Chunky salsa so easy a caveman really could do it (I'm not even joking)
Sometimes I try to cook things mostly kind of sort of from scratch. It was kind of a splurge in college and something that always made me feel a little more satisfied than throwing something in the microwave. I just made salsa and I thought, while I was waiting for the drive to make myself some wontons (another splurge, so excited I can practically taste them), I would type up the ~recipe and badger people (*cough*ashes_to_roses*cough*) into giving it a try!
Chunky salsa so easy a caveman really could do it (I'm not even joking)
Last year I started going through salsa like crazy, but I could never find a jar that was exactly what I wanted and I was going through a jar or two per bag of tortilla chips per every couple of days. So I found a cookbook (the name of which I have forgotten) that used canned goods, which was awesome for me because I'm a menace with a knife and I don't own a food processor. But it wasn't nearly spicy enough. So with C's input, modified the recipe and came up with my cheap (cheapcheapcheap), and oh-so-satisfying staple that lasts me about a week instead. (I really love salsa, dudes.)
Ingredients:
2 large cans petite diced tomatoes (the Walmart brand is the cheapest I've been able to find--canned stuff because it's cheaper than buying the tomatoes and I prefer to cut down on the potential for cutting myself)
1 can corn (I prefer the no salt added kinds for my canned goods, because I feel better with more control over my salt intake)
1 can black beans
1 bunch cilantro
1 habanero pepper (Make sure you put your peppers in bags and save the bags to cover your hands when you chop them. I did not do this the first time, thinking I'd just wash my hands and it would be fine. It wasn't. It really, really wasn't. Crafty peppers.)
2 jalapeno peppers
3 serano peppers
1 small yellow onion
Garlic taste
~3 limes (optional)
Step 1.) Get a big stick bowl. I put my extra plastic bag over my bowl and use it as a garbage bowl while I'm chopping, but that's entirely optional. If you do this, though, you should probably really use the bag for a liner, you'll be throwing your seeds in there and you probably don't want any to escape.
Step 2.) Wash and chop your cilantro, however much you like. It's super cheap so I never feel bad if there's something leftover, but I also really like cilantro so I end up tearing off a big handful to chop. Start off with less because you can always add more, but the fresh cilantro really does make the flavor. Chop your onion into pieces however small you can manage (mine are fairly large). Put them in your bowl or set them aside if you're using your bowl for garbage.
Step 3.) The peppers. Oi, the first time I made it my salsa was delicious but my face was burning for hours. Wash 'em off, make sure you have a spoon handy, cover up your hands with the bags, and start choppin. Cut off the tops of your peppers, cut them in half, scrape the seeds out of the insides (depending on how much heat you want--this will be kind of hot already, and some seeds will manage to get in the salsa anyway--you might want to leave some seeds. Just not the habanero seeds. Unless you like the pain.), cut the pepper halves into small spears, and dice them from there. Mine are never even, which is fine because it's chunky salsa! And, more importantly, it's my chunky salsa, I'm going to make it however the hell I want even if it means it ain't pretty.
Step 4.) Put your peppers into your bowl with your onions and cilantro. You're safe to remove your bags/gloves now! Open up the cans and drain the liquids, but not entirely. I usually just drain them until I get bored with it. Combine the ingredients in your bowl, add garlic to taste (you might not need salt, most of the salt comes from the chips for me, but if I throw it on some pasta or chicken, I probably end up adding salt there), and mix. I really like adding lime juice to it, because I really like the citrus and I think it cuts some of the heat nicely, but they're optional. If you use them, make sure you roll them between your hands and the counter, putting some weight into it, to get the juices flowing. I made a great one for New Years that had so much lime juice, it was delicious, almost like eating regular salsa with hint of lime chips! But I haven't been able to get limes juicy enough to recreate that since. D:
Cover it and stick it in the fridge, it gets even better once the flavors sit together. It's also good on pasta (elbows are the easiest to eat it with), chicken, on its own... It's delicious and so easy I haven't lost a finger making it yet!
Chunky salsa so easy a caveman really could do it (I'm not even joking)
Last year I started going through salsa like crazy, but I could never find a jar that was exactly what I wanted and I was going through a jar or two per bag of tortilla chips per every couple of days. So I found a cookbook (the name of which I have forgotten) that used canned goods, which was awesome for me because I'm a menace with a knife and I don't own a food processor. But it wasn't nearly spicy enough. So with C's input, modified the recipe and came up with my cheap (cheapcheapcheap), and oh-so-satisfying staple that lasts me about a week instead. (I really love salsa, dudes.)
Ingredients:
2 large cans petite diced tomatoes (the Walmart brand is the cheapest I've been able to find--canned stuff because it's cheaper than buying the tomatoes and I prefer to cut down on the potential for cutting myself)
1 can corn (I prefer the no salt added kinds for my canned goods, because I feel better with more control over my salt intake)
1 can black beans
1 bunch cilantro
1 habanero pepper (Make sure you put your peppers in bags and save the bags to cover your hands when you chop them. I did not do this the first time, thinking I'd just wash my hands and it would be fine. It wasn't. It really, really wasn't. Crafty peppers.)
2 jalapeno peppers
3 serano peppers
1 small yellow onion
Garlic taste
~3 limes (optional)
Step 1.) Get a big stick bowl. I put my extra plastic bag over my bowl and use it as a garbage bowl while I'm chopping, but that's entirely optional. If you do this, though, you should probably really use the bag for a liner, you'll be throwing your seeds in there and you probably don't want any to escape.
Step 2.) Wash and chop your cilantro, however much you like. It's super cheap so I never feel bad if there's something leftover, but I also really like cilantro so I end up tearing off a big handful to chop. Start off with less because you can always add more, but the fresh cilantro really does make the flavor. Chop your onion into pieces however small you can manage (mine are fairly large). Put them in your bowl or set them aside if you're using your bowl for garbage.
Step 3.) The peppers. Oi, the first time I made it my salsa was delicious but my face was burning for hours. Wash 'em off, make sure you have a spoon handy, cover up your hands with the bags, and start choppin. Cut off the tops of your peppers, cut them in half, scrape the seeds out of the insides (depending on how much heat you want--this will be kind of hot already, and some seeds will manage to get in the salsa anyway--you might want to leave some seeds. Just not the habanero seeds. Unless you like the pain.), cut the pepper halves into small spears, and dice them from there. Mine are never even, which is fine because it's chunky salsa! And, more importantly, it's my chunky salsa, I'm going to make it however the hell I want even if it means it ain't pretty.
Step 4.) Put your peppers into your bowl with your onions and cilantro. You're safe to remove your bags/gloves now! Open up the cans and drain the liquids, but not entirely. I usually just drain them until I get bored with it. Combine the ingredients in your bowl, add garlic to taste (you might not need salt, most of the salt comes from the chips for me, but if I throw it on some pasta or chicken, I probably end up adding salt there), and mix. I really like adding lime juice to it, because I really like the citrus and I think it cuts some of the heat nicely, but they're optional. If you use them, make sure you roll them between your hands and the counter, putting some weight into it, to get the juices flowing. I made a great one for New Years that had so much lime juice, it was delicious, almost like eating regular salsa with hint of lime chips! But I haven't been able to get limes juicy enough to recreate that since. D:
Cover it and stick it in the fridge, it gets even better once the flavors sit together. It's also good on pasta (elbows are the easiest to eat it with), chicken, on its own... It's delicious and so easy I haven't lost a finger making it yet!