Authentic Mexican Salsa

What makes a homemade authentic Mexican salsa? Start with plump ripe tomatoes, mild, medium, and spicy peppers, onion, garlic, cilantro and a hint of lime. What makes this salsa so yummy is roasting the tomatoes until they are nearly charred, blending the peppers in a blender to create a texture that helps the salsa stay on the chip, and accenting it with plenty of cilantro. So how does a white girl make an authentic Mexican salsa? We have a restaurant in our town that is very authentic Mexican. Though they won’t give away their trade secrets, I bought a little salsa container of theirs to try and duplicate. I love tasting theirs, tasting mine, tasting theirs again to try and figure out what is missing. It’s obviously not an exact replica, but pretty darn close, and my hubby gave me the big thumbs up, so it is as authentic to Mexican salsa as I’ll ever get. The problem is, it did not last. My husband loved it so much he ate the whole bowl! Here is a link to knowing your peppers and the level of spiciness from mild to downright “I won’t have a throat left if I eat this pepper!” The Big List of Peppers

I was a bit overwhelmed when I went to the farmer’s market and found over fifty varieties of peppers!

I decided on a few mild, a couple of medium and a spicy one to give it a bit of a kick.

Authentic Mexican Salsa Recipe

3 lg sweet peppers (I used Cubanelle Chili Peppers)

1 lg mild pepper (I used a Sonora Chili Pepper)

1 medium hot pepper (I used a Poblano Chili Pepper)

1 small hot pepper (I used a Jalapeno Pepper, but you can substitute another medium if you don’t want it too spicy)

6 very large ripe tomatoes (4 for roasting, 2 for blending)

1 sweet onion

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1/2 freshly squeezed lime

salt to taste

Cut 4 large ripe tomatoes a quarter inch thick and place on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper or lightly oiled. Place broiler on high and set tomatoes under the broiler until edges begin to char. Remove from oven and gently flip tomatoes over. Char the flipped side of the tomatoes and then remove from oven. Chop the charred tomatoes and set aside. Place gloves on hands before removing pepper seeds. Slice each pepper open and remove all seeds before broiling peppers. Slightly char peppers as you did with the tomatoes. Remove peppers from oven and add to a blender. Add the remaining two tomatoes in the blender and puree. Place puree in a medium size bowl. Chop one whole sweet onion and add to the puree. Chop one bunch of cilantro and add to puree. Chop 6 garlic cloves and add to puree. Squeeze the juice from 1/2 a lime into the puree. Gently fold in charred tomatoes, and add salt to taste.

This recipe was shared on the following blogs: Serendipity&Spice, TheGunnySack, RealFoodForager, SimplySugar&GlutenFree, LadyBehindTheCurtain, GlutenFreeHomemaker, TessaDomesticDiva, Turnips2Tangerines, MadeinaDay, SweetBellasRoos, TheWearyChef