Homemade Raw Salsa GF DF recipe

I feel like my recent love affair with Korean food has created the perception that it’s my favorite food. It’s not. It’s my favorite new food.  

My all time favorite food is burritos. I absolutely love them. Despite the fact that I am 1/4 Mexican (my Gramese moved to the US from Mexico when she was young and her mom, my Little Granny, could only say 2 sentences in English “you eat” and “love you”), my love affair with burritos did not really start until I was pregnant with Addy, over 13 years ago. We were living with my ILs and they introduced me to 2 things that changed my life — avocados and grilled burritos. 

My love for burritos has ebbed and flowed since then. Sometimes I eat them once a week and sometimes I eat them 3 times a day, like I did when I was pregnant with Maggie. She loved burritos just like Addy and me. I love breakfast burritos with scrambled eggs and spinach, bean burritos and beef or turkey burritos for lunch or dinner. Strangely, I don’t like my breakfast burritos grilled and I don’t like bean, beef or turkey burritos ungrilled. Sometimes I put Greek yogurt and avocado slices on top of my burritos and cut them up and eat with a fork and sometimes I just grill them and pick them up. Four things I like in all my burritos, though, are avocado slices, Greek yogurt, cheese and my salsa. 

I’ve been making my own salsa for a while now. My Gramese used to make her own salsa and it was so good but then she started having trouble when she ate it so she doesn’t make it as much now. She cooks hers and cans it. I don’t remember how she makes it, I always mean to ask and then I forget. 

I have a theory that my kids each stole a piece of my brain that they never returned and that’s why I forget things. 

I make my salsa one batch at a time. I do not cook it or can it yet. I keep meaning to buy a bunch of tomatoes during peak tomato season and can some tomatoes and some salsa but I think I’ve passed that point of tomato season this year. Maybe next year. 

Here is how I make my salsa. It’s super easy and lasts my husband and I a couple weeks. It’s too hot for the kiddos. 

Christina’s Burn You Up Salsa

Ingredients:

• 6 Roma tomatoes or 3 hot house tomatoes or 4-5 on the vine tomatoes depending on size. I just get whichever ones look and smell better. 
• 1 onion
• 5-6 cloves garlic 
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar with the mother 
• 8-9 peppers (I use a variety of hot peppers including Carolina reapers that my husband’s coworker, Marty, blessed us with when he had a good crop last year. We deep froze them and we are still eating our way through them) if you don’t like super hot, you can use jalapeños instead of California reapers and you can use less than 8-9 and you can remove the seeds from them to make them even less hot. 
• 1 bunch cilantro

Directions:

1. Cut tomatoes in quarters or eighths depending on size. Blend in blender on chop or low setting. 
2. Add onion cut in quarters or eighths and blend on chop or low setting. 
3. Add garlic, peppers (I just chop off the stem and throw the rest in), salt, and ACV, blend again on chop or low. 
4. Remove cilantro leaves from stems, toss leaves in blender and blend one last time. 
5. Enjoy and repeat. 

Note this makes about a quart of salsa and should be kept refrigerated.