I wanted to create a fast versatile recipe that gives sweet cherries a little sass and attitude. This inflammation fighting salsa is lively and fresh whether it’s loaded into a fish taco, spooned over cooked sweet potato, mingled with cabbage and turned into a slaw, or eaten by the spoonful while wondering what to do next. Enjoy fresh cherries while in season….they will be gone in a blink!
1 cup fresh cherries, pitted and roughly chopped
1/3 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced small
2 Tablespoons minced red onion
2 teaspoons minced jalapeno
1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice, to taste
1-2 pinches of sea salt
2 Tablespoons cilantro, roughly chopped
1 Tablespoon pumpkin seeds, toasted
Place cherries plus their juices, cucumber, onion, jalapeno, lime juice and salt in a small bowl, mixing to combine. Taste and adjust with more lime if needed. Stir in cilantro and seeds. Makes½ cup.
Catherine McConkie 2013, all rights reserved
Chef C’s tips:
- To pit cherries, start at the stem end and run your knife around the natural seam down to where you feel the pit. If you want to dazzle your friends, place the stemmed cherry on the opening of some sort of empty bottle with the stem end up. Grab a straw or chopstick and press down. The pit will pop through the other end and fall into the bottle. No fuss, no muss.
- Keeping cherry stems attached until ready to eat protects the vulnerable stem end from allowing fruit spoiling molds and bacteria to enter
- Jicama makes a great substitute for cucumber
This post originally appeared in The Caregiver’s Table blog.
