Perfect plastic-free snack: Vegetable medley with home-made salsa

Recently I somehow developed a craving for rice cakes. They are delicious with peanut butter and cucumber or peanut butter and honey (maybe these are weird combinations, I don’t know). Unfortunately for me, here in the Netherlands, it’s impossible to find rice cakes that do not come in plastic.

After I found myself shopping rice cakes on a Plastic-Free Tuesday (yes, I know… not good if you’re the founder of Plastic-Free Tuesday), I decided to try find an alternative for the rice cakes. While at it, I also decided to swap the peanut butter for something less calorie dense. Browsing my favorite Swedish vegetarian cookbook (simply titled “Vegetariska kokboken”), I ran into a salsa recipe that perfectly fit my low-calorie, plastic-free criteria.

This salsa is Very Easy to make, it’s healthy, plastic-free, very affordable, and delicious! Here comes the recipe. I use basil or cilantro, tomatoes, cucumber, and carrots from my own garden. The bell pepper, onion, chili pepper, lime, and garlic are from an organic supermarket. Spices such as cumin I get in bulk at a herbs and spices store in a city called Utrecht.

Ingredients:

* 4 tomatoes
* 1 red bell pepper (seeds removed)
* about 1/4 red onion
* about 1/4 red chili pepper (seeds removed)
* 2 cloves of garlic
* 1 handful basil or cilantro leaves
* 2 tbs olive oil
* 1-2 tbs lime juice
* 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
* salt and pepper
* veggies for the vegetable platter (I like to use cucumber, carrot, bell pepper)

Instructions:

Wash the veggies. Pre-chop the ingredients into smaller bits. Add it all to a blender or food processor. Blend until you reach desired consistency. Ideally, the consistency is somewhere between having large chunks and being as smooth as a soup.

You can serve it right away with a vegetable platter or refrigerate so that the flavors mature and the salsa becomes even more delicious.

What’s your favorite plastic-free snack?

Happy Plastic-Free Tuesday!