any will work but I recommend Romas as they are sturdy. Red onion. Dice it finely for best texture. Jalapeno. I only use one to two, but adjust this to suit your preferred spiciness. Cilantro. Finely chop this as well. I know some people don’t love cilantro, but I don’t recommend leaving it out as it adds so much flavor to the avocado salsa. Dressing. This is very similar to the dressing for my Texas caviar. You’ll need olive oil and lemon juice for the base, then a pinch of sugar, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I experimented with adding cumin as well but wasn’t a huge fan.

As mentioned above, some avocado salsas also include corn, feel free to add frozen sweet corn (as much as you’d like) here if you would like. It will thaw fairly quickly when mixed in with the other ingredients.

Tips

The fresher your veggies, the better the flavor. Stir your veggies together gently with a rubber spatula to avoid mashing your avocados and ending up with guacamole. For best results, allow avocado salsa to chill (covered) in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving for best flavor. Serve within 24 hours or so of preparing, as the avocados may begin to turn brown as they sit (the lime juice helps to inhibit this, but the avocados will still begin to turn).

How to Tell If an Avocado is Ripe

My favorite way to tell if an avocado is ripe is to poke it gently with my index finger. Then gently poke the tip of your nose from the bottom (I demonstrate this in my video 😂). It should feel the same. Too squishy and the avocado is overripe and could even be brown inside. Too firm and it will be difficult to prepare and the flavor won’t be as nice. Some people also like to use the stem test. Pop off the stem cap at the top of the avocado. If it comes off easily and is a “medium-green” underneath, you’re good to go! If the cap sticks or it’s pale yellow-green underneath, it’s not ripe, and if it’s brown it’s likely overripe.

Try serving this one with some salty corn chips and a strawberry margarita granita! Enjoy!