Chip Walton | Chop & Brew

While it’s true there is nothing better than garden fresh salsa in the summertime, you can use this basic recipe for making homemade red salsa year-round with store-bought tomatoes, peppers, and fresh/ground herbs and spices. We like ours hot, so we include the whole hot pepper; you can remove the seeds and ribs if you prefer less heat. This is just a suggested starting point. As we explained in Episode 69: Making Salsa at Home, making homemade salsa is all about personal preference. Feel free to adjust amounts and ingredients to your liking. Makes about 6 cups in our medium-sized food processor.

Ingredients
** Amounts are subjective based on taste. Experiment to meet your own preference.

• 10-15 red tomatoes, depending on size. You can mix varieties including Roma, beefsteak, cherry, etc.
• 1/2 large onion, chopped 
• 2 jalapeños, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/8 tsp celery seed
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 Tbsp coriander seeds
• 1/2 Tbsp lime juice
• small bunch of fresh chives
• oregano, leaves from 2 branches 
• salt to taste

Directions

Place ingredients in food processor until bowl is three-quarters full. Pulse until you reach your desired texture and consistency.

Upon your first round of pulsing, there will be room to add a second batch of chopped tomatoes. Now is a good time to give a quick taste test and see if it needs more of anything else. Remember that this second dose of tomatoes will further dilute some of the spices and increase sweetness depending on the variety.

Pulse ingredients again until you get desired texture and consistency.

Do another taste test to make sure the salsa doesn’t need any addition of salt, spices, herbs, etc.

Serve fresh or refrigerate for up to one week. Pepper heat may increase while resting in storage. Personally, we don’t suggest freezing salsa. Eat it up! We also like to cook with salsa, adding it to browned ground meats, topping veggies or breakfast eggs, and adding to sautées.