Fresh Tomato Salsa

The idea of making your own condiments used to seem pretty time consuming to me, I mean you can just grab a jar at the store and you're good, right? But now that we pretty much home make all of ours - pesto, pasta sauces, salsa, salad dressings, hummus, etc - I'm never going back. For one, the taste is so much better and I find that when making your own you end up using much less salt and sugars than store bought sauces. You also know what is going into it, and in turn going into your body, and you're able to experiment and play around with flavours. Plus, it really isn't hard or time consuming at all, promise.

Salsa is probably one of my favourite condiments, but only when it's fresh and with that perfect amount of acidity. Not the sweet, saucy stuff you get at the store. Luckily for me, Richard makes a mean salsa that always gets tons of compliments when we serve it at parties. I love having it in giant mason jars in the fridge, ready for quesadillas, beans and rice or oven baked tortilla chips!

Fresh Tomato Salsa

1 lb ripe plum tomatoes

1/2 red onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 or 2 fresh jalapeno's seeded and minced

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 tbsp. fresh squeezed lime juice

1 tsp salt

Cut the tomatoes in half crosswise, and gently squeeze out as much of the pulp as you can, roughly dice them and place them in your kitchen mixer or blender. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix together and taste to adjust the seasoning to your liking. This is a pretty free form recipe, if you don't have fresh tomatoes just use canned diced ones and drain them if need be. 

Makes about 3 cups, store in a jar in the fridge if you can make it last that long. Yum!