Cailin Riley Books

Our household has always held the adage that store bought salsa is just not that good. We started making our own salsa from scratch and after some trial and error to perfect our recipe, we’ve never gone back. (Although it’s not so secret anymore, I guess!)

Recipe makes about 32 oz, enough to mostly fill a standard size mason jar.

Ingredients:

• About 5 romas or other tomatoes good for salsa, sliced in half
• ½ a yellow or sweet onion, sliced in half
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro
• Few shakes of salt
• Juice of ½ a lime
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 3 serrano peppers, seeds removed, sliced in half

Directions:

1. Set your oven to broil.
2. On a baking sheet, arrange your tomatoes, peppers and onions sliced side face down. Broil for 5 minutes and then remove briefly from the oven.
3. Add a piece of aluminum foil to the sheet and arrange garlic cloves on the foil; drizzle olive oil over them.
4. Add the sheet back to the oven and broil for another 5 minutes.
5. Remove sheet from oven and allow to briefly cool, enough that you can remove the skins from the garlic cloves. The oil should make this easier to do.
6. In a food processor, pulse roasted tomatoes, peppers, garlic and onions. Add lime juice, cilantro and a generous amount of salt and pulse again until thoroughly mixed.
7. Refrigerate salsa until cool.

Note: You can experiment with a variety of peppers to find what you like. Using three serranos makes a very nice medium spice salsa. Add one or two habaneros for hot salsa, or use jalapenos instead of serranos for a nice mild salsa.

If you’re interested in learning more about gardening, check out my upcoming book, “Marigolds & Morels: Gardening and Foraging for Beginners”! Available via Kindle and paperback this fall, my easy-to-read guide is great for anybody who wants to get into growing their own herbs and vegetables, as well as find out how you can forage in your own backyard.