I know it’s easy to buy a jar. But there’s something about fresh. I’d even consider growing my own peppers. I also have a Vitamix on hand if that helps.

Also, is there a difference when you roast the chilies?

Of course home made is better, IMO.
Made some fantastic Hatch Chili Salsa and yes used the BGE to smoke/roast 'em.
If you don't like or want the smokey flavor (I do) then use an oven.
Not hard to make but not something you can keep for a long time so use it soon after making.
I HATE buying most any sauce and especially like making Pasta or Pizza Sauce, also make Pico De Gallo and if I can make it I prefer that but it isn't always possible.

Having some now. We just got our roasted Pueblo chilis last week. The salsa my wife makes is an order of magnitude better than any brand in a bottle.

We make and can our own salsa. Grow our own vegs.

Onion
peppers. Fresh no roast.
tomato's.
fresh garlic
tomato sauce
tomato paste
vinegar
spices.

Cook it on low heat
Then can it.

Tastes great.

And just a tad of cilantro.

The old lady is a dirty stinking half mexican. She makes her own salsa and it's dam good. Crowd pleaser for sure.

-2 of the bigger cans Crushed tomatoes
-Bushel Fresh Cilantro, cut it up
-Bushel Green Onion, dice it up
-4-6 jalapenos, boil em and smash em up
-Garlic salt if you want

Hard to screw it up and you can play with the amounts and stuff but dam it's amazing.

Yes, roasting the poblano's or chile's makes a big difference in taste,texture, and is easy. Just cut them in 1/2" pieces and put them in a pan on medium/high heat with a little oil for 5-10 minutes (until I get a char on them). I use all fresh veggies for mine.

Recipe for salsa
2 poblano peppers cut up 1/2" pieces, then charred then cooled
4 roma tomatoes (plum) diced (you could use more)
2 red onions diced small (or 1 large one)
2 limes- juice of limes in salsa
1/2 ounce or more fresh cilantro diced small
small red chili diced very fine (use as much for your taste, or could use 1 jalepeno in it's place, I use a tablespoon)

Salt and pepper to taste. It's relatively easy to make, and tastes amazing compared to the bottled stuff.

Surprised ORC is the only one to suggest vinegar. Although I suppose limes do the same thing.

For me, the question to answer is: "Do we have ripe tomatoes ready to be picked in the garden?" If the answer is "yes" then I have been known to use them for my own hand-chopped salsa cruda, comprised of peppers+onions+garlic+said tomatoes+maybe a tomatillo or two+fresh oregano+ground black pepper, the percentages of ingredients vary based on what I have available. Just chop separately, and toss into a bowl. Eligible peppers include poblano, jalapeno, habanero, all of which I grow myself, never bell peppers. I do not add cilantro as it tastes like soap to me, but the wife loves it and will add it to her portion. Sometimes I will add cumin, which I tolerate much better than the leaves of the plant. Cumin is, of course, the ground seeds of the cilantro plant.

August is a busy month for this as well as my other out-of-the-garden recipes including chiles relleno, gazpacho, and home-made-from-scratch tomato sauce. The latter is made in bulk and mostly frozen for year-round availability. The tomato plants have stopped producing, so I'm probably done for the season.

I do a roasted salsa. What goes into it depends on what kinds of peppers that I can find. I like Poblano and Hatch peppers for their flavor with Serrano and habenero for heat (and I love the flavor of the habs). I usually roast about half the tomatoes and add the rest fresh. Add some garlic, some onion, a handful of cilantro. Salt and lime juice to taste. Every batch is different and the heat tends to vary from "Medium Hot" to "Nuke the Site from Orbit."

Its super easy to make and there are a ton of recipes online to serve as a starting point. I

Lots of recipes. Make salsa every weekend when local or domestic tomatoes are available. My basic list is: very ripe heirloom tomatoes, garlic, onion, cilantro, lemon juice, wine, salt, sugar, sweet chilies and spicy chilies. Around here, I can get about a dozen different varieties of chili but focus on the taste and not so much the heat.

I use a processor instead of a blender. Just pulse to size.

Don't get me wrong, I do like salsa on some things, but I buy it at the store and "medium" is about as far as I'll go.

With that said: I used to work with a guy who made his own salsa. He grew his own peppers for it because he "couldn't find peppers in the stores that were hot enough." This was 20+ years ago and I don't know if that's still true since the introduction of Ghost peppers and Reapers, but geez. He brought some of it into the office once to share. I couldn't even be in the same room with it without my nose running and eyes burning.

Here is the recipe I wrote for work. It’s pretty damned amazing, and probably different than any salsa you have had.
I’ll take the Pepsi challenge with just about any other salsa on this planet.

I really hope you take a chance and try to make this. It’s much easier than you think, and it’s just really, really damn good.

If you don’t have any Espelette powder available, you can substitute paprika, or another mild Chile powder.

https://www.mounthopewholesale...o-chile-sauce-salsa/

On years that I grow my own tomatoes and peppers, I will make and can my own salsa. There is nothing better than homegrown and homemade. I like to use a variety of pepper and not just use only jalapeños. Each year I change up the ingredients to try and find what I like best. I keep the recipes I try written down, but I haven’t done salsa in several years as I got too busy for a full garden. I hope to get back at it soon.

quote:

Originally posted by sigalert:
...I’d even consider growing my own peppers...

It helps, but IMO you're focusing on growing the wrong ingredient. Grocery store peppers are much better than grocery store tomatoes. Of course, growing both is best.

When I first moved to Texas, I ruined a lot of tomatoes trying to make good homemade salsa like I ate in the Mom n pop cantinas. I mentioned it to a Mexican-American coworker who told me to do what her family does - buy canned tomatoes. Part of the reason is grocery store tomatoes suck since they're picked green and then gassed with ethylene to make turn red.

Fast forward 15 years, and I'm middle-aged and growing my own garden so I want to use my tomatoes for salsa. One day, it dawned on me that I needed to roast the tomatoes and then garden tomatoes will be even better in salsa than canned tomatoes. Sure enough, oven roasting the tomatoes makes a huge difference. While I'm at it, I oven roast the peppers and onions too.

Now, when it's tomato season (twice a year in Texas) I make garden fresh salsa and when it's not tomato season I'll use canned tomatoes.

Garden Fresh Salsa
Ingredients:

Bunch of roma tomatoes

1/2 white onion

1 serrano pepper

1 jalapeno pepper

Bunch of cilantro

1 tbsp of lemon juice

1 tbsp of lime juice

1 clove of garlic (or 1/8 tsp of garlic powder)

1/8 tsp of black pepper

1/8 tsp of salt

Anaheim or poblano pepper (can save time and substitute one 4 oz. can of mild green chilies)

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 375

Remove pith from each tomato

Slice each tomato in half and place skin side up on foiled cookie sheet

Slice onion into chunks and place on foiled cookie sheet

Cut off top (stem end) of jalapenos, slice in half, remove seeds, and place of foiled cookie sheet

Cut off top (stem end) of serranos, slice in half, remove seeds, and place of foiled cookie sheet

If using fresh Anaheim or poblano pepper then cut off top (stem end) of pepper, slice in half, remove seeds, and place of foiled cookie sheet

Place cookie sheet in preheated oven for 20 minutes

Remove tomato skins (should be easy as most shrank and separated from meat)

Place skinless tomatoes, peppers, and onions in food processor

Add lemon juice, lime juice, garlic, black pepper, salt, cilantro, and (if using canned green chilis) green chilis to food processor

Pulse the food processor

Put in a covered container and refrigerate ~8 hours before serving or adjusting salt

Stir, sample, and season with salt to taste.

Serve

 
Canned Tomato Salsa
Ingredients:

1 fourteen ounce can of Delmonte stewed tomatoes (preferably Mexican style, but Cajun style works fine)

1 fourteen ounce can of diced tomatoes (IMO, diced fire roasted are best)

1/2 white onion

1 serrano pepper

1 jalapeno pepper

Bunch of cilantro

1 tbsp of lemon juice

1 tbsp of lime juice

1 clove of garlic (or 1/8 tsp of garlic powder)

1/8 tsp of black pepper

1/4 tsp of salt

4 oz. can of mild green chilies

Recipe:

Slice onion into chunks and place in food processor

Cut off top (stem end) of jalapenos, slice in half, remove seeds, and place in food processor

Cut off top (stem end) of serranos, slice in half, remove seeds, and place in food processor

Open Delmonte stewed tomatoes and pour tomatoes and liquid into food processor

Open diced tomatoes, drain off liquid, and pour tomatoes into food processor

Add lemon juice, lime juice, garlic, black pepper, salt, cilantro, and green chilis to food processor

Pulse the food processor

Put in a covered container and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving (overnight is even better)

Stir, sample, and season with salt to taste.

Serve

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

quote:

Originally posted by recoatlift:
And just a tad of cilantro.

I love cilantro in salsa. Load it up.

I much prefer chunky salsa. I like when the tomato guts are removed.

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
Here is the recipe I wrote for work. It’s pretty damned amazing, and probably different than any salsa you have had.
I’ll take the Pepsi challenge with just about any other salsa on this planet.

I really hope you take a chance and try to make this. It’s much easier than you think, and it’s just really, really damn good.

If you don’t have any Espelette powder available, you can substitute paprika, or another mild Chile powder.

https://www.mounthopewholesale...o-chile-sauce-salsa/

That does sound amazing!

For fresh Salsa here is what I use:

2-gloves of Garlic
1/2 onion
4 jalapenos
3 Habeneros
1/4 cup of Lime Juice (or to taste)
tsp salt
tsp pepper
Whatever tomatoes are fresh in the garden
roma's beefsteak cherry tomatoes.
Usually 1 large beefsteak and 5 roma's and few cherry tomatoes.

Blend up (I prefer chunky) and then dig in.

I had some for breakfast this morning on my eggs!

I grow everything except the onions.

Canned 4 gallons in a million pint jars this evening.

Lids are making that happy pinging sound right now...

My wife makes it with peppers, tomatoes, onions, cilatro, and garlic from our garden, and then cans it in quart jars. She doesn't really have a recipe...just kind of does it to taste. She knocked the ball out of the park this year...it's some of the best I've ever had. Store bought doesn't even come close. We'll be eating good this winter, if the kids and I don't eat it all before then !