Recipe Time: Roasted Red Salsa for the Win!

The latest recipe to share from the Glover Gardens kitchen is a simple and delicious roasted red salsa, AKA salsa roja asada in Spanish. My sister and I cooked it up just last night to serve as part of a diverse appetizer spread. That’s the salsa in the picture below in the top left of the spread, next to the red wine glass, served with blue corn chips.

Even with all those other delicious bites, our version of this traditional roasted salsa was a hit. It brought a vibrant array of flavors: roasting the main ingredients produced a rich, smoky depth, while fresh cilantro and lime juice brought a tangy brightness that was balanced by the earthiness of a little cumin. This salsa is perfect for dipping or as a topping, leaving a lingering, crave-worthy taste that’s both bold and refreshing.

Our diners made us promise that we’d share the recipe, pronto. So here it is!

Roasted Red Salsa

Makes ~3 cups, enough for 6-8 people as part of an appetizer spread

Ingredients

• 1 large Anaheim pepper
• 3 serrano peppers
• half a medium yellow or white onion, peeled and with root end cut off
• 3 large cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 lb. ripe, red tomatoes 
• ¼ tsp. cumin
• ¾ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. dried Mexican oregano
• 1½ tbsp. lime juice
• large handful of fresh cilantro (about ½ cup, packed), torn in half

Cooking Instructions 

Prepare the Anaheim and Serrano peppers grilling by removing the stems, slicing longways and removing the membrane and seeds. Slice the onion in half sideways so that you’ll have two large rings to grill. Using a small paring knife, core the tomatoes just to remove the hard section where the stem was. 

Preheat a cast iron griddle or skillet on high for a few minutes until it is really hot, preferably outside (the grilling will produce some smoke). Add the onion, peppers, tomatoes and garlic, in that order, with some space between them. Turn the garlic after a couple of minutes to char the other side, then remove it so that it doesn’t burn. Turn the other vegetables when they’ve gotten a nice char on the first side and continue to cook, turning the tomatoes at least one more time to sear on most of their surfaces. The whole process will take around 12-14 minutes. Remove the vegetables from the cast iron and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Combine the seared onion, peppers and garlic in a blender or food processor and pulse about 10-12 times until there are no large pieces but the chunks are larger than you want in the final product. Then add the cumin, salt, oregano, cilantro, lime juice and tomatoes. Be sure to include the juice from the tomatoes that will have pooled in the pan as they cooled. Pulse several more times until you have reached the consistency you like, which should still have some chunks and not be a smooth puree.

Test on a tortilla chip and add up to ¼ tsp. more salt and ½ tsp. more lime, if desired.

Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

Notes

• If you want a spicier salsa, leave the membrane and seeds in the Serrano peppers.
• You could substitute a poblano for the Anaheim pepper with very good results, or use two jalapeños.
• We think the cast iron approach is the best, but other ways to roast the vegetables include grilling directly on the grill (although you will lose some of the delicious tomato juice) or broiling in the oven.
• If you’re feeding a crowd or want leftovers, you’ll definitely need to double the recipe. 😎

The Backstory

My salsa-making partner and sister and I planned to try a variety of salsas this summer and document our recipes here in the blog for the fam, but here it is at the end of July and we’ve just gotten started. We’ll have to pick up the pace, or extend this fun into the fall, perhaps with canned tomatoes instead of fresh.

Noemi did some online research before we got started, but this recipe is our own, an amalgam of the things we learned from other recipes and the things we already knew from years and years of Southwest and Tex-Mex cooking. She doesn’t embrace super-spicy foods as much as I do, so we seeded the Serranos, but if I was doing it just for The Grill-Meister and me, I would have left in the seeds and membranes. However, it was a really, really good salsa exactly as we made it and I would serve it proudly to anyone, and savor that appreciate look on their faces when they take their first bites, just as we did last night.

Join Us in the Kitchen

More Salsas to Come!

There wasn’t much of the salsa left, but we had enough to have appetizers for two poolside, and it was even better than it was last night. We also enjoyed our Easy, Creamy, Tangy, YUM! Homemade Zippy Cajun Ranch Dressing and Dip with the blue corn chips. It was a lovely summer snack, all the more tasty and enjoyable because our dips were homemade with joyful hearts.

More salsa recipes are in our future, my friends! Let me know if you make this one.

© Glover Gardens, 2024