Sluttishly Vegan: Pico de Gallo

I don't know about you but when it's hot the last thing I want to do is to crank up the heat in my kitchen by turning on the oven. No siree, I would much rather be sat outside smothered in factor 30, sipping cocktails and nattering with my cat friends over fridge raided dips and nibbles that can be thrown together in about 2 minutes.

When I was 21 I lived in Japan with a Mexican girl called Lizzie who taught me how to make amazing salsas. Up until that point I thought salsas were just runny tomato based dips spiked with chilli but there is a whole world of sexy salsas to choose from. The pica de gallo salsa isn't runny so won't make your nachos go soggy and is perfect for stuffing in quesadillas, tacos, piling onto burgers or just use crisps to scoop it up with and stuff it in your mouth.

The base for a pico de gallo is always chopped tomatoes, onion and chilli then you just pep it up with whatever fresh salad veg takes your fancy and throw in some coriander and a touch of garlic.

You'll need:

• 2 ripe tomatoes
• 1 onion (I use red)
• 2 chillies (include seeds if you want it with even more kick)
• handful of radishes
• 1 cup of sweetcorn
• cucumber
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 clove finely grated garlic
• 1 bunch coriander, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Make it!

I use my trusty V-Slicer mandolin to julienne all the veg but if you don't have one just chop everything pretty finely (leave the sweetcorn whole) and throw them in a bowl. A pico de gallo should be able to be eaten with nothing but a toothpick! You can eat it straight away but if possible leave it for 20 minutes (make some margaritas) so that all the amazing fresh flavours will be allowed to develop and it will taste that extra bit more awesome!