Salsa sauce: various variations

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

There are many authentic and original dishes in Latin American cuisine. And so that these dishes not only delight with their beauty, but also give the eater an excellent taste, many works of culinary art are traditionally supplemented with sauces. They are very different. The main thing is that they are well combined with treats. And if you are a fan of burning and bright tastes, then salsa sauce will be the best option for you. It is prepared from vegetables, adding hot chili. How to cook homemade salsa sauce with your own hands, in the conditions of the kitchen - we will tell in our next article.

A bit of history with geography

Many believe that salsa is an incendiary Latin American dance. Of course, this is true, but not only. In the same way, it is customary to call hot sauce from Mexico (or rather, from Mesoamerica, because we inherited it from the local indigenous people, the Indians, and has all and very ancient “pre-Columbian” roots). It can be used as a culinary addition to a variety of dishes, both local and global. In Mexico, for example, where it has been made for a long time, salsa sauce is served with almost any product - fish,to meat, vegetables, it is even combined with eggs. And besides, it is easy to cook, and all the components can be easily purchased today in every supermarket.

Classic salsa sauce

It is also called "red" (salsa roja), as ripe tomatoes are used. To prepare it, we need the following ingredients: 5 medium-sized tomatoes, onion (it is better to take purple for taste and color), 5 cloves of garlic, hot pepper (chili) 5 pods (they are usually small in size), 2-3 tablespoons of lime juice (lemon), fresh herbs, s alt, ground black pepper. For people with a figure: the calorie content of salsa sauce is low - 59 kcal / 100 grams. In addition, all products are natural, and chili and garlic are natural aliments. So you can safely eat it in large quantities (as, in fact, many in Latin America do).

How to make salsa

1. The first step is to wash the tomatoes and remove the stalks. You also need to peel off the skin from the tomatoes. This works best if you pour boiling water over them. Cut the vegetables in half and clean out the seeds. And then chop the tomatoes into small pieces.
2. Remove the husk from the purple onion and chop it finely into cubes.
3. Peel the garlic cloves and chop them into slices or pass them through a garlic press.
4. Pods of hot chili peppers should be thoroughly washed, and then cut off the stalks from them. And we also remove the seeds to avoid excessive bitterness. Cut the chili into thin half rings or smaller pieces.
5. Start mixing the salsa. Put the vegetables in a bowl. Pour the mixture with lemon juice, you can drip and olive oil. Add s alt with spices.
6. Rinse the greens with water and chop them finely. We put it in a container with vegetables. Now it remains to mix the components well until a homogeneous structure (if you want, you can do this with a blender) and remove the sauce down the refrigerator, where it should be infused for about an hour.
7. After that, the already prepared seasoning can be used both for dressing various dishes, and for dipping bread products with and without filling into it, and as an independent dish. And freshly made salsa can be stored for no more than a week.

Green salsa verde

This authentic sauce uses tomatillos, small green tomatoes. We'll take half a kilo. And also: 5 cloves of garlic, 100 grams of hot pepper (also green), 100 grams of olives (pitted), 2 onions (you can take a bunch of green), lime, olive oil, cilantro, s alt. It should also be noted that in different regions under this name there are different recipes. So, in Italy, anchovies and capers are added to salsa verde. But in this recipe, for now, we will do without these - undoubtedly, no less tasty - ingredients.

How to cook

1. Green tomatoes thoroughly washed, dried, wiping with a kitchen towel (we do not need excess water).
2. Berries (yes, from a botanical point of view, tomato fruits are berries) cut into 2pieces, removing the seeds and cutting off the stalks.
3. We wash the hot green pepper and cut off the stem, removing its seeds.
4. Peel and cut the onion into several pieces.
5. Peel and chop the garlic cloves quite finely with a knife.
6. Greens (onion feathers with cilantro) rinse, dry. Chop.
7. Put all prepared ingredients in a blender bowl, add olives. Turn on the device and grind lightly. But try so that the mass does not acquire the consistency of sour cream, but is still with small pieces of components. If you don't have a blender in your kitchen, you can run the mixture through a meat grinder.
8. Then put all the resulting mass in a deep bowl and add the juice of half a lime, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. S alt, mix. We send down the refrigerator for a couple of hours - let it brew properly. The green salsa sauce is ready to use. It is usually served (or used to prepare) various dishes, including fish and meat, vegetables. Bon appetit everyone!