Sheri's Home Made Salsa

Healthy Sodium Free Condiment

Also known as Pico de Gallo

The following makes a fresh chunky traditional salsa. We use it on beans to add zip, on salads as dressing, with steamed vegetables for great flavor and as a base for guacamole salad.

Did you know that salsa surpassed ketchup as the favorite American condiment at the start of the 21st Century?

Ingredients:

• Roma (sauce) tomatos
  
• Sweet White Onion
  
• Cilantro
  
• Limes to juice (one per quart)
  
• Minced garlic
  
• Fresh garlic
  
• Largo (large) Serano Pepper
  
• No-Salt Salt (about 1/4 Tsp. per quart)
  

Chop tomatoes and onion into small cubes. Use about equal quantity of onion and tomato.
Add enough chopped cilantro that every spoonful has some in it.

Add 1/4 cup minced garlic and the juice from a fresh lime per quart.

Remove seeds from pepper. Use about a one inch wide strip (cut lengthwise from the pepper) per quart of salsa for mild to medium heat. Dice pepper into small pieces. Blend with 1/2 a tomato and fresh garlic. Blending grinds the hot peppers so that you don't have hot spots and a more even taste. For more see Cooking with Hot Chilli Peppers

Salt to taste with No-Salt Salt. Sometimes we salt ours, sometimes not. Unsalted is sweeter. Salt brings out the other flavors that are expected.

This is a traditional chunky salsa cruda but it can also be made in a blender. Liquid from fresh salsa tends to seperate. If you cook it (bring to a boil) the ingrediants will remain in suspention better but the taste also changes.

There are thousands of salsa recipes. Everyone that makes their own probably has a different recipe or a collection of favorite resipes. You can use different varieties of hot peppers or blends of peppers. Some use green Mexican tomatillios (husk tomatoes), other vegatables or just peppers. To boost nutritional value substitute steamed kale for about half the cilantro. Blend the kale with the peppers to make a darker salsa.

Guacamole Salad

To make a traditional guacamole salad (not the pureed Tex-Mex stuff), simply peal and cut an avacado into chunks and mix with about double the volume of fresh salsa.

Types of Salsa

Salsa Roja

Red Sauce used as a condiment in Mexican and Southwestern U.S. cuisine, and usually made with cooked tomatoes, chili peppers, onion, garlic, and fresh cilantro.

Salsa Cruda, Pico de Gallo or Salsa Fresca

Raw Sauce made with raw tomatoes, lime juice, chiles, onions, cilantro leaves, and other coarsely chopped raw ingredients. While normally uncooked the canned varieties are heated to pasteaurization temperatures and have a slightly different consistancy.

Salsa Verde

Green Sauce made with tomatillos. Sauces made with tomatillos are usually cooked. This is a good salsa to use other green ingrediants in such as kale and green onions.

Salsa Ranchera

Ranch-Style Sauce" made with tomatoes, various chiles, and spices. Cooked and served warm.