Pico de Gallo (Vegan)

It’s made with simple ingredients: tomatoes, white onion, chili, fresh cilantro, lime juice, and salt.  It’s ready as soon as you combine all the ingredients, but I think it tastes even better after resting for about an hour for all the flavors to blend together.   I wouldn’t make it too far in advance, because the tomatoes will soften. If you enjoy pico, try cucumber pico de gallo with lemon juice or mango salsa with corn.

The naturally vegan pico de gallo goes great with lentil walnut tacos, refried bean taquitos with cashew lime crema, vegan refried beans, or vegan nachos with naturally vegan guacamole. It also works well as a topping for a vegan taco bowl, vegan burrito bowl, or vegan southwest potato bowl.

Tips for making pico de gallo

• If serving immediately, macerate the onions and jalapeños, which means to soften.  To macerate you’ll place the finely diced onions and jalapeños in a bowl and add the lime juice to the top.  They don’t have to be completely submerged, just let them sit while you prep the rest of the ingredients.  The acid will cut through the harshness of the raw onion.  This part isn’t as necessary if it’s not being served immediately.  If you’re chilling your pico beforehand, that will break down the onions in the fridge.
• To make it spicier leave the seeds in the jalapeño.
• The tomatoes will release a lot of liquid so a slotted spoon works great for serving.  I don’t pour off the liquid, if you taste it you’ll see there’s a lot of flavor in there.  
• Chop the tomatoes small, and finely chop the onion for a more cohesive texture.
• The stems of fresh cilantro have a lot of flavor, finely dice them so you don’t get big stem pieces and to not waste them.

Substitutions

• Roma tomatoes don’t have as much water as other tomatoes but use what looks good when purchasing your ingredients.  Good quality ingredients are best.  If you do substitute with a juicier tomato, you can deseed the tomatoes to cut down on the liquid in the pico de gallo.
• Can’t find jalapeños, try a serrano.  Keep in mind that a serrano is hotter than a jalapeño.
• Use lemon juice if you can’t find a lime.

How to store leftovers?

I think it’s best consumed the day it’s made, but leftovers can be stored for a couple of days in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

Serving suggestions

Enjoy the pico with tortilla chips or try it as a topping for one of these suggestions.

• A dip for tortilla chips.
• Top walnut lentil meat tacos.
• Enjoy it with refried bean taquitos.
• Serve it with oil-free vegan refried beans.
• Try it on vegan nachos.
• Add it to vegan taco bowls with lentil walnut taco meat.
• Serve it with a vegan burrito bowl with black beans.

Related recipes

• Mango corn salsa
• Buffalo chickpea dip
• Pickling white onions

Originally published on April 29, 2020, updated on July 5th, 2021.