Chips and salsa are staple dishes at many social gatherings, and you’ll often find your guests crowded around the salsa bowl with an overflowing tortilla chip in hand. If you want to give your friends and family a different salsa to try at your next dinner party, opting for a sweeter recipe is a great choice. Here are three fruity salsa recipes that your guests will simply adore.

Annie’s Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chips
Not only does this recipe add a wide assortment of fruits to your usual salsa, it also includes cinnamon flavored chips to go along with them. This dish is much sweeter than it is spicy, and it even makes a creative dessert for an outdoor dinner party!

Mojito Melon Salsa
If you like mojito cocktails, you’ll love the sweet, minty flavor when it’s used in a fresh and fruity salsa. This recipe for Mojito Melon Salsa uses a juicy combination of watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew tossed with some onion and spices, while a generous helping of mint leaves gives it that signature mojito taste.

Watermelon Fire and Ice Salsa
Give the usual tomatoes a rest and try this fruity salsa that uses watermelon as its base. The rest of the recipe is the same as traditional salsa, which gives it a wonderfully complex combination of spicy and sweet.

CC-BY-SA-2.0/Flickr/cyclonebill

Obviously there is no shortage of Mexican food in Austin, but locals will unanimously say that one of the can’t-miss eateries here is El Alma. This upscale Mexican restaurant is named after chef Alma Alcocer, who was born in Mexico City and attended the legendary Le Cordon Bleu academy in Paris for culinary training. After her studies, she moved to Austin where she paired with restaurant magnate Carlos Rivero to open El Alma in 2012. The restaurant’s location is unique and charming; it’s built into a limestone hillside with an awesome outdoor patio.

Of course, the food is the biggest reason to take a trip here. Some of the menu’s most-loved dishes include the incredible duck emmoladas—mole-covered enchiladas stuffed with healthy portions of some of the most tender, flavorful duck you’ll ever eat—as well as the shrimp chelada, a dish of seafood cooked in citrus, ceviche-style, and topped with beer.

El Alma
1025 Barton Springs Road
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 609-8923
www.elalmacafe.com
www.yelp.com/biz/el-alma-austin-2

CC-BY-2.0/Flickr/Steven Depolo

Austin is quickly becoming one of the most buzzed about food cities in the country, and its growing vegetarian restaurant scene is a major part of that growth. Here is just a sample of the area’s favorite meat-free restaurants.

Mother’s Cafe
With a casual atmosphere and convenient take-out and delivery services, Mother’s Cafe is one of Austin's go-to eateries for fast and affordable vegetarian and vegan food. One vegan and one vegetarian soup option is prepared daily, and the menu also includes a variety of fresh, colorful salads to choose from. Enchiladas and sandwiches are just as hearty and delicious as their meat-filled counterparts, and Mother’s Cafe also offers a weekend brunch that’s very popular among locals.

Mr. Natural
This impressive restaurant includes a bakery, juice bar, health food store, and even a yoga studio all in one place. The bakery offers cakes and pastries in gluten-free, vegan, and sugarless options to suit any diet, and the restaurant’s regular menu features creative vegetarian dishes for its weekly lunch specials, weekend brunch, and any other time of the day.

Swad Indian Vegetarian Restaurant
Indian restaurants are already popular among vegetarians because of their many meat-free options, but Swad Indian Vegetarian Restaurant is one of the only ones in Austin to offer an entirely meat-free menu!

CC-BY-SA-2.0/Flickr/David Boyle