Monday, August 31, 2009

Fresh Salsa

I have been making a lot of salsa lately. There is no secret to this recipe, it is just a list of ingredients which you eyeball and adjust to taste, but my family seems to think that I am the master salsa maker and requests salsa every time I make it (and frequently when I don't). So, here it is...my not-so-secret formula for delicious fresh salsa...just make sure you have a couple bags of chips on hand! Also, a stipulation, use your own jusgement and make sure to taste test as you go because all my measurements are approximates and based on a GIANT batch for freezing.

fresh tomatoes: I like to mix different varieties - for a large batch to freeze, I usually combine a large heirloom or two, 1-2 handfulls of cherry tomatoes, and chunky pear and roma tomatoes which I chop by hand and add at the very end after the other stuff is blended (Before I got into gardening, I used to use 1 can of whole tomatoes, drained, and it was pretty tasty too)
cilantro : I use 1/2 the bunch that you buy in the store or a fistfull fresh from the garden (I usually cut off the long part of the stem so that the bunch is mostly leaves.)
green peppers (or red or yellow or whatever) - 1-2 medium-sized
onion - 1/2 of a large onion - or more if you like onion
minced garlic - 1-2 heaping spoonfulls
kosher salt - 1 tbsp.-ish
lime or lemon juice - just a small squirt, maybe 1 Tbsp.

Add onion, green pepper, garlic, cilantro lime juice, salt and 1 juicy tomato to a food processor (I have been lazily using a vita mix for this, because it holds a lot more than my food processor, but the result is much more liquid salsa) and blend. Add remaining tomatoes and do another quick blend. If you like chunky salsa, cut a couple tomatoes and part of your pepper into larger chunks and stir in by hand at the very end.

2 comments:

Hillary said...

This sounds good! Have you ever canned this, or just frozen? I've only canned peaches and pears before and done freezer jam, but I was thinking of branching out this year to canning jam, salsa, and spaghetti sauce. Any thoughts or recipes to share?

Jen said...

This one is actually very best fresh and because I have not wanted to cook it or change my recipe at all, I haven't ventured to canning it. Maybe I will do a call for canning recipes though since it is the time of year for that. Jam is super-de-duper easy and if you have done pears you have done the absolute most difficult thing to can! I hear spaghetti sauce is good and easy too!