RED AND GREEN SALSA

Want to impress your friends and tell them that you made your own salsa? After tasting this salsa your friends will think you should open your own Mexican restaurant.  All the ingredients are in your pantry and refrigerator.  The blender does all the work and the salsa will be ready in five minutes.   On a 104 degree day, like today in California, you will be thankful not to need your stove.  This salsa is delicious over eggs, tacos, quesadillas, burritos, or simply with tortilla chips.  Will the salsa taste better if you boiled the tomatillos and roasted the tomato or chiles yourself? Yes! Will your friends who do not make salsa be able to tell the difference? No.  Don’t tell them you used canned products.  Your secret is safe with me.  We slaved all day in the kitchen,  right?

Time-5 minutes

Servings-4-6

Ingredients for Green Salsa

1 12 ounce can of whole tomatillos, 1 4 ounce can of diced green chiles hot, palmful of fresh cilantro, 1/4 cup of chopped white onions, 1/2 tsp of garlic powder, and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Ingredients for Red Salsa

1 14.5 ounce can of stewed tomatoes, 1 4 ounce can of diced green chiles hot, palmful of fresh cilantro, 1/4 cup of chopped white onions, 1/2 tsp of garlic powder, and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Green Salsa Preparation

Simply add tomatillos juices drained, green chiles, cilantro, onions, garlic powder, and salt into blender and blend until smooth.  Add 1 tablespoon of water if salsa is a little chunky.

Any brand will be fine just be sure to drain the juice that the tomatillos are in.  The green chiles come in hot, medium and mild.

Red Salsa Preparation

Simply add stewed tomatoes, chiles, cilantro, onions, garlic powder, and salt into blender and blend until smooth.  Add 1 tablespoon of water if salsa is a little chunky.

This is what a palmful of cilantro looks like.

When buying stewed tomatoes you will find Mexican and Italian stewed.  I try an avoid a pre-seasoned tomato.  I want to be able to control where the flavor goes.  Enjoy!

Cook’s note:

1.  This is just a basic recipe you can experiment with different chiles and varying degrees of heat.
2. I’ve gotten some feedback from friends that my recipes can be a little complicated.  I wanted to show you that I take shortcuts like anyone else.  An authentic salsa recipe will eventually turn up on my blog.  However, this is a great place to start.
3. The tomatoes and shredded lettuce in the cover photo is not part of this recipe.  I made tacos tonight while blogging.  Salsa was good with the tacos!