Tomato Haters Salsa

I think there's some unwritten law that states everybody should love tomatoes, mushrooms and fish.  Restaurants think they need to put one of those three ingredients in everything they serve.  People look at you in horror if you say you don't like any one of those items.  And if you're me, and you don't like any of them, you may as well say you're an alien from the planet AntiTomMushFish because people's mouths will hang open, their eyes will bug out and they'll look at you like you just landed in a spaceship and have antennae growing out of your head.  

You may have surmised from my tomfishmush adversion that I'm not a very adventuresome eater.  I used to feel guilty about that but now I just figure I'm old enough to have earned the right to be picky.  The other day I saw a recipe on the kitchen counter that Dean had clipped from the paper.  It was for Strawberry Salsa.  There were strawberries in the refrigerator.  "What a waste of strawberries" I thought.  "Why can't we just have them on our pancakes?"  A few days later he placed a bowl of this strawberry salsa on the table with a bag of chips.  I don't eat salsa.  It has tomatoes in it.  Every now and then I'll dip a chip in a bowl of salsa just for a bit of sauce--no chunks.  And sometimes I'll put half a teaspoonful in my softshell taco.  But I never load up a chip with salsa.  Never.  Ever.  I wish I could tell you I tried this tomato-free strawberry salsa because I decided to be brave and adventuresome.  But I think I was just starving and that's what was in front of me.   I am here to tell you it was a fine use of strawberries.  I loaded up chip after chip after chip with this stuff.  I liked it so much I am going to share the recipe with you.

Strawberry Salsa

2 1/2 cups finely chopped fresh strawberries

1 cup chopped green peppers

2 tablespoons chopped green onions

2 tablespoons minced fresh parlsey

1/3 cup prepared Catalina salad dressing

Dash hot pepper sauce

Pepper to taste

Tortilla chips

In a large bowl, combine the strawberries, green pepper, onions and parslsey.  Stir in the salad dressing, hot pepper sauce and pepper.  Cover and refrigerate 2 hours.  Serve with tortilla chips.

Yield:  3 cups

It's even better the next day.  Apetito bueno!

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Tomato Haters Salsa