Roasted Spring Salsa

Fancy a Mexican dinner? I have made Pico de gallo, Guacamole, for enchilada platters and other Mexican dinners. But this was my first attempt making roasted salsa from scratch, since going to Trader Joe's was off-limits in quarantine. This is a very popular salsa in Mexican food, and the recipe below is a modification of Danielle's recipe. Who is Danielle? She is my colleague, of Hispanic origin. She inherited a salsa recipe from her mother, shared it with us, at work. I tweaked the recipe to suit my palate.

It is heavy on tomatillos (a.k.a Mexican husk tomato) which are available in most American and Hispanic grocery stores, especially fresh crop in the Spring. They are sold in green leaf 'wrappers', in the produce section. On the fresh tomatoes, the red and juicier, the better. The canned tomatoes - I only found Italian brands since supply is short due to Covid, but found a way to tone down the Italian tangy-ness**. I like the heat, so you will see a good amount of peppers here, feel free to tone it down, to suit your levels. I had half a pack of #traderjoes black bean chips and some of the veggie flax seed chips, paired really well with this salsa. Because of the warm weather, served with a side of cool yogurt.

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Ingredients

• 2 med yellow/white onions

• 2 Tbsp minced garlic

• 2 med fresh tomatoes

• 1 Tbsp oil

• 6-7 Tomatillos

• 4 Habaneros

• 2 Serrano peppers

• 4 Jalapenos (some green, some red)

• 14 oz can of crushed/diced tomatoes

• 1 cup chopped cilantro

• 1 Tbsp Sugar

• Salt to taste

Recipe

1. wash and cube the onions, tomatoes, and tomatillos. Keep aside.

2. Chop the peppers, de-seed if you like less heat. Use gloves to prevent eye burn later.

3. Take a large heavy bottom pan and warm up the oil

4. Saute the garlic and the onions. Add some of the cilantro. Roast.

5. Next, add tomatillos, peppers and roast.

6. Add the fresh tomatoes, and let the whole thing roast slowly on low/med heat

7. Add canned tomatoes. I added sugar and salt here since mine were too tangy**

8. Roast for about an hour. Grab a book and a cup of coffee :)

9. When everything is soft, but still has texture, put it in a food processor

10. Short, quick pulses. Do not overgrind.

11. Garnish with cilantro.

12. Serve with chips, and/or guacomole.