Easy Home-Made Tomato Salsa for Game Night
Salsa is most definitely my favourite reason to visit Tex-Mex restaurants. Well, the few that we have in Delhi anyway. One of them, specially, offers a bottomless basket of tostadas with salsa – and I swear it’s worth it to just order that for the entire evening and wash it down with litres of beer. I’m perfectly happy skipping dinner if that bottomless basket is on offer. In general, I’m happy to stay away from junk but those freshly fried tostadas and the fresh home-made salsa is a combination that is just too hard to resist.
Good salsa is something I’ve always loved. But I’ve struggled with getting the texture right forever. No matter what I do, I can never get the thick and saucy texture of jarred salsa. The minute salt gets mixed in with tomatoes, they release a whole lot of water and it just becomes a watery mess. I looked at recipes all over the internet and in cookbooks and the only ones that managed to get it somewhat right are those that use canned/jarred tomatoes.
So I decided to roast them a little to reduce the water content. This is the only step that takes a little bit of cook/bake time. Everything else can be done within 10 minutes. So if you feel like using canned/jarred tomatoes or skipping the roasting process to use fresh tomatoes as is, then it can literally be ready in a jiffy.
Without adding thickeners and stabilisers that are typically present in jarred salsa, this will still become a little watery but I’ve made my peace with it. The freshness and flavour make it worthwhile – so much better than jarred. I promise.
This recipe is another in the series with Ragini, my temporary helping hand at the studio (get to know her here). To know more about this series and to see other recipes put together with her, check posts tagged #funcookingforteens and #ragziinthekitchen.
Why I Like this Recipe | Ragini Malhotra
“One of my favourite things to eat is nachos with salsa but my mum doesn’t like me having more than one packaged or processed item at once. To fix that problem, I found an easy salsa recipe in the Masterchef Cookbook and we adapted it to our taste – it takes only 10 minutes of hands-on time and it’s delicious.” Adapted from the Masterchef Australia Volume 2 Cookbook.
Here’s how we made it:
Wash & halve tomatoes
Roast in a pre-heated 200° C oven for 30 minutes
Immediately transfer into a bowl and cover to allow them to sweat & loosen skin
After 5 minutes, you will able to pinch off the skin easily
Process in a blender until coarsely pureed, leaving it slightly chunky
Finely chop onion and jalapeno slices
And the dhaniya (cilantro)
Mix them up in a mixing bowl
Add in the tomato puree, tabasco, jalapeño jar brine, salt, sugar, cumin & olive oil
Give everything a good mix and chill before serving with nachos or fresh tortilla chips
Easy, right?
Like this recipe? Here are some other condiment recipes that you may like: Fresh Mango & Bell Pepper Salsa, Green Pea & Mint Hummus, Home-made Tahini, Maharashtrian Shengdana Chutney, Instant Chopped Mango Pickle
Same time, last year:
One Year Ago: Micheladas (Spicy Beer Cocktail)
Two Years Ago: Summery Cucumber & Mint Cooler
Three Years Ago: Easy No-Bake Lemon Bars
Roasted Tomato Salsa Recipe | Printable Version
- 5 medium tomatoes
- 1 small red onion, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp finely chopped coriander
- 5-6 sliced jalapeños from a jar
- 1 tsp Tabasco sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp brine from jalapeño jar
- Salt, to taste
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp powdered sugar
Equipment Used:- Rimmed Baking Sheet
- Oven
- Blender
- Pre-heat the oven to 200° C and place the rack in the middle of the oven. (Set your oven to roast setting or both top+bottom elements on)
- Wash & halve the tomatoes and place them on a lightly greased, rimmed baking sheet.
- Pop these in and allow them to roast for 30 minutes. As soon as you pull them out, transfer them to a bowl and cover with a lid to allow them to sweat and the skin to loosen.
- While the tomatoes are cooling, finely chop the onions, jalapeño slices, dhaniya (cilantro) and place in a mixing bowl.
- Pinch off the skin of the tomatoes. You can even remove the seeds, if you like. Transfer these to the blender and pulse until roughly pureed, but still has a little chunkiness.
- Pour this over the onion mix. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
- Chill before serving.
HERE’S A LITTLE BIT ABOUT RAGINI, AS SHE LIKES TO TELL IT!
“Hi. I am Ragini Malhotra. I am 14 years old and am in grade 9. I love football and play for my school team, along with my twin, Bhakti. The German football team is my favourite and former World-Cup winning captain Philipp Lahm is my idol. I also love music – a typical teenage fan girl who loves One Direction, Jack & Jack, Ed Sheeran and Shawn Mendes.
My love for cooking and baking was ignited because my grandmother is a great cook. Whenever I visit her, I would stand with her in the kitchen, watching her cook and helping her however I could.
The very first thing I made on my own were a batch of cookies from a book my aunt gave me when I was 9. I made a big mess of the kitchen and was made to clean up. But the feeling of satisfaction I felt when I made something on my own for the first time cannot be explained. Many batches of cookies later, there wasn’t any turning back.”
See more of the recipes I’ve worked on for FDD by checking posts tagged #funcookingforteens and #ragziinthekitchen.
The goofball who couldn’t sit still for a photo!
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