Fresh Cucumber and Tomato Salsa

My Easy Fresh Salsa Recipe

It's been really hot here in Utah for the past few days, over 100-degrees, so I've been experimenting with recipes that don't require a lot of cooking.

On the days when hubby has to work out in the heat, I've also been serving food that can be eaten at room temperature.

When you're on a low-carb diet, summer meals can be quite a challenge. Not only does meat speed up your metabolism, making you uncomfortable in the summer heat, but typical low-carb stir fries, roasted vegetables, soups, and stews will also heat up the kitchen.

To solve the problem, you might want to try perking up the flavor of your crockpot chicken, lettuce wraps, and taco salads with a nice batch of fresh homemade salsa.

Fresh salsas are made with assorted vegetables, using tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers as the base, but ingredients can vary widely depending on what you already have on hand and what rung of the carbohydrate ladder you're on.

I had a cucumber that needed to be used up and decided to finely chop it and toss it into the salsa recipe I was already making for lunch, along with some tangy lime juice, minced garlic, and ground cumin. That's how this Fresh Cucumber and Tomato Salsa was born.

What is Fresh Homemade Tomato Salsa?

Fresh homemade tomato salsa recipes are a bit different than those made with blended canned tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Instead of those cooked and tasteless salsas that come in a jar, a garden salsa is a blend of fresh ingredients like chopped Roma tomatoes, finely diced red onions, minced jalapeno peppers, and other goodies.

With little or no tomato sauce to hold the vegetables suspended, there is nothing to water down the perky flavor of the fresh cilantro, garden ripe tomatoes, sweet onion, and other ingredients.

We currently live in a basement apartment, so we don't have a garden, but we do purchase our tomatoes and cucumbers in bulk at Costco. We always have plenty of tomatoes and cucumbers on hand, and this easy fresh garden salsa recipe is a great way to use them up.

For additional color, you could also add some bright yellow sweet pepper, diced avocado, and maybe a few sliced olives.

Fresh Salsa Ingredients: Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Onions, Peppers

Cucumber and Tomato:
Fresh salsa ingredients are the secret
to great tasting salsa!

How to Use This Easy Fresh Salsa Recipe

Fresh salsas are often used as a garnish or topping for taco salads, tostadas, and fajitas.

That's traditional.

But this Fresh Cucumber and Tomato Salsa is also great for scooping and dipping.

Serve it with pork rinds, crispy cheese chips, nuked pepperoni slices, or even additional cucumber slices for a great low-carb snack or summer side dish. Sweet peppers cut into curly squares would also make a great scoop.

Since you can make this salsa as spicy or mild as you like by just varying the amount of jalapeno you add, it also works well served on top of grilled meats or fish, omelets, or even a cool summer salad.

Take your bacon, lettuce, and tomato lettuce wrap to the next level by using a fresh salsa instead of tomato slices.

Make mini pizzas with slices of eggplant, salsa, leftover taco meat, and mozzarella. You can even mix it with a little cream cheese to stuff a chicken breast or use a dab on top of a deviled egg. Since it's chunky, it would make a great lunchbox condiment for rolled slices of ham or string cheese sticks as well.