Brighten up your meals with this deliciously fresh and fragrant tomato salsa! This dish celebrates the natural sweetness and juiciness of tomatoes, combining their flavour with aromatic, fresh coriander and a touch of heat from chilli. I love this salsa on bruschetta, on jacket potatoes, in sandwiches/ wraps and with poppadums!

Why add chia seeds? It helps soak up the sweet juices from the tomatoes to make almost a sauce; so if making bruschetta or having the salsa with poppadum’s, the base can stay nice and crisp! (No soggy bottoms!)

This recipe is incredibly easy. Just get chopping! (you can used a mini-chopper to make this even quicker). A perfect way to get your antioxidants and plant-based protein, fibre and omega-3s!

This homemade salsa is so much tastier and healthier than shop bought salsa, which is usually loaded with sugars and preservatives.

Our tomato-loaded bruschetta is popular at parties (just toast up some sliced French stick or used toasted rolls, cut in half as the base. Low carb followers could use cucumber rounds instead). I also love these bruschetta as a side dish when having a bowl of soup (adding some crunch to otherwise a liquid meal; I guess you could consider it an equivalent of giant crouton!).

This salsa can be made in advance and keeps well in the fridge for about 3 -4 days too. Note: if you are not keen on fresh coriander, you can always use fresh parsley.

Preparation time: 10-13 mins

Serves: 2 (as a side dish or a small bowl of salsa)

Ingredients:

• 1 small red onion
• 10g fresh coriander
• 1/4 tsp. of chilli flakes or 1 fresh chilli (green or red work fine)
• 300g tomatoes, ideally a variety if possible
• Juice of ½ lime
• 1 tbsp. chia seeds
• A generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil(optional)
• Salt & ground black pepper, to taste

Method:

• Finely chop the red onion, coriander and fresh chilli (if using) & add to a small bowl. If using dried chilli flakes, simply add directly to the bowl.
• Finely slice the tomatoes & add to the bowl. Drizzle over with extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil, if using. Season with salt & pepper to taste & combine.
• Enjoy!

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