Free Viva Vegan!: 200 Authentic and Fabulous Recipes for Latin Food Lovers by Terry Hope Romero Page B

dark but not pitted. I like it without tomatoes, but if you must, incorporate very finely diced ripe red ones after mixing all the other ingredients together. The legendary method for keeping it fresh is to place the whole avocado pit into the finished guacamole to help prevent its turning brown, but it’s likely that that lime juice will do the real work.
     
     
    Tip: Selecting good avocados is the hardest part of making good guacamole. Most avos are sold unripe and will ripen within 2 to 4 days of purchase, so timing is everything. A perfectly ripe avocado should feel firm but not rock hard; gently press the skin—it will yield slightly and a knife piercing the skin will slide easily into the fruit. Avocados that are too ripe feel mushy and have dark pits or patches on the skin; overly ripe avocados taste bitter or otherwise “off.” Use a perfectly ripe avocado either that same day or early on the next day . . . ripe avocados may seem to get riper by the minute, especially in warm weather.
     
    2 ripe avocados (any variety)
2 to 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime
juice (about the juice from 1 large lime)
1 small yellow onion, peeled and minced
1 small green hot chile—serranos are
ideal—minced finely (optional)
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
(optional)
     
     
    1. Slice and peel the avocados and place in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle with the lime juice, minced onion, chile, salt, and cilantro, if using. Use a fork to mash everything together into a creamy, chunky paste. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more lime juice and salt, if desired. Serve immediately.
    Variation
     
    For a smoother guacamole, try grinding together the onion, chile, and cilantro with a mortar and pestle until smooth and then mash the mixture into the remaining ingredients. This is basically how a stone Mexican mole bowl ( molcajete ) works, grinding ingredients into pastes for smoother salsas. The onion and chile flavors will be distributed more evenly throughout your guacamole and you might just like it so much, you’ll always make it that way from now on!
     

FRESH TOMATO SALSA WITH ROASTED CHILES
     
 
    • Makes about 3 cups salsa
    • Gluten Free, Soy Free
 
     
    If you’ve heard of a burrito, you probably also know some kind of fresh tomato salsa, usually referred to as pico de gallo . This is what comes to mind when most people think of that certain five-letter word that’s served up with tortilla chips: a chunky mixture of fresh tomatoes and herbs with a touch of chile and lime.
     
    Of course, ripe red summer tomatoes make the best salsa, but up north we only have a few months of these heavenly tomatoes and that’s when canned diced tomatoes come to the rescue. This is a perfectly delicious and affordable option during those long no-tasty-tomato months of the late fall, winter, and spring (see how desperate things can get?).
     
    2 to 4 jalapeño or serrano chiles
2 pounds ripe red tomatoes, preferably
plum, seeded and chopped finely
1 large white onion, diced finely
3 tablespoons lime juice
½ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
½ teaspoon salt or more to taste
     
     
    1. Roast the chiles as described on page 46, peel, and remove stems. If desired, remove seeds for a milder heat (or leave in if using serranos, as these seeds are smaller and softer than those of jalapeños). Mince the chiles as finely as possible and place in a mixing bowl.
    2. Add the tomatoes and onion to the chiles and stir in the lime juice and salt. Chill the salsa for 30 minutes or let sit at room temperature, for the flavors to blend and the tomatoes to tenderize and release more of their juices.

Variations
     
    Winter Salsa: It’s February, it’s snowing outside, and you need fresh tomato salsa. Don’t even think of using those plastic pink wrapped things called “tomatoes.” And perhaps you don’t want to pay ten dollars a pound for tomatoes shipped from halfway across the world. Instead, reach