Restaurant Style Salsa

Summer’s coming fast, and if that doesn’t conjure visions of fresh salsa and Negro Modelo, then you need to do some soul-searching.  Where’s your head at?  Get in the game.

I want to find myself this weekend (and every weekend for the next six months) sitting on a patio somewhere imbibing something cold and refreshing and possibly dipping some corn chips into a delicious pool of fire-roasted tomatoes combined with fresh onions, and cilantro, grown in someone’s garden or at least picked up from the Farmer’s Market.

Mexican food of all kinds is at the very top on my list of favorites, and I especially love going to Mexican restaurants where they just keep refilling that basket of chips.  It seems like they’re always ready to bring more chips, but you have to ask like three people before they’ll bring you another salsa.  Why are they so stingy with the salsa?  Or am I just using too much?

As far as I can tell, salsa makes everything better.  I have another favorite restaurant in town that makes a killer breakfast burrito.  It’s gigantic and stuffed full of eggs, beans, sweet potato chunks – and they serve alongside it, a tiny little weeny cup of salsa.  I need at least three.

With this kind of salsa love, it pays to just know how to make your own.  Then you can use it at your own pace.

Ok, but let’s talk health benefits.  You don’t have to have a tortilla chip binge and wash it down with beer to enjoy salsa.  The salsa itself, as with most salsas is extremely virtuous.  Talk about a great food for runners – salsa is full of fresh veggies and antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.  On top of all that, salsa, being made with lots of whole produce, is generally hydrating overall.  (As long as you don’t counteract all the water with salt… which is what I do… )  It can also be used on fish or chicken, with eggs, with beans and rice, or in your own breakfast burrito.

Honestly, looking at that beautiful bowl of salsa, it’s tempting to just eat it like soup.  The thing that sets it apart and designates it as “restaurant-style” is the relative non-chunkiness.  If you’ve been to one of many typical Mexican restaurants, you’ll recognize it immediately.  It’s thinner, easy to scoop onto a chip, almost bordering on being a liquid.

Perhaps the best part is how painfully easy it is to make this salsa.  All the ingredients go into the blender: canned fire-roasted tomatoes, fresh garlic, green chiles, cilantro, onion, jalapeno, cumin, salt, and pepper.  There are countless recipes on the internet for restaurant-style salsa, and they’re all nearly the same.  It’s clear that this is a very specific genre of salsa.  You could play with the type of onion you want, or what kind of canned tomatoes, but they generally all appear to create a similar end product.  Some use a pinch of sugar, but mine does not – who needs it?

So into the blender go all the ingredients, blend, and… you’re there.  You can eat it right away or chill it to make it even more refreshing when you bust it out later.

Enjoy friends!

[lt_recipe name=”Restaurant Style Salsa” servings=”6″ prep_time=”10M” total_time=”10M” difficulty=”Easy” summary=”Perfect fresh salsa that couldn’t be easier to make!” print=”yes” image=”http://www.eighteenalmonds.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_8832-150×150.jpg” ingredients=”2 (14 oz) cans fire-roasted tomatoes;3 garlic cloves;1 (4 oz.) can diced green chiles;1 white onion (cut into chunks for easier blending, about 1 c);1 jalapeno (cut into pieces for easier blending);1 tsp ground cumin;1 tsp salt;Juice from 1/2 lime;1/4 tsp freshly cracked pepper” ]Pulse together all the ingredients in a blender or food processor until you’ve reached the consistency you want. Store refrigerated. [/lt_recipe]