There’s no reason to wait until tomatoes are in season to make a delicious salsa. Even though the tomatoes are from a can, it’s much fresher than jarred salsa. It never occurred to me to make salsa from canned tomatoes until I acquired a stockpile (80 cans total) of organic diced tomatoes from Costco last fall. Now I’ll never go back to the store-bought stuff. In addition, making your own salsa in the food processor is amazingly easy, and we almost always have the ingredients on hand that are necessary to produce a batch at a moment’s notice.
The beauty of this basic recipe is that there are substitutions for almost everything in it. So if you don’t have everything you need, don’t worry, you can still enjoy homemade salsa in no time. We like lemon basil salsa from time to time to change it up a bit. Here are some substitutions:
- Onion – onion powder or dehydrated onion flakes
- Garlic – granulated or jarred garlic
- Jalapeno – any fresh hot chili or hot pepper powder
- Lime juice – any citrus juice or vinegar
- Cilantro – any fresh or dried herb such as parsley or basil
Have fun, and get creative!
Bill
- 2 (14½ oz) cans diced tomatoes
- 1 medium onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 jalapeño pepper, deseeded
- 2 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 tsp granulated garlic
- 6 tbsp cilantro
- Strain tomatoes and reserve juice. Roughly chop onion, fresh garlic, and jalapeño; add to food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add juice from tomatoes, lime juice, salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. Process on high for about 30 seconds.
- Add about ½ cup of diced tomatoes and process on low for an extra 5 seconds. Add remaining tomatoes and cilantro and pulse until desired consistency is reached. It’s ready to serve immediately, but you can also let it chill in the refrigerator overnight to let the flavors combine.
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