Recipe: Salsa

CJ and I (well, mostly CJ) really like chips and salsa.  However, neither of us likes chunky salsa.  We used to buy Pace at Costco and blend it up so it wouldn't be chunky.  After doing that several times, and after not having a job for a while, and after having my cousin's homemade salsa, and after finding this salsa recipe on Pinterest (do I mention Pinterest in every post now?), I decided to try my hand at making my own.

I don't remember my cousin's recipe.  She told me but I might have forgotten a thing or two.  What I do remember is canned tomatoes, cilantro, and canned green chilies.  The Pinterest recipe I found calls for:

• 1- 14 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1- 10 oz can orginal Rotel
• 1/2 small onion, roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1/2-1 jalapeno, seeded or not (depends on how spicy you like it)
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• small to medium size handful of cilantro, washed
• juice of 1 lime

So I kind of followed the Pinterest recipe since it was still pretty close to my cousin's recipe.  The first time I made my own salsa I used 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can Rotel, some onion, some cilantro, and some lime juice.  It was just ok.

Now, after some experience, for a mild salsa I use:

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can rotel

some onion

a good chunk of cilantro

some garlic powder (maybe 1 Tbsp or so)

some vinegar (no more than 1 Tbsp - wow, what a difference some vinegar makes!)

some salt (a tsp or two)

some lime juice (1 - 2 Tbsp)

and for CJ's hot salsa we add:

some extra onion

some extra garlic powder

a few pickled jalapenos

some crushed red peppers

some sriracha sauce

Steps:

1. Put the mild ingredients in a blender and blend until well blended.

2. Set half aside.

3. Add hot ingredients to blender and blend until well blended.

4. Let sit over night so the flavors meld together.

CJ and I use old Pace bottles for our salsa and we label them because I definitely don't want to accidentally get his hot salsa.  We did have one batch that was a little too garlicky and oniony for me but for the most part we've gotten some really good salsa.