SALSA!















While I can make some pretty good Salsa, and I am not too shabby at dancing Salsa either...my best friend Gloria, IS the Salsa Queen! So, I am going to consult her for this blog post. If you are not a fan of the picante, then you can always edit the chile content. Salsa works beautiful for adding flavor without fat and it's made with vegetables, so it's healthy! Get excited people, you can't go wrong with salsa!

Three very simple salsas. Seriously, these were much easier than I anticipated. All you need is a blender, a pot and a pan. Here we go...

Salsa Roja:
Ingredients:
3 tomatoes (top of core cut out)
2 serrano chiles
1/2 clove of garlic
salt to taste

Roast tomatoes, serranos, and garlic in pan. Let cool slightly, remove most of the tomato skin, and then blend all ingredients with a dash of salt on medium speed in blender. (In this picture there are 3 serranos, and it was very HOT! So, I recommend using only 1 or 2. I find that chile peppers tend to be hotter in the winter months, so vary the recipes as needed.) Gloria's tip: Roma tomatoes work best for this salsa, and remove the top core because it doesn't blend well.


Tomatillo Arbol Salsa:
Ingredients:
9-10 tomatillos
5-6 chile de arbol (these are dried little red chile pods)
1/2 clove garlic
salt to taste

Boil tomatillos with chile de arbol in just enough water to cover. After tomatillos are cooked, pour out most of the water. Everything goes into the blender including garlic and a dash of salt, blend medium speed. Gloria's tip: make sure chile de arbol is fully immersed in water below tomatillos, or they float to the top and don't soften up as well.

Salsa de Aguacate (Avocado):
Ingredients:
1 avocado
8-10 tomatillos
handful of cilantro
1/8 of an onion
1 garlic clove
2-3 serrano chiles
salt to taste















Place all ingredients in the blender on medium-high speed. This salsa is tangy and creamy and as spicy as you want to make it.

The uses for all of these salsas are limited only by your imagination. They are perfect for tacos, quesadillas, eggs, fish, chicken, steak or even as a salad dressing. And of course, these salsa work great with chips. We served them with a variety of 'green chips.' Made from kale, collard greens, chard, mustard greens and even beet greens, but more on that in another blog...


Let me know how these work for you and stay tuned for another Salsa blog in the near future. Special thanks to Gloria for sharing her salsa expertise with us!

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