Copy Cat Avocado Salsa-Cielito Lindo

At any given moment, I have at least five different salsa recipes or variations floating around in my head! For many years I have admired and enjoyed the taquitos with avocado salsa from Cielito Lindo on Olvera Street in Los Angeles. It really seemed like such a simple recipe to try and recreate, but you know there always a little secret to every recipe. This is my experience with recreating the avocado salsa from Cielito Lindo restaurant thanks to the L.A. Times for publishing the recipe a few years ago! Lets get to it!

I Am Like A Sponge When It Comes To Learning!

No matter how old I get or how many recipes I try, I probably will never learn everything in my lifetime. But, it sure is fun trying! This avocado salsa is familiar and delicious. I could literally just eat it by the spoonful’s and be perfectly happy.

You Think You Know And Are Perfectly Happy Until…

Recently, I received an email from a person who found my blog when searching for information on Ramona’s Mexican Food from Los Angeles. Turns out, this person worked closely with the owners and some of the employees. In a few of my blog post, I mentioned how my dad, Ramiro, worked doing jobs at Ramona’s Mexican Food back in the day. The email told the most wonderful story of their experience with Ramona’s and told me how they enjoyed reading my blog. I felt some sort of connection to this person because I thought that maybe they crossed paths with my dad at some point at Ramona’s. It was a nice thought. This person shared with me some inside information about one of my favorite recipes from Ramona’s. I have yet to try it, but I definitely will soon. I will ask permission to share that information with you all.

Do You Often Wonder How Recipes Are Developed?

Sometimes you find yourself in situations where you have to adapt family recipes using ingredients that are available to us. Moving away from home was a huge transition for me, as I am sure it was for mom when she left Mexico and moved to the states. I kid you not when I tell you that I could not find the basic ingredients to prepare salsa in small town U.S.A. back in the mid eighties. How did I prepare salsa, you ask? The Italian food isle was stocked well and I found a small jar of spicy roasted peppers! They worked in a pinch! Over the years, more Mexican food ingredients became available and I discovered online shopping too! Sometimes recipes are discovered and developed due to necessity.

Are They Taquitos, Tacos Dorados Or Flautas?

That’s always a big discussion anytime I post all of the above! Do you stock the basics in your pantry and refrigerator? I do! At any given moment, I could come up with several meals with the ingredients in my kitchen.

So What Are They?

In Mexico, there is a special large corn tortilla made just for flautas. Popular opinion agrees that flautas are prepared with flour tortillas. In our house they were called taquitos and flautas. They were always prepared with corn tortillas and filled with shredded beef.

What Did I Think Of The Copycat Recipe??

Honestly, I loved the flavor! Enjoyed it for several days on different dishes. It was creamy and not overly spicy. Would I prepare it again? Absolutely! What would I do different? After watching my video clips of my last trip to Cielito Lindo restaurant, I could see a notable difference in the salsa. Theirs is darker and has cilantro specs in it. More cilantro next time! Going to prepare it again soon and try a few different things. I will keep you posted!