How to make delicious homemade salsa with fresh ingredients

Salsa disappears so fast in my home. I feel like every time I go to the grocery store, I have to pick up another jar of salsa. And to tell you the truth, I never feel particularly good about shoveling store bought salsa into my body like it's water–with its preservatives and excess salt... I know that salsa can be and should be a healthy dish... after all, it can pretty much be made entirely from a garden!

We've been making fresh pico de gallo for a long time... and I LOVE it. In fact, I've had meals that are just chips and homemade pico de gallo. However, it's always a lot of work, and for it to have the freshest taste, you have to make it the same day you are wanting to eat it... so it just doesn't work for those times, when you just want to sit down for some chips and salsa.

I wanted to make some salsa in bulk, that I could can and leave on the shelf, so we can enjoy one of our favorite snacks with less guilt. After all, that's what this new cooking lifestyle is all about... enjoying the foods and meals I love without the guilt of processed, greasy, unhealthy ingredients.

So this is attempt number one at a restaurant style, homemade salsa made with fresh ingredients from my parents' garden, the farmers market (and what I couldn't get there... the produce section of the grocery store). And if I do say so myself, I think attempt number one turned out pretty good... I would definitely make this again, although it still wasn't spicy enough yet for Nate!

The Steps...

So here's what we're starting with: Fresh Ingredients. With an ingredient palate this colorful and wonderful looking, you know you're going to end up with something wonderful. For this salsa, I used fresh tomatoes from my parents' garden, onion, garlic, cilantro, jalapeño peppers and a Serrano pepper.

The first thing you'll do is take the skins off the tomatoes. To do this, you'll want to prepare two pots of water: 1 on the stove that you need to heat to boiling, one to sit on the counter next to the stove that you should fill with ice.

Once the water is boiling, carefully place your tomatoes into the pot. My pot was big enough to do three at a time, you want to give the tomatoes room to float around, so don't just stuff as many as you can into the pot. Do just a few at a time, however many your pot allows room for.

Boil the tomatoes for anywhere from 60-120 seconds. Some of my tomatoes were a little stubborn and took a little longer, but generally they should be done after about 90 seconds.

You'll know the tomato is done when the skin starts to crack like this one below:

After you take the tomato out of the water, immediately plunge it into the ice water bath. The reason you do this is because the tomato will be super HOT (obviously). Plunging it into the cold water for 15-30 seconds, just allows you the ability to handle the tomato in your next step.

After your tomato has begun to peel and cooled, you'll need to tear the skins off. The skin should tear off fairly easily after boiling the tomatoes. Repeat these steps for all of the tomatoes you plan to use.

Cut the stems off and chop your tomatoes. You don't have to chop them into super small pieces, I pretty much just cut the tomatoes into quarters or eights. Place tomato chunks in a clean stove top pot that will be big enough for holding all your ingredients.

Next up is the onions! I love cooking with onions, they add such great flavor to so many of my favorite foods... then again, a lot of my favorite foods are of the Mexican variety!

Either yellow or red onion is probably the way to go. I had one of each, so that's what I used this time around. Either will work! Dice up your onions. It is entirely up to your preference whether you want bigger chunks or whether you prefer your onions to be finely chopped. I left my chunks a little bigger for this batch.

Once you've finished chopping the onions, add them to your tomatoes and it's time to move on to the peppers. I've heard enough stories about people chopping hot peppers and then touching their faces, that it's worth mentioning:

Be careful while chopping your peppers. Use clean hands, and once you have completed the step with these peppers... wash your hands immediately with soap and water. Don't touch your face while working with these peppers!

For this batch, I used 4 jalapeño peppers and 1 Serrano pepper and I ended up with a fairly spicy batch. I think I'd probably classify it as "Medium" spiciness. The number of peppers can be increased or decreased based on your tolerance and preference for spiciness. 

Add your diced peppers to the mixture in the pot and chop your cilantro. Again, this comes down to a taste preference. Cilantro adds a wonderful flavor to salsa. I used a heaping 1/2 cup of cilantro which I felt ended up being a good amount for this batch, but use more or less to your preference. Add the cilantro to your mixture.

We've still got two ingredients to add: garlic and salt. Chop or mince 4 cloves of garlic and add to your mixture and then add between 1-2 teaspoons of salt to enhance the salsa's flavor. One rule in my kitchen, is you can't be afraid of using salt (this is unless, of course, your doctor tells you to). Salt, when used moderately, enhances the flavor of what you're adding it to and it's a necessary part of good cooking.

So now you've got all your ingredients added, and really, it was fairly easy. It just takes some time. Give your salsa a good mix and turn the stove to medium. Now comes for the best part of cooking salsa: allowing your pot to cook, simmer and smell up your entire house with its awesome aroma! Just make sure you come check on it every once in awhile and give it a good stir.

Mmmmm... You can practically smell it through the computer, can't you? When you're salsa looks like this is a good time to give it a little taste test to see if there's anything you want to add to your salsa. You might desire more garlic, more salt, more peppers or more cilantro, and this would be the time to add them in.

I let my salsa simmer over medium/medium low heat for about an hour and a half. I allowed it to cook until the big chunks of tomato are mostly gone.

Once your salsa is done cooking, either serve it or can it. This batch filled up 7 half pint jars for me. This recipe will of course work if you choose to double, triple, half, etc. It's really all about finding the proportions that satisfy you're personal preferences anyway, so this is definitely a recipe which lends itself to experimentation!

And here it is... seven jars of delicious, homemade salsa with FRESH ingredients!

Homemade Salsa

Ingredients:

9 Fresh Tomatoes, peeled, chopped
2 Onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced or minced
4 jalapeño peppers, diced (more or less, to taste)
1 Serrano pepper, diced (more or less, to taste)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1-2 tsp. salt
juice from one lime

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a pot on the stove. Mix well. Cook/simmer for about an hour and half, stirring occasionally, until large tomato chunks are mostly gone.

Serve salsa or can for later use.