Recipe: Roasted Tomato Salsa

I can count on one hand the number of times I've actually taken the time to make homemade salsa. But it's so easy that I'm not sure what my problem is! Homemade salsa tastes SO MUCH BETTER since the ingredients are more fresh and flavorful. And you don't need preservatives to make the stuff last for months on a shelf like it does at the grocery store.

I recently made this Roasted Tomato Salsa using only 7 ingredients! And then I served it atop some amazing Seitan Chorizo Tacos with avocado, cherry tomato, lettuce, onion, cilantro, and hot sauce.

The idea was inspired by my friends over on the No Meat Athlete Pulse Community Facebook page. That's a closed group for members of the No Meat Athlete Tribe/Academy, and I've recently become more active there. Love that group! Anyway, I posted this picture of last week's CSA haul in the group, asking for suggestions on what I should make. Someone suggested salsa roja! I'd never had that, but I googled it and was inspired by a number of roasted salsa recipes that I found.

Just in case you're wondering, the okra made it into a gumbo and the watermelon just made it into my belly with a little sprinkle of sea salt. ;-)

Anyway, here's my super-simple recipe for Roasted Tomato Salsa!

Roasted Tomato Salsa

Yields one 16-oz jar

10 roma tomatoes

1-2 sweet green peppers, depending on size, stemmed and seeded (one bell pepper would be fine, but the ones in my CSA were smaller sweet peppers)

1 jalaepeno, stemmed (seeding is optional depending on your heat preference)

1/2 sweet onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup cilantro

1/2 tsp sea salt (or more to taste)

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees.

Place the romas and peppers on a parchment-lined baking sheet. No need to chop them. You can roast them whole. Roast for 20-30 minutes or until tomatoes begin to wilt.

Place the roasted veggies, onion, garlic, cilantro, and salt in a food processor and process until desired texture is reached. I like mine a little chunky!