Homemade Salsa and Tortilla Chips: 11 Tasty Recipes to Try

SALSA!!! It’s that time of year when the tomatoes and peppers are in abundance! Here are some of my favorite salsa recipes. Some of these recipes are canning recipes. You can can them as indicated, or just make a smaller batch to eat fresh!

Fresh Salsa Recipe: Peppers recipes

Salsa Recipes – 8 Ways

Salsa

Courtesy of Nancy Monat

12 cups skinned tomatoes-chopped up
½ c or more hot peppers diced-more seeds the hotter (seeds from 4 or more)
2 green peppers
½ cup sugar
2-12 oz cans of tomato paste (or if you use amish paste or roma tomatoes, this step is not necessary)
6 large onions
5 cloves of garlic minced
3 Tablespoons canning salt
1 cup cider vinegar
Black pepper and paprika to taste

Toss all in a big pot. Bring to a rolling boil. Simmer 30 minutes. Process 15 minutes in a water bath canner.


Rotel Dip

Courtesy of Sandy Ingle

20 cups chopped tomatoes
5 large onions
5 bell peppers
8 jalapenos
3 banana peppers
6 teaspoons garlic powder
8 teaspoons salt
1 cup vinegar

Bring to a boil for 30 minutes. Strain juice off. (You can save the juice and can it for later use in chili or rice.) Put into pint jars. Process in a water bath for 30 minutes.


Cumin Salsa

Courtesy of Sue Terry

18 tomatoes- diced and drained
2 banana peppers- sweet, diced
6 hot peppers-diced
2 bell peppers-diced
3 big onions-diced
6 cloves garlic-minced
2 tablespoons cumin
1 ½ tablespoons salt
1 cup vinegar

Cook 30 minutes. Process in a water bath for 15 minutes.


Secret Ingredient Cilantro Lime Salsa

Adapted from Staceyhomemaker

8 Roma tomatoes
1 medium bell pepper
1 cup cilantro (Omit if you don’t like cilantro)
¼ medium red onion (Taste the salsa and add more if you want a stronger onion flavor)
Zest and juice from 1 lime
⅛ tsp cayenne pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cumin
Sea salt & pepper to taste

  1. Cut the tomatoes (remove the stems), onion, garlic, and bell pepper into a few big chunks. Add to the food processor. Pulse a few times to start to break it down.
  2. Add cumin, cayenne, lime juice, and cilantro. Pulse on medium until you reach desired consistency. I like to leave it a little chunky.
  3. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Add additional cilantro if needed.
  4. Serve with tortilla chips. Enjoy!

Homemade Pico De Gallo

Adapted from InspiredTaste

1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped (about 2/3 cup)
1 to 2 jalapeño or serrano peppers, finely diced (seeds and membranes removed for a milder salsa)
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste

  1. Add the tomatoes, onion, cilantro, diced peppers, and lime juice to a bowl.
  2. Generously season with salt — start with 1/2 teaspoon and go from there.
  3. Set the salsa aside for 30 minutes.
  4. After 30 minutes, stir the salsa — making sure to distribute the juices left at the bottom of the bowl. Taste and adjust with more salt.
  5. Store for up to 3 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Corn Salsa With Lime

Adapted from SkinnyTaste

2 cups (from 3 cobbs) cooked sweet yellow corn, cut off the cob
2 small vine ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 cup red onion, diced
1 scallion, diced
1 jalapeño, diced (remove seeds for mild)
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 fresh lime, juice of
kosher salt and fresh pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients and refrigerate for about an hour.


Fresh Salsa Recipe

Adapted from SimplyRecipes

2-3 medium sized fresh tomatoes (from 1 lb to 1 1/2 lb), stems removed
1/2 red onion
2 serrano chiles or 1 jalapeño chile (stems, ribs, seeds removed), less or more to taste
Juice of one lime
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of dried oregano (crumble in your fingers before adding), more to taste
Pinch of ground cumin, more to taste

  1. Prep the tomatoes, chiles, and onions: Start by roughly chopping the tomatoes, chiles, and onions.
    Be very careful while handling the chile peppers. If you can, avoid touching the cut peppers with your hands. (I often use disposable gloves or hold the peppers with a plastic sandwich bag.) Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and hot water after handling and avoid touching your eyes for several hours.
  2. Set aside some of the seeds from the peppers. If the salsa isn’t hot enough, you can add a few for more heat.
  3. Place all of the ingredients in a food processor. Pulse only a few times, just enough to finely dice the ingredients, not enough to purée. If you don’t have a food processor, you can finely dice by hand.
  4. Adjust seasonings: Place in a serving bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. If the chilies make the salsa too hot, add some more chopped tomato. If not hot enough, carefully add a few of the seeds from the chilies, or add a little more ground cumin.
  5. Let sit for an hour for the flavors to combine. Serve with chips, tortillas, tacos, burritos, tostadas, quesadillas, pinto or black beans.

And my personal favorite:

Fresh Salsa

Amber Monat

A bunch of tomatoes (cherry, roma, big fat juicy ones) chopped
A bunch of onion-chopped
A bunch of green pepper-chopped
A bunch of jalapenos or garden salsa peppers-chopped (take out seeds if you don’t like it HOT!)
A bunch of garlic-minced
A bunch of fresh cilantro- chopped (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste.

Combine all ingredients. Eat with tortillas.


Homemade Tortilla Chips – 3 Ways

Adapted from SimplyRecipes

Ingredients

About 3/4 to 1 cup canola, grapeseed, or corn oil (a high smoke point oil) – more or less depending on how many chips you are making
Corn tortillas (get the standard kind, not the super fancy kind) – Each tortilla will make 6 chips; 12 tortillas will yield 72 chips, a good snack for 2 to 3 people.
Kosher salt

Fried Tortilla Chips

1. Dry the tortillas

  • The tortilla chips will fry better if they are a bit dried out first. Either leave the whole tortillas out overnight, exposed to air so they are stale the next day, or dry them out a bit in the oven or microwave.
  • To dry them in the oven, lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet and put them in a 350°F for 5 minutes or a 200°F oven for 10 minutes.
  • Or lay them out in a single layer (working in batches) on a paper towel in a microwave oven and microwave them for 20 to 60 seconds, depending on how strong your microwave is and how many tortillas you are drying. You don’t want them crisp at this point, just as dry as they would be if you left them out overnight.

2. Cut each tortilla into 6 triangle shaped wedges.

3. Fry the tortilla wedges.

  • Pour oil into a medium skillet to a depth of 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch. (Make sure you are working with a completely dry pan or the oil will sputter as it heats.)
  • Heat the oil on medium high heat until a small piece of tortilla placed in the oil sizzles, about 350°F. (This is where an infrared thermometer comes in handy!) Do not allow the oil to get so hot that it smokes. (If that happens, move the pan off the heat immediately.)
  • Place a paper towel onto a large plate and have several other paper towels ready. Place a handful of tortilla triangles into the hot oil, in a single layer. Use metal tongs or a metal slotted spoon to distribute the tortilla triangles so that they aren’t overlapping and so that all sides get coated with oil. Fry for approximately 2 minutes until the chips just begin to color and they are firm, no longer pliable.

4. Drain and Salt. 

  • Use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove the chips from the oil to the paper-towel-lined plate.
  • Sprinkle with salt. Place another paper towel over the top of the chips to be ready for the next batch. Note that as soon as you put the tortilla triangles into the hot oil, because you are working with such a small volume of oil, the oil temperature will lower. Usually I compensate for this by increasing the heat to high. And as soon as the chips begin to color, I reduce the heat to low, so the oil doesn’t overheat in between batches of chips.
  • Continue to cook the chips, working in batches, placing the freshly fried chips over a new layer of paper towel each time, and sprinkling with salt.

5. Eat!

When the chips are all fried, pat any excess oil from them with a fresh paper towel, and eat! These chips are best freshly made.

Baked Tortilla Chips

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
  2. Cut the tortillas into wedges.
  3. Spread the tortilla wedges out on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake the tortilla wedges for about 6 minutes, then use tongs to turn the wedges over.
  4. Sprinkle with a little salt, and bake for another 6 to 9 minutes, until they are just beginning to color.
  5. Remove from the oven and let cool. Sprinkle with more salt to serve.

Microwaved Tortilla Chips

  1. Cut the tortillas into wedges.
  2. Line your microwave oven with a paper towel. Working in batches if necessary, spread the tortilla wedges over the paper towel in a single layer, with an inch or so between the wedges.
  3. Microwave until the tortilla chips are crispy, but not burnt. The time will vary depending on the strength of your microwave and how many tortillas you are cooking. In our microwave, it’s about a little less than 1 minute per tortilla. But I would start at half of that and add time as needed.
  4. Sprinkle with salt to serve. Great with guacamole and fresh salsa.

Tips:

  • Always wear gloves when handling HOT peppers. Always. The consequences of not doing so are not very nice or fun.
  • The more seeds from the peppers you put in your salsa, the hotter it is.
  • You will cry when cutting several onions. Be prepared with tissues.
  • You can combine all ingredients into a food processor. It will not be as chunky, but then you don’t have to spend all that time chopping veggies.
  • If you don’t like cilantro, don’t add it.
  • And last but not least, don’t try the salsa off the spoon you seeded your peppers with. Let’s just say you’ll have some hot lips!

 

Amber
Amber has called Iowa home all her life. She and her husband Jeremy live on an acreage just south of Traer where they raise their 6 blue eyed, blonde haired babes. Amber is a stay at home mama to 3 girls ages 12, 9, & 4 and 3 boys ages 2,1, & 7 months. Amber earned an AAS in Early Childhood Education at Hawkeye Community College. She also spent 9 years in the Iowa Army National Guard. Amber is always busy attending Redhawk sporting events, 4­H meetings, teaching RE classes at St. Paul, reading stories, playing house, cooking, feeding various animals, & running around after her kids. In her spare time (ha!) she likes to can produce out of the huge garden her husband plants every year, read a book to the end, watch a good movie (that she normally falls asleep in the middle of) and spend time with Jeremy, which is normally at Iowa Hawkeye Wrestling Meets! Go Hawks!

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