Recipe: Chipotle Salsa

Here's one way to heat up your upcoming weekend. :-) Some days ago I peeled and seeded many pounds of garden tomatoes before they went bad on my counter. What to do with all those tomatoes? For starters, I made more delicious marinara sauce (recipe here) to top some chicken Parmesan. But there were a lot more tomatoes left. We love salsa and chips in this house, so I adapted The Pioneer Woman's recipe for restaurant style salsa. Since I didn't have the Ro-tel (tomatoes + chilies) that her recipe requires, I used some very spicy and delicious chipotle peppers in adobo sauce ... which then meant that I didn't dare use jalapeño seeds like her recipe says. Here is my version. Keep in mind that this comes out quite spicy, and a little bit sweet.

Chipotle Salsa

(adapted from The Pioneer Woman's restaurant style salsa recipe)

Ingredients

• 45 oz peeled and seeded tomatoes with juice
• 1 can (7 oz) chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 jalapeños, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• Juice of 1/2 lime (use whole lime if small)
• 1/2 cup cilantro (more or less, to taste)

Method

Combine all ingredients in a large blender (at least 9-cup size; blend in batches if your blender is smaller). Pulse 10-15 times to get the consistency you like.

Refrigerate for at least an hour. Serve with salted tortilla chips, or use as a condiment for tacos, burritos, fajitas, etc., and even scrambled eggs. Enjoy!

xo, Gladys