I have the best intentions of going to the grocery for salmon and salad most evenings. It’s just the darndest thing… I usually walk out of the store with a bag of chips, a jar of salsa, a bottle of wine, and sometimes a box of cookies (as if I don’t make enough cookies of my own). Sometimes it’s cold cereal, almond milk, and wine. Sometimes it’s just quinoa and wine.
I don’t know… I can make a pie, it’s just that dinner is sometimes asking too much.
Today I went to the grocery and picked up ingredients to make salsa… for dinner. Not just a jar.
It’s summer vegetables (with hella chips)! Justification complete.
On a scale from mild to AAAHHHHHHH!!!, hatch chiles are a medium-spicy. They have a little kick that some might refer to as a big kick.
When thrown on a pan with cherry tomatoes, whole garlic cloves and red onion, the whole mixture puckers and blisters. The more char you create the more delicious your salsa will be.
It’s an aggressive roast. Why not just go for it?
Charred tomatoes and chiles make their way into the food processor.
Wait… that’s after we remove the tops and seeds from the hatch chiles.
And you know what handling chiles means, right? Wash yo hands, on the real.
We’re going to need a big squeeze of lime and maybe a dash of water. Blend that sucker up! Now it’s salsa!!
Salsa with chips. Go on and call it dinner. You’re in good company. You’re in my company.
This salsa has depth thanks to the roasting. We’ve intensified the tomatoes and chiles, onions and garlic, making this salsa completely irresistable. The spice is there, but it’s delicious, not impossible.
It’s good stuff. Of course it is!
Blackened Hatch and Tomato Salsa
makes about 2 cups
super delicious and inspired by Kitchen Konfidence
3 hatch chile peppers
1 small red onion, peeled and quartered
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 pound cherry tomatoes
salt, fresh cracked black pepper and a good drizzle of olive oil
juice of 1 or 2 limes
small handful fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)
splash of water, to thin it out a bit
Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place whole hatch chiles, quartered onion, whole garlic cloves, and whole cherry tomatoes on an unlined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and fresh cracked pepper.
Place in the oven and allow to roast for 20 minutes, or until tender. Remove from the oven and toss the vegetables together. Place the oven on t he broiler setting to char the vegetables (this works best in a gas oven). Place the vegetables as close to the broiler as possible and keep an eye on the vegetables as they begin to char. Remove from the broiler and toss as necessary until the desired char is reached.
Remove from the oven and allow to rest until cool enough to handle. Place the onion, garlic,and tomato in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade attachment.
Place chiles on a cutting board. Use a knife to remove their tops and cut lengthwise down the center. Use a spoon to scrape out the seeds and discard. Coarsely chop the chiles and add to the bowl of the food processor. Add lime juice and a few tablespoons of water. Blend until combined. Stir in cilantro if using. Add salt and pepper to taste. Chill until ready to serve.
Bethany
Do you think adding corn to the roasting party would be cool with all the other guests? Or should I do it separately, over a gas flame? I’m thinking this would be delicious with some skirt steak and cojita.
Kimberly
This was really good! Sweet from the tomatoes and onion, tart from the lime juice, and hot from the peppers. Our MILD hatch peppers ended up being very hot, so we roasted the rest of the large container of cherry tomatoes and added them to the salsa.
I am thinking a variation of this would make a fantastic pasta sauce – cherry tomatoes, garlic, and onion tossed in olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar or red wine, sea salt, oregano, thyme, and red pepper flakes then roasted and pureed with fresh basil leaves.
I would definitely make the salsa again!
Emily @ Life on Food
favorite snack ever is chips and salsa. I could eat them all day every day. With this yummy looking salsa I don’t think I would ever stop.
Carli
This just inspired my own version… aaaaand I’ll never go back to buying salsa in a jar. They never make it spicy or cilantro-y enough anyways.
Carli
and here’s what mine looks like –> https://secure.flickr.com/photos/cteteris/9554675672/
tracy {pale yellow}
Chips and salsa is totally acceptable dinner. As is cheese and crackers. Or bean dip and carrots. And you need to wash it all down, obvi! These kind of dinners are one of the joys of being a single lady!
Golden Sun Resto
That looks crazy good. Not much of a salsa person but dayum. I’m into Asian cuisine and I’m a regular at a Chinese Restaurant in Capalaba area but if I’ve always been curious about South American cuisine.
Michele DeMuro
Just picked some fresh tomatoes and and peppers from my dad’s garden :):):):) Can’t wait to try this with freshly picked ingredients! I’m sure it will taste wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
Shana
I am dying to try hatch chilies, there are always so many amazing recipes that call for them, but we never get them up here in Toronto. I’ve even looked online to buy the seeds and grow my own with no luck. This looks so delicious – curse you hatch chilies!
kitchen afternoon
Fiddle a bit with the salsa and it becomes gazpacho – fresh vegetable soup for dinner is on the plus side of the ledger! NIce photos!
tora
MMMMMMMMMMMM.
Yep- that looks good to me. Yep.
Tora || http://www.torabaker.co.uk
Renee @ Awesome on $20
We have snack food for dinner probably more often than we have dinner food. Usually with cider. It’s the only way to live life!
Jessica @ Floptimism
Hello! My name’s Jessica, and every week on my food blog, Floptimism, I write a post called the Weekend Wrap-Up where I share some of my favorite web finds from the past week. I loved this salsa recipe so much that I featured it on this week’s round up! I’ve included the link below in case you’re interested. Thank you for such incredible work, and enjoy your weekend!
https://floptimism.blogspot.com/2013/08/weekend-wrap-up-going-off-deep-end.html
(Basically there’s not a single week that goes by that I don’t fall totally in love with one of the recipes you write about, so I’m sorry if the comments week after week get a little old! I just want to make sure you know I’m crediting you for all of your work.)