Mango, Avocado & Black-Eyed Pea Salsa

Other differences are more subtle, but equally salient. Texas salsa shares many characteristics with real cowboys: rugged, traditional, full-bodied and fiery; forget the foo-foo. By contrast, my salsas resemble free-wheeling, tie-dyed, Berkeley hippies, often fruity, changing focus on a whim, and almost never burdened by formal guidelines or strictures.

As evidence of my West coast salsa ways, I offer the following, an avocado, mango and black-eyed pea salsa. It’s a fast, easy, and filling snack with some baked tortilla or pita chips, but it is also great as a side dish.

Kiwis, mangos, pineapple, papaya—use whatever tropical fruit you can find if mangoes are not available or in season. Happy eating!

Avocado Nutrition: If you aren’t eating avocados, you may want to start–soon. Just one little fruit (I know, technically not a vegetable, but close enough for my January vegetable commitment) provides almost 20 vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, including 4% of the recommended Daily Value (DV) for vitamin E, 4% vitamin C, 8% folate, 4% fiber, 2% iron, 4% potassium, with 81 micrograms of lutein and 19 micrograms of beta-carotene. Here’s a link to the avocado association website for more information:http://www.avocado.org/healthy_living/nutrition.php