[Guacamole & Tomato Salsa] Summer delights to accompany grilled Fajita - in 10 minutes

The other Saturday, Mr. D suggested grilling beef and chicken and asked me to make tomato salsa and guacamole for the accompaniments to the fajita, to which I quickly agreed since we had a few over-ripe avocados.  I am always desirous of avocados. Thus, I often buy more avocados than needed. However, I found out that I could eat no more than one avocado a day. I do eat a lot of other things daily, so an avocado on top of all my daily food I eat is already more than a lot. Anyway, that is how I end up with very very ripe avocados, more than often.

Luckily we had all the ingredients, including tortillas, to have a fajita lunch. I could prepare salsa and guacamole in time. Do you know how and why you can prepare both salsa and guacamole quickly? I think it's a 'well-known' secret, but let me still tell you this. It's because the ingredients for the two famous fajita companions are almost identical. The only (?) difference would be avocado. You will be surprised to see the similarities of the ingredients to season them. Very simple and but very tasty salsa and guacamole can be prepared in 10 minutes.

Oh by the way, I looked up what fajita was, even though I've always known that the dish was from Mexico.  

Fajita often is served with pan-fried green bell peppers and onion, along with sour cream,shredded cheese, tomato salsa, and guacamole.

Here goes the recipes for fajita, tomato salsa, and guacamole! These are a great fajita threesome!

Beef & chicken Fajita

(adapted from Simply Recipes)

Ingredients

1 pound beef and/or chicken breast

1 tablespoon of lime juice

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled, minced

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 Green bell pepper

1 yellow or orange pepper

Onion

Optional: 1 Jalapeño pepper, seeded, ribs removed, finely chopped.

, 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, including stems

Directions

1. Mix all marinade ingredients. 

2. Coat the steak with the marinade and let it sit at room temperature at least for an hour, or longer in the fridge. 

Meanwhile, prepare tomato salsa and guacamole.

3. Slice all the vegetables.

4. You can either grill or cook meat and vegetables on the stove top in a cast iron pan or griddle.

Tomato salsa recipe is here.

(adapted from Martha Stewart Living)

Ingredients

1/2 medium white onion, chopped 

1 small jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped (optional),

2 small medium-red ripe round tomatoes or 4 to 5 plum tomatoes, chopped 

Chopped fresh cilantro leaves, as much as you want, but at least 3 tablespoons2 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice 

Coarse salt

Directions

1. Chop tomatoes, onion, jalapeno pepper and cilantro.

2. In a large bowl, mix tomatoes, onion, jalapeno pepper, cilantro and lime juice well.

3. Season with salt and cover & refrigerate for an hour or more.

And now here's the recipe for the guacamole:

(adapted from All Recipes)

Ingredients

2 large avocados (or 3 medium avocados)

1 lime, juiced

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 onion, diced

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 HH tomatoe, diced

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Directions

1. In a bowl, mash together the avocados, lime juice, and salt. 

2. Mix in onion, cilantro, tomatoes, and garlic. 

3. Refrigerate 1 hour for best flavor, or serve immediately.

It was a wonderful backyard lunch. We liked it a lot. 

As both Remi and Pablo are huge fans of Tex-mex cuisine, we all enjoyed the grilled fajita very much.

Fajita with Tomato Salsa and Guacamole