Salsa is the Mexican word for sauces (usually hot). Salsa can be added to almost any food and are always a creation waiting to happen. Today’s cooks like to experiment with salsas by spicing them up by adding fruit or avocado. Some cooks like to create their own blend by adding anything from the garden from green beans to bell peppers. Me, I like my salsa fresh, with the basic ingredients of chili peppers, red onion, garlic, tomatillos, Roma tomatoes, cilantro, and lime, salt to taste. To make salsa just mix all the diced ingredients together and keep refrigerated.
I suggest you experiment with your salsa garden. Start by collecting salsa recipes and then planting a basic salsa garden that consists of one tomatillo plant, three or four tomato plants, two or three hot pepper plants, garlic and onions. If you live in a cooler climate you can grow cilantro, but it goes to seed in hotter climates during summer time. Mix the colors of vegetables up too. Why not use a yellow Roma tomato, blended with red or even a green Roma. Tomatillos come in purple and green. Chili peppers range from green to red to yellow to orange, depending on how long they’re left on the plant.
Let’s start with the one basic ingredient that is at the heart of salsa because it doesn’t have heat, it has volume. Tomatoes.
Tomato
Roma 76 days. Determinate. A quality paste tomato. Not of Mexican origin, but well worth planting in the Salsa garden. It has very thick meaty flesh. Source: BAK BOT BURP NES SOU TERR TOT
Chili Pepper
Fresno 75 days. Heirloom. Medium hot, 3” long chili primarily used in salsa. Pendant fruit go from green to red when mature. Source: THE
Jalepeno (OP) 60 days. Hot cone-shaped fruit with distinctive meaty flavor. When smoked they become chipotles. Use when green or red. 24” plant. Will produce in cooler conditions. Source: ANN BOU GOU SOU THE
Jalapeno pepper - Photo courtes Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Serrano (OP) 85 days. Very hot flavor. 2” thin-walled fruit. 30” tall plant. Widely used in Mexico and the Southwest. Source: JOHN THE TOT
Garlic
Spanish Roja Hardneck garlic with true garlic flavor. Source: GUR JOHN
Onion
Red burgundy 100 days. A short day onion. Mild, sweet flavor. Large red skinned and fleshed bulbs. Great choice for salads or hamburgers. An excellent keeper. Source: ANN
Southport Red 120 days. Long day onion. 1873 heirloom. Firm fleshed, medium-sized globe-shaped. Deep red skin and flesh. Grows well in the North. Source: BAK BOU
Tomatillo
Purple (OP) 78 days. A bit smaller and more pungent than the green tomatillos. An easy to grow heirloom. Deep purple and sweeter than other varieties. Source: ANN BAK GOU NES SEED TERR TOT
Purple Tomatillo - Photo courtesy Seed Savers Exchange
Toma Verde 90 days. Probably the best tomatillo for making salsa. Gold ball size fruit. The paper husks split when ripe. 3-4’ bushy plants. This is a Mexican heirloom. Source: ANN BAK BOT SOU
Seed Sources
ANN Annie’s Heirloom Seeds AnniesHeirloomSeeds.com
BAK Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds rareseeds.com
BOT Botanical Interests botanicalinterest.com
BOU Bountiful Gardens bountifulgardens.org
BURP Burpee burpee.com
GOU Gourmet Seed International gourmetseed.com
GUR Gurney’s Seed Gurneys.com
JOHN John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds kitchengardenseeds.com
NES Neseed neseed.com
SEED Seed Savers Exchange seedsavers.org
SOU Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Gardens@SouthernExposure.com
TERR Terroir Seeds underwoodgardens.com
THE The Pepper Gal peppergal.com
TOT Totally Tomatoes totallytomatoes.com
Karen’s Salsa Recipe
12 (or more) firm Roma tomatoes, diced
1 bulb of garlic, diced the cloves small
1 red onion, diced
2 Jalapeno peppers
1-2 Fresno peppers and/or 1-2 Serrano peppers
2-3 Tomatillos, diced
Cilantro, chopped
2-3 limes for juice (3 if they aren’t really juicy)
Put all ingredients together in a bowl, squeeze lime juice over the mix, add salt to taste. Keep refrigerated.
I don’t like mouth burning heat in my salsa, so you can add peppers to suit your taste. I love salsa on scrambled eggs, and that bit of heat sure adds a pick-me-up in the morning. Not to mention all the vitamins and minerals it imparts. Yum…bring on the chips. Oops, and add a margarita with that.
© Copyright 2103 by Karen Newcomb
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Karen, Salsa is indeed the new condiment of choice for almost everyone. It's used in every possible way from chip dips to soup seasoning. It appears that just like chili reciepes, everyone has their own special way to mix up a batch of Salsa. It's so easy to make that even an amateur like me can do it. Thanks for the ideas to get started. Have a great salsa day.