Homemade Salsa -

I love salsa…I could eat it on just about anything. My husband is also a huge fan of salsa; we recently bought one of those huge industrial sized bags of tortilla chips from Costco, and no joke, they were gone within two weeks. We didn’t have a party or anything, and honestly I think I ate maybe one handful of those chips. Basically, my husband scarfed down five pounds of tortilla chips in two weeks. When asked about this magnificent feat of chip consumption, he merely said “I can’t help it! I love chips and salsa!”

There are a few store brands of salsa that I like, but I really prefer homemade salsa. I’ve tried to make it myself many times over the years and just haven’t been able to get the salsa the way I really like it. Well, after many, many trials, I think I’ve created a pretty solid recipe.

Chef PickyKid helped me with preparing this salsa because she likes chopping tomatoes. She calls herself the Tomato Ninja (sort of like Fruit Ninja, but with vegetables).

The apron she’s wearing while being the Tomato Ninja was created by her when she was just a toddler, and she’s been wearing it ever since. By “creating” I mean that we bought some plain aprons from Michael’s, poured paint in a bowl and let her go to town. My vision was an apron decorated with her little hand prints, but I should have known better. After all, she was two. So what we got was a paint smeared apron, but it’s beautiful nonetheless.

I prefer chunkier pico de gallo style salsa, but if you prefer the less chunky, smoother salsa, you can always blend these ingredients together instead of just mixing. This is also a very versatile salsa, almost like a base salsa. I’m thinking of adding chipotle peppers or roasting the garlic, or maybe adding fruit like mango or pineapple (not all at once, of course).

Homemade Salsa

This recipe will make approximately two 16 ounce jars of salsa.

8-10 Roma tomatoes, diced

1 Yellow onion, diced

2 Cloves of garlic, minced

Juice of 1 lime

1/2 Cup (roughly) of cilantro, chopped. I used a big handful which measured out to about 1/2 cup.

Jalapeno and Serrano peppers, diced (see my note below regarding peppers)

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients together and season with salt and pepper to taste. Place the salsa in an airtight sterile container (I used mason jars that I boiled for 10 minutes prior to jarring) and close tightly. Refrigerate for 24 hours before using.

I didn’t seal my containers because I plan to use them pretty quickly, but if you want to preserve for long term storage, I would suggest placing the jars in a hot bath of boiling water for 15 minutes after placing the salsa in the jars. This will seal the jars and allow you to store for several months before using.

Note regarding peppers: I didn’t list a specific amount of peppers because I know people have varying levels of heat tolerance in salsa. I like pretty hot salsa, and my husband likes flaming hot salsa, so I actually made two variations of this recipe for us. Here’s my recommendation for mild, hot, and really hot. I wouldn’t say the really hot is “flaming” hot because people have different definitions of that, but it made my eyes water. I would suggest playing around with it a little and maybe add one at a time and taste before adding another:

Mild: 1-2 Jalapenos, seeded

Hot: 1-2 Jalapeno, seeded and 1 Serrano, unseeded

Super Hot: 1-2 Jalapeno and 1 Serrano, both unseeded.