Roasted Tomato Salsa

If your garden is bursting with tomatoes, this Roasted Tomato Salsa is for you! If you aren’t here for the tomatoes, no worries… this is probably my last tomato inspired recipe for the summer as my tomato plants did not survive our week of 115 plus temps. Can’t blame them – I would bring my whole garden indoors for the summer if I could!

If you’ve ever tried to make homemade salsa with homegrown tomatoes, you may have noticed that getting the perfect consistency can be a little tricky. Most varieties of tomatoes will have a lot of water in them, and when we try to make salsa with them, it ends up being very thin. Like pulverized tomatoes sitting in a puddle. There are many recipes, especially those designed for canning larger batches of salsa, that require the salsa ingredients to be cooked on the stovetop, which also helps the salsa to thicken due to water evaporation.

If you are looking for a smaller batch, this Roasted Tomato Salsa recipe makes about two cups of salsa with an amazing depth of flavor that comes from slow roasting the tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic all on one sheet pan. I love that I can just use any variety of tomatoes that need to be used up from the garden. For this batch I used, Roma, Brandy Wine, Cherry, and Sun Gold.

Once the tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic have roasted, scoop everything into a food processor, along with fresh lime juice and fresh cilantro and pulse until you have the consistency you desire. Let it cool to room temperature, and then it’s time to taste it with your chips. If you find that it needs more acidity, add more lime juice. If it’s not spicy enough, add some fresh diced peppers. If the flavors don’t seem to be popping, add more kosher salt.

You can control the spiciness of the salsa by using the variety of peppers you prefer. I used some jalapeño and some serrano peppers from our garden. Once roasted, they had great flavor, but not as much heat as we wanted, so we ended up adding two more fresh jalapeños (diced) with membranes and seeds to the finished salsa. It was perfect! If you remove the membranes and seeds, your salsa will be milder. I find that the heat varies greatly from pepper to pepper, even the ones that I’ve grown on the very same plant. The best thing to do is just taste the salsa, and add more if needed.

I find that people have very specific likes and dislikes when it comes to salsa. This recipe is how we like our salsa, but I would encourage you to use the method and quantity of ingredients as a place to start and make it your own. My favorite thing about this recipe is the depth of flavor and the texture. The homegrown tomato flavor really comes through, and the salsa is nice and thick, but not chunky. You can see how it really hangs onto the chip in the picture above! Just how we like it.

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Roasted Tomato Salsa

• Author: Julie
• Prep Time: 2 hours
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
• Yield: 2 cups 1x
• Category: Appetizer
• Method: Roast
• Cuisine: Mexican

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Description

This Roasted Tomato Salsa has an amazing depth of flavor and the perfect texture, using homegrown tomatoes. Grab some chips and dig in!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 head of garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive or avocado oil
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 pounds sliced tomatoes, stems removed 
• 1/2 yellow onion, cut into one inch chunks
• 12 peppers, stems removed (I used half jalapeño and half serrano)
• Juice of one lime 
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• Additional lime juice, fresh diced peppers, and kosher salt, to taste

 

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  
2. Slice off the top of the garlic head (the pointed end) to expose the cloves.  Lay the garlic on a piece of foil, drizzle the top with about 1 teaspoon of oil and sprinkle with salt.  Wrap the foil around the head of garlic loosely, and then place it on the baking sheet.  
3. Drizzle the baking sheet with the remaining oil, and then place the sliced tomatoes, onion, and peppers on the baking sheet in an even layer.  Move everything around on the baking sheet so it gets coated in the oil. 
4. Roast for 45 minutes.  Allow to cool slightly, and then scoop the tomatoes, onions, and peppers into a food processor, along with lime juice and fresh cilantro.  Unwrap the garlic head and squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of the papery skin into the food processor.  The garlic should be soft, sweeter, and mellow in flavor.  Pulse until it reaches the desired consistency.  
5. Let the salsa cool to room temperature, and then taste with chips to avoid over-salting.  Add more lime juice, fresh diced peppers, or kosher salt to taste.  I added an additional 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (not table salt) and two jalapeños to mine.
6. Let the salsa hang out before serving so the flavors can meld together for at least an hour or two, while it chills in the fridge.  Keep leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4-6 days. 

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Nutrition

• Serving Size: 2 tablespoons
• Calories: 19
• Sugar: 1.4g
• Sodium: 22mg
• Fat: 1g
• Saturated Fat: 0.1g
• Unsaturated Fat: 0.8g
• Trans Fat: 0g
• Carbohydrates: 2.4g
• Fiber: 0.7g
• Protein: 0.5g
• Cholesterol: 0mg

Keywords: roasted tomato, salsa, healthy