Sweet & Savory Kitchens

Margaux says…

I don’t know why it took me so long to make salsa.  I make so many other things from scratch, like salad dressing, hummus, granola, sometimes peanut or almond butter…why wouldn’t I make my own salsa, too?  So this summer I’ve been making salsa as often as I make hummus, like, weekly!  It’s so much better than store bought.  I’m posting this recipe because it’s the easiest, quickest, and most fresh tasting for all your garden tomatoes you’re harvesting (and I’m pining after!).

The original recipe called for grilling the tomatoes, but I tried that once and found that it just dried them out too much, and the salsa ended up really thick.  If you have exceptionally juicy romas, it might work better, and then you would get that nice fire-roasted charcoal flavor, but I recommend sticking to the oven method if not.  I got the idea of broiling them in the oven from a Martha Stewart chili recipe that we also love.  The oven method still chars them, and really brings out the flavor of the tomato (we also love oven roasted tomatoes around here…if you haven’t tried that yet, I highly recommend it).

Roasted Tomato Salsa

This makes a pretty small batch…just a little more than a jar of salsa that you would buy at the store.

4 Roma tomatoes, sliced in half

1-2 jalapenos, sliced in half and seeded  (*note on spiciness below)

1/4 red onion

1/4-1/2 cup chopped cilantro

juice from 1/2 lime

salt and pepper

Preheat your broiler on high, and place the rack 3″ from the heat source.  Line a large baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.  Place vegetables on sheet and broil for about 5 minutes, until they start to char.  Take jalapeno and onion off and place in a food processor or blender.  Turn tomatoes over, and broil for another few minutes until they start to char on the other side.  Remove from oven, take skins off of tomatoes, and place in the food processor or blender.  Pulse a couple times, then add cilantro, lime, salt and pepper.  I add about 1/4 tsp salt, and then pulse a few times until it’s the desired consistency.  Pour into a bowl, taste, and stir in more salt and pepper if needed.  Store in an airtight container for up to a week, or freeze.

*Note on spicy.  We like our salsa really spicy, and our son likes it kind of spicy, and our daughter likes it mild.  Ha.  So it all depends on the jalapeno seeds.  If you don’t take out any seeds, you’re gonna have pretty spicy salsa.  If it’s a good jalapeno, it’s gonna be really spicy.  For medium spicy, I take out all but a tiny bit of the seeds.  For mild salsa, I take out every trace of seeds from the jalapeno.