Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Cultured Condiments - Salsa

We like salsa and chips - as a snack, as a side dish, as an entire meal. However, we are currently corn-free (well, the girls and I are), so I've had to find some interesting ways to consume salsa. So far I've eaten salsa: scooped with brown rice crackers; scooped with Better Made Potato chips; wrapped up in Brown rice tortillas; mixed into cooked rice or millet;and over eggs and hashbrowns. All were fantastic, though not quite as satisfying as crunchy, salty, corn-y corn chips. (Sigh.)

As promised, here is my delicious & nutritious homemade, fermented salsa recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
  • 4 tomatoes, peeled, cored & seeded
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 green pepper, seeded
  • 1 red pepper, seeded
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, with varying amounts of seeds (depending on "heat" desired)
  • 1 Tbsp sea salt
  • juice of two lemons
  • fresh cilantro leaves
  • approx. 1/4 cup water
  • 1 quart-sized or 2 pint-sized canning jars with lids
DIRECTIONS:
  1. Dice everything: tomatoes, peppers & onion
  2. Mince cilantro leaves
  3. In a big bowl, mix chopped veggies with cilantro leaves, salt and lemon juice
  4. Let it stand for a few minutes
  5. Stir for a few minutes, smooshing veggies into bottom of bowl as you go.
  6. Pour into canning jar(s).
  7. Add enough water so that juices are above veggies in jar - leaving around two inches between salsa & top of jar.
  8. Let it ferment at room temperature for roughly two days.
  9. Transfer to cold storage.
Yield: 1 quart-sized or 2 pint-sized jars of salsa.

ALTERNATIVES:
  • Try tomatillos instead of (or in addition to) tomatoes
  • Try different kinds and combination of peppers
  • Try roasting peppers first
  • Add black beans
  • Add corn
  • Add garlic and/or other spices
  • Try limes instead of lemons

2 comments:

Jessie said...

i think i'm going to add lime... definitely excited to try this weekend

Anonymous said...

i wondered why you have to peel the tomatoes first, please explain- or can you just slice and use?thanks- cheyenne, by the way this sounds alot like me and my world, i too am looking at the body ecology , but i have done every other diet in the entire world, if you want some good reads, try the 80/10/10 by dr douglas graham also on vegsource or foodnsport, and this talks about candida, and how fat is the culprit, also thebloodtype is intresting that is in the body ecology! i know i cannot do brassica family, cultured or not, just keep goin mom, i have 5 kids and my hubby doesnt understand any of this sooo, God bless you-cheyenne i just opened my blog and after writing a long blog, i erased it!!