Homemade Salsa

The hubs & I are getting to be pretty darn good at making salsa. We are working on batch #3 this long Labor day weekend and I think each time we do it, it gets better and better.

I love that we can go out to the garden & make something almost entirely from it. Since we were out of town for a few days, our garden had a HUGE harvest when we got back. This happens to be good timing, b/c we are on our last container of homemade salsa.

Now I say this is time consuming, but I think it is b/c we make about a gallon of salsa each time we make it. So yes, blanching the tomatoes & getting everything cut up & simmered takes awhile. But the salsa is so good in the end.

I am so happy we planted garden salsa peppers & green onions this year. They really make me feel all organic & stuff.

Here is what you will need:
a whole lotta tomatoes: you can use a variety, we use beefsteak, bonnie & sometimes romas
jalapenos or other salsa pepper: The one in our garden is called "Garden Salsa Pepper"
Onions: any kind, red, white yellow, green
salt & pepper
2-4 Tbsp fresh cilantro
lime juice
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
2-4 Tbsp vinegar

We blanch our tomatoes first. Neither one of us are fans of the skin so this is an important step. To do this, bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Drop about 3 to 5 tomatoes in at a time. Let boil for about 3 minutes or until the skin starts to peel away. In another bowl, add cold water & ice. Remove the tomatoes from the boil water & right into the ice bath. Repeat until finished.

Next we peel, deseed, degut the tomatoes. We cut them in half and add them to a large pot.
Dice your peppers & onions. *USE GLOVES ON THE PEPPERS* You can add some of the pepper seed for heat if you'd like.
Then add the rest of the ingredients to taste. Bring to a boil, then let it simmer for at least an hour. We are usually tired by now and end up watching TV for 2-3 hours while it simmers.
Next, depending on how you like your salsa, blend it. The hubs likes his salsa smooth, so we blend the whole pot. If you like your salsa chunky, I would blend half of the pot & mix it all together.
Now you are ready to package it up & put it away until you need some. But you must taste it first, see if it needs anything else. Each time we have done this, we realize it needs salt. I didn't realize how much sodium is added to canned tomatoes until we stopped using them.