Homemade Salsa

Tangy sweet salsa!

Salsa is a wonderful side to most Mexican dishes. It is so stimulating and lively that it makes your tongue dance! If you want to make fresh salsa there are recipes for restaurant style salsa found all over the internet. They mainly use canned tomatoes. It is simple and those who make chutneys all the time find it easy breezy. My recipe here is totally different as I use fresh tomatoes and red pepper.

I made this recipe using the ingredients listed on a store bought jar of Salsa and mixing the quantity I needed. I avoided vinegar, onion and garlic powder but substituted it with fresh onion, garlic and lime juice. The taste is distinctly different and fresh. I am going to make this every time I buy a bag of corn chips and say good bye to salsa on a shelf.

Ingredients for Salsa

• 2 Roma tomatoes chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped onion (red or white)
• 1 garlic clove chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper chopped
• 1/2 red pepper chopped
• few sprigs of cilantro/coriander leaves
• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1/4 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar

Take a food processor or blender and add all the ingredients. Pulse until everything is crushed to a coarse consistency.

Red pepper gives the needed colour and an added flavour. It is tangy, peppery and hot. Rest salsa in the refrigerator for an hour if you want to scoop it with tortilla chips. Chilling time helps the ingredients to mingle and the flavours to develop. You can make it as hot as you want ranging from mild to fiery hot! Remove the seeds of jalapeno peppers if you cannot take any heat.

I used this to make my Mexican rice a second time, following my previous recipe here replacing the salsa from a jar. This salsa is a fine dip for corn chips and a sauce on burrito, tacos, enchilada, etc. Try this and you will ignore the salsa jars.