Homemade Salsa

Salsa has been on my wish list for a while.  I love a good salsa, and the idea of making it fresh just sounded awesome.   My plans were already in place to make homemade Quesadillas and White Chicken Enchiladas, so salsa made the perfect appetizer for the meal and a great chance to test this one out.

Restaurant style salsa is not overly chunky, and is perfect for dipping chips.  I'm a fan of a chunkier variety as well, but decided to start out with a thinner variety.

Since I was new to this and wanted to get it right, I found a great salsa recipe to work with and just made a couple of changes, including scaling the amount of tomatoes back a bit.  I was expecting to use fresh tomatoes, but when I considered the consistency of salsa, I realized softer tomatoes were better.

I picked up some fresh cilantro at the grocery.  Though I have some little cilantro sprouts growing right now, they are no where near large enough to use in a recipe.  Cilantro is pretty new to me--I've obviously had it before, but never used it in a recipe.  The interesting thing was that the minute it was rinsed, it smelled like salsa.  I realized what I've been enjoying in salsa for years without even realizing it.

To blend the ingredients, I used my magic bullet. Unfortunately I lack a food processor, though recipes like this make me dream of the day I get one in my house.  I was making a fairly large amount of salsa, so I worked in batches and then mixed it all together.  In one of the cups, I added some of the canned tomatoes, chopped onion, chopped jalapeño, minced garlic, and cilantro, then blended them together for about 10-15 seconds. I chopped the jalapeño in half, then into quarters, then into slices before adding it in, leaving the seeds per the original recipe recommendation.  I added in some Sriracha sauce to add some spiciness, and also added a small amount of lime juice, salt, sugar, and cumin.

I mixed the whole batch together and had a good amount of salsa!

Oh yeah, the cilantro made the salsa.  There was loads of it, but it really was just the right amount.  My husband isn't as big of a fan of cilantro, but still enjoyed the salsa overall.  Despite the addition of Sriracha and a whole fresh jalapeño, the mixture was just right overall and not overly spicy.  There were a couple chunks of onion and tomato in there that kept this more salsa-like than soupy.  I got good reviews from my family and even shared some with my friend who said she loved it.  When a recipe is as easy as tossing a few ingredients together and blending it, how can you not try it?

Homemade Salsa Recipe

Ingredients:

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles
1/2 cup cilantro
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 jalapeño
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons sriracha
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon cumin

Instructions:

Chop the cilantro and slice the jalapeño.  Add canned tomatoes, cilantro, chopped onion, jalapeño, lime juice, sriracha, minced garlic, salt, sugar, and cumin to a food processor.  Blend for 10-15 seconds, until mixture is combined but some chunks remain.