Hey guys! Another beautiful summer evening here in East Tennessee! I’ve been a busy bee all evening, playing with new recipes and I would love to take a second to share them with you guys!
This all started because I had a windowsill FULL of overripe tomatoes from my garden. These have been the first to ripen, so they’re a little small, some had a few spots on them…..they just weren’t SUPER great slicing tomatoes. But what to do?! I’m certainly not going to waste them! And I had 3 jalepenos that had just come straight from the little garden out back. As I started digging around the house I realized I had a bag of diced bell peppers that I had stored back in March in the freezer. I also had garlic and spices. A quick trip to the store down the road for an onion and a lime could mean one thing……SALSA TIME!!!
Now, I am as guilty as the next person about buying canned salsa, and I’m here to tell you right now, YOU DON’T FRIGGIN NEED IT! It’s just as cheap, a million times healthier and 548168416525 times tastier to make your own! Especially if you have a garden, like moi. Even if you don’t, buying a couple of tomatoes, peppers and onions will cost you next to nothing and make a crap ton of delicious homemade salsa. Store it in freezer bags and you can enjoy it all year long!
Ok, so yeah, I don’t have an exact recipe really. The beauty of salsa is that you can make it exactly as you like it. Chunky or smooth. Spicy or sweet. Cilantro or no. (NO WAY for me. I HATE cilantro. yeachhhh!!!!) It’s your prerogative. For me, I used what was around the house. The amount of tomatoes I ended up having after removing the stems and bad spots came to around 2 1/2- 3 Cups. Because I had 2 different kinds of peppers, I only used about 1/2 cup of bell peppers and 2 whole jalepenos ( seeds and ribs included!) If you don’t like things too spicy, definitely only use 1 and remove the seeds (that’s where all the heat is.) Also I should mention that mine were small as they came from my garden, and the ones in stores tend to be larger. Try your best to buy organic or homegrown. The difference in quality is unquestioned. And I swear, knowing exactly what went into these beautiful veggies, digging the hole with my own two hands and being able to pick them a few months later to enjoy really takes taste to a whole other level. Anyway, back to the recipe.
So you’ve diced up your tomatoes and peppers. If you’re going to make a chunky salsa, make sure you dice your stuff up pretty uniform in size so one flavor doesn’t outweigh another. I used a food processor (God bless my Ninja) so I just chunked it up without thought. Next comes the onion. I used about a 1/4 of a large onion. Since the flavor is so strong I didn’t want it to over power, just compliment. Then the garlic. I used probably 2-3 good sized cloves. I frickin LOVE garlic. I could probably eat an entire bulb like an apple, so again, go with your own taste. Finally I added sea salt, ground black pepper, and since I didn’t have cumin on hand, I improvised with chili powder. Juice of 1 lime and I was ready to process! Remember, as tempting as it is going to be to eat your salsa immediately, it’s best if you let it marinade overnight. All the flavors mix together and it will taste completely different. So that’s that. If you like cilantro, throw that in. If you want something sweet and different, substitute mangoes or pineapple for the tomatoes. Add some corn and black beans if you want a heartier salsa.
I swear to God, I have made some pretty delicious things in my life, but this was by far one of the easiest and most delicious things to come out of my kitchen. So fresh–UGH!!
(**side note, I ate mine with some simple sea salted pita chips, but you can use whatever you like. I just didn’t want a strong salt flavor to take away from the beauty of the salsa.)
Another happy surprise I got tonight was finding a way to curb my craving for mashed potatoes! Here in the south we love LOVE our taters. Smashed, mashed, hashed, fried, baked or loaded…you name it, we’ll eat it. Unfortunately that is part of why the south has an obesity epidemic on it’s hands, but that’s a rant for another blog. So tonight I gave mashed cauliflower a whirl. SO glad I did! The consistency was perfect and after the right flavorings, you NEVER would have known it was simply steamed cauliflower. This is yet another recipe that can be tailored to your individual taste, or altered by what you have laying around the house. We’ll call mine “Garlic Ranch Parmesan Fauxtatoes!” I chopped up one head of cauliflower, removing the core and any remaining leaves, then tossed it in a large pot, covered it with water and turned it on the stovetop on high. I also threw in a few garlic cloves because, like I said earlier, I have a garlic fever and don’t wanna be cured. Also I’m a huge fan of garlic mashed potatoes, so I thought, what the hell. I threw a lid on the pot and let that sucker boil and steam on medium high for about 15 minutes, til it was really tender. Then I drained the water and threw all of it in my Ninja. (I told you I love that thing. Best $100 I’ve spent in my kitchen.) Sea salt, black pepper to taste, then I started adding light ranch greek yogurt dressing. This is where things get custom. I used Marzetti’s Simply Dressed & Light. I added probably 1/4 cup initially, pulsed and added more. All told, I used maybe 1/3 of the bottle??? I didn’t really pay attention. I just added until it was the right consistency and had the right amount of ranch flavor for me. OMG it was AMAZING! This is a recipe I intend to make several times a week. Did I happen to mention that 1 cup of cauliflower has 25 calories, compared to 1 cup of potatoes, which has 116?! That means I can have 3x as much….right?
Guys I hope you try these recipes and it inspires you to create some of your own. The best meals are made of simple, fresh, wholesome ingredients. Remember that and you can’t go wrong! post me some of your favorite healthy recipes and I would love to re-post them to share with others!!
Until next time, stay happy and southern and enjoy the little things!!
Appalachian Barbie 