Salsa

Love homemade Salsa as much as I do?!

Let’s make some homemade salsa, with all the wonderfully fresh ingredients available to us year-round!

The days are getting shorter and colder. School is in session. Gardens have been harvested. It’s a bittersweet moment that happens each year. Today, we’re going to focus on the less bitter side of this time of year..the HARVEST! It’s salsa time!! Yay!

There are a number of things that make the fall changes less discouraging, and salsa is definitely one of them! Especially when the salsa is fresh. It’s even better when you have grown the produce yourself. What a rewarding feeling!

So let’s put that produce to good use! But don’t fret, this recipe is every bit as delicious using store-bought ingredients, I promise!!

This recipe is super easy to make, and you can make it to YOUR preference. If you have a food processor, wonderful! If not, it can also be done by hand, so don’t stress it if you don’t have one. It will take a little longer to make, but it will still be worth it.

Let’s do it!!

Ingredients:

•9 grapevine tomatoes
•1 green bell pepper
•1/4 yellow onion
•2-3 stalks celery
•1-2 jalapenos
•1-2 limes
•Minced garlic
•Salt

I’m going to give you my base recipe, and I encourage you to modify it to your liking. My husband likes it HOT, so I add lots of jalapenos. I also like lots of garlic and lime, so I add extra of those, as well.

1. Dice tomatoes. Personally, I do this by hand, because I don’t like a lot of juice. Having excess juice when the salsa is gone is not my favorite. I feel bad throwing it away, but I’m also not going to use it. However, if you like the flavor of it enough, you can thicken it with cornstarch and turn it into spaghetti sauce.

2. Cut all your produce into chunks, don’t worry about cutting them way small. We’re going to throw these in the food processor and pulse them quite a bit smaller.

3. Starting with the onions and jalapenos, place them in the food processor. Pulse them. You do want this to be quite small. Pulse them until they start producing liquid, and they’re small enough to not get big chunks of potent onion or chunks of jalapeno that will leave you regretting not chopping them smaller. Add the pulsed onions and jalapenos to the tomatoes.

4. Next, add SOME of the green peppers to the food processor, but not all of them, and pulse. If you overload the food processor, you may end up with a range of chunk sizes. Add to tomatoes.

5. Add remaining bell peppers, along with the celery. Pulse quite small, but not as small as onions and jalapenos. Give yourself some chunks, but not too big. Personally, I don’t love chomping into a large piece of celery. It overpowers the flavors of the other ingredients. I definitely prefer more evenly flavored bites. But, do what you like! That’s the beauty of recipes and making your own food.

6. Add 1tsp minced garlic, 1tsp salt, and the juice of 1 lime.

7. Give the ingredients a good stir, then do a taste test of your delightful salsa! Here is where you can really make it what YOU want it to be. Add more salt, garlic, lime juice, and/or jalapenos, to desired taste.

8. Enjoy all your hard work!

Note: I LOVE Scoops for eating salsa. They hold a lot more salsa, and are, overall, a wonderful chip for this savory snack! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my hubby and I do!

*If you plan to bottle your salsa, it’s a great option for preservation! Add your salsa to sanitized jars, wipe the rims clean, top with boiled lids(activates the rubber for sealing), bring your water to a boil, add jars to canning pot(making sure jars are covered with at least 1″ of water), and boil 20 minutes. Remove from the boiling water, and allow to cook on your counter until the bottles seal. You’ll know they’ve sealed when you hear them pop. It’s a wonderful, satisfying sound you’ll come to love!

Loosen the rings on your bottles before storing them in a cool, dry place. This way, if they unseal, you’ll be able to tell easier.