Salsa Fresca

Ingredients

2 medium cucumbers - peeled, seeded, and chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1 small onion, chopped and soaked in ice water for 30 min.
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons lime juice or juice of 3-4 limes
2 teaspoons minced fresh cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

Dice the onion and put it in a small bowl of ice water to draw out the "hot" flavor. Let it sit while you cut up the rest of the vegetables into small pieces. I often put the garlic, peeled limes, and cilantro in the food processor and puree them. Combine the onion, cucumber, tomato, garlic, peppers, lime, cilantro, and 1/2 tsp salt in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

I like this as a salad topper (instead of dressing). It's especially good with grated pepper jack, cheddar, or monterey jack cheese, avocado, and maybe some black olives.

It also tastes wonderful over lentils cooked with salt and pepper.

You can make it with a red (or yellow or any other color) bell pepper instead of 3 of the jalapenos, but I'm allergic to bell peppers so I just use more jalapenos. Lately the ones I buy are not that hot at all, if you remove the seeds!