Quick Blender Salsa

I love fresh salsa, but everyone needs an option for when they don't have fresh tomatoes; because who can live without salsa? This is our go to salsa in the winter. I'm glad it makes a lot, because we go through it quickly. We like it on egg dishes in the morning, stirred into mashed avocado for a quick guacamole, on a Southwest salad or bowl, of course on Southwestern dishes, or with a side of sourdough crackers. Some tomatoes are more acidic than others. If you notice your salsa is lacking in flavor, give it a little extra squeeze of lime to perk it up.

Blender Salsa

Makes about 4 cups

• 1 jalapeno, roughly chopped *see notes below

• ½ onion, roughly chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, smashed

• 1 Tbsp. lime juice

• 1 tsp. raw, apple cider vinegar

• 28 oz. can/box diced organic tomatoes, unsalted

• 1/3 bunch cilantro

• 2 tsp. salt, or to taste *see notes below

• Pepper to taste

1. Add jalapeno, onion, garlic, lime juice, and apple cider vinegar to a blender.

2. Pulse to chop, scraping down the sides of blender if necessary. You just need ingredients partially broken down in this step, so don't spend too much time.

3. Add half of the tomatoes and all of the cilantro.

4. Pulse to further chop the ingredients to desired texture.

5. Stir in the remaining tomatoes, salt and pepper.

Notes

For mild salsa, remove all of the seeds from the jalapeno. For medium remove 3/4 of the seeds. For spicy remove 1/2 of the seeds or go ahead and leave in all of the seeds.

Check the ingredients on the back of tomatoes. If they are salted, add salt at the end just to taste. I prefer to use unsalted so I can control the amount and quality of the salt.

If you add ½ tsp. salt per cup of salsa, you can set on counter to lacto-ferment for 2-3 days in the summer and 3-4 days in the winter.

For variety, add beans, corn, mangoes, radishes etc.