Awesome Spicy Homemade Salsa!
Salsa is my absolute #1 favorite condiment, something that I use at least 5x per week or more. I'm always searching for an awesomely spicy yet delicious salsa and constantly trying out new brands, but when all else fails I fall back on what I know: Pace Hot or Herdez Hot. I absolutely love a really hot salsa that doesn't have that habenero flavor, I just don't like how habeneros taste (no offense).
I've been unable to go grocery shopping for awhile now, and so had to settle on Walgreens brand Medium chunky salsa. On first tasting; "okay, I can definitely use this in a pinch", second tasting, "um, okay, I guess", third tasting, "omg, what is even the point, this salsa sucks", and on the fourth, I got nauseous even thinking about using it.
I've been unable to go grocery shopping for awhile now, and so had to settle on Walgreens brand Medium chunky salsa. On first tasting; "okay, I can definitely use this in a pinch", second tasting, "um, okay, I guess", third tasting, "omg, what is even the point, this salsa sucks", and on the fourth, I got nauseous even thinking about using it.
Then, out of nowhere, my genius brain remembered that not only do I have canned tomatoes in the pantry, but I also had a few fresh tomatoes. Add that with the serrano and jalapeno peppers in my freezer, a partially used onion in the fridge. Boom. Salsa.
I've made homemade salsa in the past with "just-okay" results until the last time that I made it using fresh lime juice, in which I thought that I had found that 'Eureka!" moment (and I had used canned tomatoes, too!). Unfortunately, I had no lime this time, but i did happen to have a can of tomatoes "with lime juice and cilantro" (random supermarket sale purchase, but TOTALLY worth it!). So, I just used a bit of the juice and about a spoon of the tomatoes from the can, plus all of my fresh ingredients, blended them all up, tasted for tastiness, and after letting it sit in the fridge for a bunch of hours, I've just now tried it and will attest that it is the best salsa I've ever had.
If you don't like super spicy salsa, don't include as many peppers as I did. The flavor won't be the same if you choose jalapenos over serrano peppers, but every serrano is different. Some are super mild, some super spicy. What I do is cut off a very small piece, then taste-test it. If it's slightly spicy, I'll use a lot. If it's REALLY spicy, I'll use maybe 1/2 or 3/4, then just keep adding more until I'm happy. It's all personal preference.
If you don't like super spicy salsa, don't include as many peppers as I did. The flavor won't be the same if you choose jalapenos over serrano peppers, but every serrano is different. Some are super mild, some super spicy. What I do is cut off a very small piece, then taste-test it. If it's slightly spicy, I'll use a lot. If it's REALLY spicy, I'll use maybe 1/2 or 3/4, then just keep adding more until I'm happy. It's all personal preference.
Dice up your tomatoes, onion, and serrano peppers. They look beautiful on my cutting board, don't they?1 That's only like half of the tomatoes in the pic, though. I started to add them, then realized that I should add layers of the other stuff to my food processor. Anyways, I ended up adding an additional serrano to the 2 that I had already diced up, because it just wasn't spicy enough. And salt, because, duh.
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