Put Those Ripe Summer Tomatoes to Good Use.
Are your tomato plants dripping with big juicy tomatoes? Here in the NW we’ve got a few more weeks until ours turn from green to ruby red. Ripen they will, though, and once they do, we’ll be left with at least 50 pounds of tomatoes that need to be used ASAP. Yep, it’s a great problem to have. We wish you nothing but problems like this. But, we digress! This year, the bulk of our tomato harvest will be going to making this perfect(ed) restaurant-style salsa. Even if you don’t have a bumper crop in your own backyard, though, this fresh salsa recipe is worth a visit to your local farmers market to load up.
Just The Best Homemade Salsa Recipe Ever, That’s All.
We’ve tried a lot of homemade salsa recipes in our time and we really, truly, honestly believe this one to be the very best salsa recipe we’ve ever made. Our version stands out for a few reasons:
- We give the salsa a hint of smoke by getting a good char on the tomatoes, jalapeños and onions before blending.
- This salsa features both cooked and raw onions
- And the key ingredient: avocado. Served along with our Perfect Guacamole and shrimp ceviche, avocado lovers are in for a treat!
And how exactly did we create this incredible, best-ever salsa recipe? Here’s a little backstory. Few years back, Natalie spent some time in Mexico. One particularly fantastic evening, she and some friends splurged and had a private chef prepare them an authentic Mexican dinner. Said dinner featured a fresh salsa that she could not get out of her mind in the days and weeks to come.
Fast forward, four years later and we’ve finally (finally) successfully recreated the smokey, sweet, and spicy cravable flavor of the salsa she tasted in Tulum. The years-long length of our struggle is largely due to the fact that produce often tastes different in different places! Different climates, different soil, different produce. But finally, after many tweaks and adjustments, we landed on this (to us) perfect salsa recipe.
What Are The Best Tomatoes for Salsa?
The best tomatoes for salsa, in our opinion, are roma tomatoes. They’re the key to good texture as they offer more meat in the flesh and less water in their gut than other varieties. If you aren’t growing roma tomatoes in your garden, or if you’re making this in the off-season, look for overripe roma tomatoes at your local grocery store. Grab the ones with the wrinkled skins that are just about to go bad. If you’re making it outside of fresh tomato season, try adding a cup of crushed tomatoes from a can to add richness to this salsa recipe, because tomatoes are typically canned at the peak of flavor.
How To Make Homemade Salsa
Every homemade salsa recipe we’ve seen out there is a “dump and blend” recipe. Our salsa recipe is a bit more work than that, but the payoff is vast (promise). You’ll start by charring the tomatoes, jalapenos and onions to add extra flavor. No need to cut, peel, prep or trim. Just toss everything in a pot of piping hot oil and let it cook until the skins are black—that bit of char will add sooo much smokey flavor. Lower the heat, cover and let simmer to soften the vegetables. Then, let’s make some salsa! It’s as easy as:
- Pop those cooled, smoky veggies in a blender along with extra crushed tomatoes, fresh onions, cilantro and a heavy hand of salt.
- Blend away! No vinegar or lime necessary.
- Once the salsa is blended, add the avocado, then blend just a bit more.
Tools You’ll Need.
Homemade Salsa on Everything!
We literally put this salsa on everything, obviously beginning with homemade tortilla chips. We also love it on:
How Long Does Homemade Salsa Last?
We’d love to say that this salsa lasts a LONG time. However thanks to the (awesome) addition of avocado, it will only last you a few days in the fridge. But we are never concerned with how long homemade salsa is good for, because it’s always gone way before we want it to be! If you make it and devour it, we want to see it! Be sure to snap a photo and share it with us on instagram using @themodernproper or #themodernproper.
