Tropical Salsa

A refreshing summer dip!

sweet pineapple and mango mixed with tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, cilantro and jalapeno for a little kick.

Perfect as a refreshing dip or add it to your favorite proteins, I personally love this over grilled chicken and fish. My ideal summer dinner!

Let's be honest, I live in Florida, I will eat this year round :)

Ingredients:

• 1 pineapple, diced

• *Remember to use your pineapple as the serving bowl as well!

• 1 mango, diced

• 1 small red onion, diced

• *If you find the flavor of raw onion to be overpowering, soak your diced onion in ice cold water for about 20 minutes before mixing it in with your other ingredients.

• 2 tomatoes, I prefer roma tomatoes for any salsa

• 1 english cucumber, or two baby cucumbers.

• *If you can't find an english cucumber, use a regular cucumber but you may want to remove the seeds before dicing.

• 1 tbsp cilantro, fresh is always best. I only used 1 tablespoon for the entire recipe but use as much as you would like!

• 1 jalapeno, diced. Remove seeds and membranes if you don't want it to be as spicy

• 1 large avocado

• 1 Lime

• *Zest is optional. Always zest citrus before juicing it. Zesting cut up citrus is not easy, trust me ;)

• Salt and pepper (to taste)

Directions:

I love that charred flavor so I am going to grill my pineapple and jalapeno before dicing it. You don’t *need* to do this, you can definitely skip this step but as I said, I love a good char. Grilling your pineapple also brings out its natural sweetness. To use your pineapple as a serving dish, simply cut the pineapple in half vertically, making sure the crown stays intact. Scoop out all the juicy goodness and set aside.

When you're done grilling, start to dice up all your produce. I prefer a small dice on the jalapeno and red onion because I don't want their strong flavors to take over. Dice the pineapple, mango, tomatoes, cucumber and avocado to roughly the same size. If you are making this as a dip, just remember you will want to get a little bit of each flavor onto a chip, so dice accordingly. I like to season along the way, avocado NEEDS salt. I also add a little salt and pepper to the tomatoes. While not 100 percent necessary, I like to strain out some of the excess water of the tomatoes and cucumbers before mixing everything together.

Add all of your ingredients into a mixing bowl, adding the avocado last. You don't want the avocado to get mashed. Add in the cilantro, the juice of a lime and salt and pepper if needed. Give your salsa one last mix before spooning it into your pineapple for an oh so tropical serving dish! This tropical salsa is delicious served over grilled chicken or fish. It is also really good on a hot dog!