Homemade Salsa

I will make no claims to this being the best salsa you've ever tasted, or that it's better than the jars lining grocery store shelves, or that its flavor rivals the fresh salsa you're served in restaurants. But I will say that the people who've eaten my salsa will make those claims. 

This recipe could not be easier but it is made easier with the help of a food processor. Over the years I've made this exact recipe, this large amount of salsa, by hand. I've cut up every finely diced tomato. Scraped the innards of peppers. Peeled and chopped itty bitty pieces of garlic. All by hand. I've also used a minuscule food processor that can chop up no more than 8 oz. of anything. And I've used my hand dandy Black & Decker food processor. The big one is the best one. 

Here's what you'll need:

9 large beefsteak tomatoes, cleaned and quartered

1 bunch cilantro, cleaned and still on the stems

5-6 green onions, cleaned and root base trimmed

4 large cloves of garlic, peeled

1 medium sized jalapeño, cleaned and only removed seeds if you want it mild

Salt to taste

In your food processor, combine garlic, cilantro, green onions, and jalapeño. Pulse until well combined. If it looks like it's struggling a little bit, toss in a chunk of tomato. The water content in the tomato will help the relatively dry cilantro and green onions come together. 

Place your gorgeous green mixture in a large bowl and return the food processor bowl and blade to the base.

Depending on its capacity, your food processor may only be able to handle so much, so using your best judgement, pulse those tomato quarters just until they're well chopped. You'll know what I mean when you see it. There should be just enough juice extracted from the flesh, and the flesh will be that perfect texture and size that makes it oh so scoopable.

After each batch of tomatoes are processed, add them to your green mixture. Once all of the tomatoes are incorporated, give it a good stir, add a teaspoon of salt, and give it a sample. 

I prefer to sample it with a spoon because the saltiness of the chips can give you a sort of false positive or false negative on the saltiness. Anyway, salt it to your discretion, pop it in a covered food safe container, and let it sit for a few hours or overnight before consuming.  The flavors will intensify the longer it sits, so now is a good time to try your patience.

Let me know what you think!