Summer Salsa is one of our favorite foods this time of year! We’re just finishing up a 21-Day Program to for a midsummer reboot and we’re celebrating with a healthy dose of this delicious post-cleanse dish. Nightshades aren’t used on the cleanse, but we love having tomatoes when they’re in season and we are not cleansing.
The trick to making the best salsa is using organic, ripe ingredients because they contain not only the most nutrients but are the most flavorful as well! We pair our Summer Salsa with raw veggies, organic chips, and a generous serving of guacamole. When mangos are in season we’ll add some into the mix for a little sweetness, too.
You don’t have to be the boring “healthy one” at the party! Spice up the next BBQ on your calendar with this salsa recipe and your friends will be thanking you.
Organic Summer Salsa Keeps Clear of GMOs
When grocery shopping, do you tend to purchase cheaper products and ignore the certified organic label? Do you ever think to yourself, “What’s the difference anyways?” Organic isn’t just a marketing term, it is a certified label meaning that crops haven’t been grown with genetically modified seeds or sprayed with conventional pesticides. Your body will thank you for this investment. Tomatoes are a food that should always be bought organic because they have a thin skin that absorbs water and chemicals easily.
The pesticides and herbicides that are sprayed on conventional crops are formulated so that bugs wouldn’t eat and ruin said crops. The insects that eat these pesticide-sprayed crops die or, in the case of bees, deteriorate slowly. If these crops aren’t even safe for bugs and animals to ingest, why are they sold to us as food?
Pesticides are endocrine disruptors that can cause painful hormonal imbalance symptoms, especially after eating these foods over a long period of time. Additionally, many conventional crops are mono crops that only grow one or two items. With less crop rotation, the soil our food grows in can become mineral-deficient.
Organic farmers do not receive federal subsidies from the government so it costs more for the farmer to produce these crops organically. There’s often more labor and management involved to maintain and produce organic crops. Organic farms are smaller so organic farmers are not able to produce as much food as conventional growers do.
For all of these reasons, organic food is more expensive but we believe it is well worth the cost — we’d rather spend extra on our food than on medical bills down the line.
Summer Salsa’s Forbidden Nightshades
Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and sweet peppers are part of the nightshade family. Some people are sensitive to nightshades because they contain alkaloids that can increase inflammation in some bodies which is why they are not allowed on the 21-Day Clean Program.
If you are not sensitive to nightshades then you can enjoy the many benefits of summer tomatoes such as the antioxidant known as lycopene which can help prevent heart disease. Tomatoes are rich in beauty-boosting antioxidants such a beta-carotene which our bodies convert into anti-aging vitamin A.
If you find you’re not sensitive to nightshades, adding organic tomatoes into your diet can have a lot of positive side effects. We like to add salsa to our eggs in the morning, on top of grilled fish, or just eat as a snack with organic blue corn tortilla chips and fresh slices of jicama.
Summer Salsa
Serves: 4-6 people
Ingredients:
3-4 medium tomatoes
1 yellow pepper
1 small yellow onion
1 bunch of cilantro (de-stemmed)
2 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno (deseeded)
juice of 2 limes
salt and pepper to taste
optional: add 2 diced mangos
Directions:
Dice the tomatoes, yellow peppers, onion, cilantro, garlic, and deseeded jalapeño and mix together in large bowl. If you want the salsa to be spicier add more jalapeño and include some of the seeds.
Squeeze the lime juice into the salsa mixture, and add more to taste if needed. Mix together well. You can serve immediately or marinate for a few hours or overnight.
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