Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Sweet Pepper Salsa


We were given a bunch of organic fruits and vegetables by a family we are dog sitting for this week and I said to myself Aha! An excuse to experiment with salsa! I had never tried these little sweet peppers before but I love them! They're not hot at all and kind of like bell peppers, but very sweet. This mild salsa with sweet peppers is a little something different!


Sweet Pepper Salsa

Makes 2 cups of salsa
Total time: 20 minutes
Mild spiciness

Ingredients
4 tomatoes
4 sweet peppers
1 jalapeño
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup onion
1/2 cup cilantro
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
optional 1/2 tsp cayenne for medium salsa

Roasting the Jalapeño:
(Skip roasting the jalapeño and leave in the seeds if you like medium salsa)
1. Set oven to broil. With plastic gloves on your hands cut the top and bottom off the jalapeño. Slice it in half and scoop out and discard the seeds and inner membranes.
2. Place skin-side up on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and broil in the oven for 3-4 minutes.
3. Remove from the oven after 4 minutes and place on a plate and cover with a bowl for 15 minutes to steam.
4. Peel off charred outside of the skin.

Salsa:
1. Chop tomatoes in quarters and scoop out and discard the inner seeds and liquid. Cut pieces in half again.
2.  Cut onion and peppers in large pieces.
3. Peel both cloves of garlic.
4. Add all ingredients to the food processor and blend until very smooth. Serve with tortilla chips. Enjoy!

 
Make sure you wear plastic gloves when you're dealing with the jalapeno. I didn't have any so I just put plastic wrap over my hands. And DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE. Slice the top and bottom off the jalapeno and slice it in half.

Scoop out the seeds and inner membranes and discard. You can leave the seeds if you want this to be hotter than mild!

Place skin side up in a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Broil for 4 minutes. Keep an eye on it! 

After a few minutes the skin will be charred.

 Remove from the oven and put on a plate covered with a bowl for it to steam. The steam will make it easy to remove the skin.

Peel the skin away and discard.

Check these peppers out! Nice and bright and very sweet!

Mmm! Just so pretty.

Chop up your peppers...

Chop up your tomatoes and onion and garlic to make it easier for the food processor to handle. 

Add EVERYTHING to the food processor! If you don't have a food processor you can just chop everything up as small as you can and you'll have a more chunky finished product.

Blend until smooth. I like a lot of things chunky and with texture, but not my salsa (traditional tomato salsa anyway). All the jarred salsas say "Chunky Restaurant Style" but most Mexican restaurants I've been to serve it smooth. It's all about personal preference, but I like it very well blended. If you like it chunky chop up everything a little smaller before you stick it in the food processor and then just pulse for a few seconds!

This salsa surprised me with how sweet  it was. It is definitely because of the peppers! I added some cayenne because I wanted some kick (and I only bought one jalapeno, rookie mistake). Next time I think I'll use 2 or 3 jalapenos! For now, this salsa is nice for something a little different!




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