Fresh Salsa for Dummies!

I'm going to call this Salsa for Dummies, because it is that easy to make! I have made salsa for years, and I have always enjoyed using the produce from my garden to do it with!  I usually only have to buy onions, because I just haven't ever had good luck really growing onions.  I have a new problem now, but I still have to buy onions, LOL!

You will need :

3 or 4 large ripe, tomatoes
Dehydrated onions
dried cilantro
vinegar
minced garlic
1 or 2 fresh hot peppers

A few details here; you can use any kind of tomatoes you like.  I find that yellow tomatoes have a lower acidity than red tomatoes, and some varieties have a more "tomato-ey" flavor than other varieties.  Pick tomatoes that look best to you!  Also, I am using dehydrated onions because 1)they are cheap 2) fresh onions make Raven's stomach bleed 3) they don't spoil!  One could use fresh cilantro in salsa, I just keep the dried kind on hand because I don't use it a lot.   Lastly, use any kind of peppers you like.  Cayenne's are much hotter than jalapenos, and habaneros are MUCH hotter than either of the first two.  For a very mild salsa, I would use anaheims.  This time, I have used fresh cayenne peppers because  a good friend of mine grew some this year and brought me some last weekend.  You have to look closely to see the bits of pepper in the pictures of my salsa on this page.

For salsa that you are going to eat, and not store, there is no reason to peel the tomatoes.  Yes, I said peel tomatoes.  Don't sweat it, we can talk peeling tomatoes later.  For now, just dice your tomatoes up into a size that is good to scoop up onto a tortilla chip.  Go ahead and slide those off of your cutting board into a medium sized mixing bowl, making sure to get all the tomato juice too. Next, stir in about 2 Tablespoons of dried chopped onions, and 1 Tablespoon cilantro and 1 teaspoon of minced garlic.  Go ahead and stir it up and make sure that the proportion of onion and cilantro look good to you.  Next, pour in 1 Tablespoon vinegar.

You can use any kind of vinegar you have on hand, white vinegar or apple cider-it really doesn't matter.  Stir that in to the mix and cut up your peppers.  I like to chop my peppers very fine.  There are bits of pepper, but they are small.  You can leave them a little bigger if you enjoy them that way, but I find that you get more flavor through out the salsa if you cut them smaller.  I leave the seeds in for all the salsa I make.  If you make a batch and it's too spicy, just leave the seeds out next time and take the first batch to work!

The last part of making salsa is taste testing.  Grab a chip and get a little to taste.  If it needs more of that "oomph" that is salsa, give it another splash of vinegar.  Add a little more cilantro if you like a heavier cilantro flavor.  Remember to go small when adding in extra seasoning.  You can always add a bit more, but you can never take any back out.  If you do get too much of something in it, just add more tomatoes and go slowly to bring the rest of the ingredients in.

Happy dipping!