How to Make Amazing Salsa Without a Recipe
Patricia @ ButterYum
Hello, my name is Patricia and I'm addicted to salsa. There, I said it. Sigh.
I first had the pleasure of eating salsa when I was 10 years old. I instantly fell in love with the party that was happening in my mouth and I secretly wished I had been born into a Mexican family.
Salsa was something we never ever had in my house growing up so I had to wait months or years for the occasional taste. The minute I moved into my first apartment, I started buying the jarred stuff. It was pretty good and I was a happy camper. Not long after that I learned that some Mexican restaurants are happy to sell you their salsa if you ask for it. I found one that would - the restaurant's salsa was way better than the jarred stuff and I was a very happy camper.
These days I opt for homemade - it's every bit as good if not better than restaurant salsa. After making countless recipes, I realized you don't actually need a recipe to make amazing salsa. You start with fresh vegetables (like tomatoes and in this case sweet peppers - or tomatillos, poblanos, etc). Add some aromatics (onions, garlic). Roast everything together to develop some charred flavor, add even more flavor (cilantro, S&P), and finish with a little acid (citrus). Here's a version that I made from stuff I had in the vegetable bowl that needed to be used before it went bad. I'll show you how I made it.
Just look at all those wonderful veggies - you know this salsa is going to be amazing!
For this batch, I started with a bunch of black cherry tomatoes that I left whole, several larger red tomatoes that I cut in half, a few whole red hot peppers, lots of whole sweet green banana peppers, a medium white onion that was peeled and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices, and 3 whole garlic cloves with their paper husks left on.
I popped everything under the boiler for about 10 minutes until it looked like this.
I let the veggies cool a bit before I removed the paper husks from the garlic cloves and the stems from the peppers. Into the trash with those.
Everything else went into the Vitamix, including any juices that accumulated on the roasting pan.
I had some cilantro leftover from dinner the night before.
So I added a good handful.
I also had half of a lime leftover so I squeezed the juice and added it too.
I pulsed everything together in my Vitamix until it was exactly the way I like it - not too thick and not too thin. Lastly, I tasted it for seasoning and determined it needed some salt. I added about 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt to the 16-ounce jar shown below.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze for longer. Enjoy!
Items used to make this recipe:
(affiliate links)
half sheet pan https://amzn.to/2YJTiEq
vitamix https://amzn.to/2xPw2d9
deli container https://amzn.to/3fuc88x