Hubby’s Easy Salsa Fresca Recipe

This post is part of a sponsored campaign in collaboration with Latina Bloggers Connect. All statements and opinions are mine.

My kids turned me on to something that I used to know and totally forgot about: that an ice cold glass of milk goes really well with spicy foods. Like when you are enjoying a salsa fresca that burns so good and you want a tiny bit of relief, you know that drinking water is not going to do a dang thing for you—in fact, it almost makes it worse, but milk will sooth the burn enough to keep the party in your mouth going.

Non-scientifically speaking milk seems to be the best beverage for calming the burn of spicy foods because it’s like a cooling blanket that lovingly wraps around your burning tongue. Scientifically speaking, the reason milk goes excellently with salsa or any spicy food for that matter is because it contains casein. Casein is a compound that loves fat and happily binds with the spicy oils in chiles to help wash them away so that you can comfortably continue to eat more spicy food. I’m serious, try a glass of milk the next time you are having chips and salsa. It’s a good combo.

Now, atrevete a probar leche con my marido’s salsa fresca (AKA pico de gallo). He makes this for us all the time and we love it.

Hubby’s Easy Salsa Fresca Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 medium vine ripened tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 medium white onion, chopped and rinsed*
• 1-2 Serrano peppers seeded and chopped (or more if you like it spicier, you could also use jalapeños)
• Chopped fresh cilantro (the amount is up to you depending on how much you like cilantro, we do a healthy sized bunch)
• 1 lime
• Salt to taste (we use coarse grey salt or kosher salt, never table salt and yes, we are total salt snobs)

* We put the chopped onions in a strainer and rinse them to remove that intense raw onion flavor that can sometimes overpower the other ingredients. It makes a huge difference in helping the onions blend wonderfully with all the other ingredients.

Directions:

Put all the chopped ingredients in a bowl, squeeze the lime on top of it all, mix it up and salt to taste.
(Note: I add fresh diced avocado to it sometimes and YUM!)

It’s amazing that something so simple and easy to make can be so incredibly delicious. It’s such a treat and when you pair it with a glass of milk it’s a great mid-day snack because your get the protein in the milk and it all ends up being rather filling.

For more ideas of savory foods that go excellently with milk visit the Toma Leche website and check out the digital series below that will inspire you to be more adventurous with your milk pairings.

I’d love to see what you like to drink milk with, share a photo of your favorite food paired with milk on social media and tag it with #MeGustaConLeche so we can all take a look. 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of the California Milk Processor Board. The opinions and text are all mine.