Ted's Zuke Salsa

Category:		Appetizers & Snacks
Style:		Mexican
Special Consid.:		Low Calorie
Servings:		Plenty!

Description:
What are the best things that everybody (in Iowa) has in their garden in July? Home grown tomatoes, and zucchini! Once August comes around, you can add sweet corn. Even if you don't have a garden, your neighbors and coworkers are bound to be bringing you zucchini. Here's a great idea for using it up.

I've heard of zucchini bread, sautéed, in pasta and grilling zucchini and even using shredded zucchini in fruit preserves- but this salsa is my new favorite way of using up those big green monsters.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup diced onion
1 diced clove garlic
1 cup diced tomatoes
1/2 cup diced sweet peppers
1 diced Anaheim pepper
1 cup diced zucchini
1 4oz can of diced green chilies
1 tsp cilantro
1 tsp parsley
the juice of 1 lime
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp vinegar
salt to taste

Stir and let sit at least an hour, maybe even overnight.


Directions:
There's only two things that money can't buy and that's true love and homegown tomatoes. If you don't have those, I like firm Romas because they're easier to dice- but most people go for those juicy Beefsteaks.

I diced up my zucchini pretty small- between a quarter inch and and eighth of an inch cubed. Zuke is one of those things like potatoes or tofu that takes on the flavor of what ever it's in. So if you need more salsa, or you like yours chunkier rather than juicy, by all means spread it out by using more Zuke!
I skinned mine first, but I bet it would at color and texture to leave it on.

The secret to making it more like salsa instead of just pico de gallo is the olive oil. The secret to making it taste like authentic Mexican is the cilantro and the lime. Mmmmmm. They're teh secret ingredient in ANY salsa.

You can certainly include sweet corn in this recipe and some people even like chick peas or black beans- but then we're getting into other types of salsa and not just Zuke. But after all cooking should be more art than science.

The Anaheim pepper gives it a kick, but don't be afraid. Anaheims are very mild and flavorful, they're nothing like cayennes, jalepenos or haberneros, not that there's anything wrong with heat, but this is an IOWA recipe.

My favorite for heat and flavor are GREEN chilies. In Iowa, stick with just one can of mild chilies- Arizonans and Californians may prefer two cans or medium or hot. Again, THIS recipe is about the Zuke, not the nuke.

For color and flavor, dice up the non-hot peppers. My first time I happened to find "sweet mini-peppers" on sale, but Bell peppers would work too, but make sure to use red, yellow, or orange. The green ones will overpower the whole thing.

Not only is this great with chips, or on tortillas or rice, but try it as a salad topping or on your baked potatoes, you'll love it. You'll go through it so fast, that you won't have a bunch of zucchinis laying around for long.