DiningBuzz! - Cooking the easiest salsa ever

Here's my recipe for the easiest salsa
Easiest Salsa Ever

1 – 14 oz can of diced tomatoes with juice
1 – small onion finely chopped
1 to 3 jalapeno peppers (1is mild, 2 for med. and 3 for HOT)
1 small clove of garlic finely chopped
¼ cup of chopped fresh cilantro
Juice of ½ lime
Salt and pepper to taste
Makes two cups of Salsa

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy. This recipe is great freshly made but gets even better with a little time in the fridge to “marry the ingredients”

Mine is similar...
1. I used fresh tomatoes rather than canned.
2. I use fresh green onions for some of the oniion component to the salsa.
3. I add a couple TBS vinegar
4. I add a bit of tabasco

One of my favorite summer things to make.

2 red tomatoes
2 tomatillos, they are midsize in comparison to the tomatoes
2 jalapeno
1 white onion, (yellow is fine)
some cilantro and salt.

Boil the tomatoes, tomatillos (minus the husk/leave) and pepper until skin is soft and about to break. take them out of the boiling water and place them in a blender, along with half onion, and half of the cilantro, blend away.

Add salt to taste, cube the remaining cilantro and onions and add to mixture. Let it sit in room temperature for a bit to cool down and then refrigerate overnight. It will have an awesome taste the next day.
Been doing this recipe for years, whenever I see the tomatoes, tomatillos and peppers on sale, I buy a few and freeze them for this purpose, as I go through a batch of this salsa weekly.

4 plum tomatos - cut in half
1/2 red onion - cut into large chunks
1 jalapeno seeded and cut in half
1/2 bunch cilantro

1-2 lime
salt and pepper to taste

Put first 4 ingredients into food processor .. pulse until it reaches the desired texture.

Squeeze juice of 1-2 limes over the top. Pulse a few more times.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.

If you like chunkier salsa, then chop the veggies by hand.

Also good with yellow or orange bell pepper added

We use pretty much the same recipe as the OP except we use fresh tomatoes. Love the flavours. However, we play around with the ingredient for the heat. We've used jalapeños and other peppers, spices, sauces, etc. Haven't found anything that really hits the spot for us.

...Haven't found anything that really hits the spot for us.

In the way of heat or overall taste?

If heat, consider habaneros or ghost chilis. If taste, consider a 1/4 cup of beef stock.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

spgchampion@starwoodhotels.com

If you are cooking your salsa you aren't doing it right ;)

I also find most of you are missing a key ingredient!
Freshly ground cumin seeds.

Canned tomato, tastes like metal, no thanks. If I wanted that I'd buy PACE picyucky sauce.

...I also find most of you are missing a key ingredient!
Freshly ground cumin seeds...

Doh! I missed that as well.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

spgchampion@starwoodhotels.com

In the way of heat or overall taste?

If heat, consider habaneros or ghost chilis. If taste, consider a 1/4 cup of beef stock.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

spgchampion@starwoodhotels.com

Not looking to kill myself with habaneros or ghost chilis. :)
Just looking for something to add a little bit of zip to accent the flavour.

If you are cooking your salsa you aren't doing it right ;)disagree, every salsa verde preparation I've seen has one cooking the tomatillos@:-)

Canned tomato, tastes like metal, no thanks.

You're buying the wrong canned tomatoes. Tomato cans should be lined with an inert epoxy layer that prevents the tomatoes from contacting metal. Alternatively, some organic companies sell tomatoes in glass bottles.

Unless you grow your own tomatoes, or you get your from a farmers market at the peak of ripeness, I find canned tomatoes to be superior in flavor to fresh tomatoes. Canned tomatoes are almost certainly superior to anything you can get at a supermarket, where the tomatoes are picked green and gassed to make them turn pink/red.

Unless I am making pico de gallo, I use canned tomatoes for salsa.

When I do need fresh tomatoes out of season, I use Campari tomatoes or tomatoes "on the vine". I find these are more likely to taste ripe and less likely to be mealy. I previously used Roma/plum tomatoes, but it seems that over the past decade, all of the flavor has been bred out of Romas in favor of shelf life, and half the time they are very mealy.

If you are cooking your salsa you aren't doing it right ;)
Agreed (except for tomatillo...) One of the strangest things in the Dallas area is that some restaurants serve salsa warm. Blech.

Unless you grow your own tomatoes, or you get your from a farmers market at the peak of ripeness, I find canned tomatoes to be superior in flavor to fresh tomatoes. Canned tomatoes are almost certainly superior to anything you can get at a supermarket, where the tomatoes are picked green and gassed to make them turn pink/red.There's still some unpredictable variation from can-to-can, even within the same brand, but you're right - canned tomatoes have gotten to the point where they're generally the best option.

There's still some unpredictable variation from can-to-can, even within the same brand, but you're right - canned tomatoes have gotten to the point where they're generally the best option.

If the winter crop of tomatoes are crummy in the stores I will use canned fire roasted organic tomatoes, they aren't too bad. Homemade salsa even if using canned tomatoes still tastes better than store bought salsa.

If the tomatoes are crummy, just make salsa w/o them@:-)

When I do need fresh tomatoes out of season, I use Campari tomatoes or tomatoes "on the vine". I find these are more likely to taste ripe and less likely to be mealy.I've generally enjoyed these tomatoes as well during out of season.

If you are cooking your salsa you aren't doing it right ;)

That was my first thought as well. I suppose it's just semantics, but I see it as cooking=apply heat. I'd say you make a salsa.

That said, my salsa recipe is almost exactly he same as the OP's, except I give the whole batch a really quick burst in the blender.

You're buying the wrong canned tomatoes. Tomato cans should be lined with an inert epoxy layer that prevents the tomatoes from contacting metal.

Can you recommend a brand? I can't say when the last time I looked at the label of canned tomatoes.

You're buying the wrong canned tomatoes. Tomato cans should be lined with an inert epoxy layer that prevents the tomatoes from contacting metal.

I was under the impression the cans had to be lined or the acid in the tomato reacts with the aluminum.

I buy organic, low sodium. The only way for me.

...except I give the whole batch a really quick burst in the blender.usually my salsas go through the blender as well due to using dried chilies (yet another cooked item)

I've started making mango salsa - fresh tomatoes, scallions, cilantro, and frozen mango! I kid you not, I asked the chap in my local mexican place how he makes his, as mine was never as good (I was using fresh mango) and he told me to use the frozen as it holds up better - and he was right!

Can you recommend a brand? I can't say when the last time I looked at the label of canned tomatoes.

Muir Glen, fire roasted organic, they aren't much more than non-organic brands.

Question to the floor: Do you skin and seed your tomatoes?

Question to the floor: Do you skin and seed your tomatoes?

For salsa or picante, skin yes, seed no.