Smoked salsa features bold Southwestern flavors and a smoky flavor to highlight the sweetness of tomatoes. Even if you do not have experience making the luscious smoked salsa, the process is simple, rendering it excellent for snacking with crispy chips or anything you like. So how do you make a delicious smoked salsa?
To make smoked salsa, you need to start by preparing the veggies, placing the prepared veggies on the grill for smoking, and then blending the smoked veggies for a delicious smoked salsa. The process is simple, with no need for you spend a lot of time trying to make the salsa.
However, before you start the process, it is vital to ensure that you have all the necessary ingredients to make the entire process swift and flawless. The good thing about making smoked salsa is that you only need seven ingredients. Read on for more details.
The Ingredients
The ingredients for making smoked salsa are readily available; hence, you will not struggle to collect them. You will need jalapenos, tomatoes, onion, cilantro, garlic, salt, and lime juice.
How Do You Make Salsa Step By Step?
In addition to the above ingredients, you will also need a bowl that will enable you to combine the ingredients. Always remember that you can only get the best salsa if you use quality ingredients. Add the ingredients in the ratio you want to achieve the desired taste.
Chop And Combine The Ingredients
The next step is to chop and combine the ingredients in a sizable bowl. In other words, chop the onions, tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, and jalapenos, and toss them in a bowl. Add the lime juice. Abstain from adding salt to the mixture for now.
Mix The Chopped Ingredients
Stir the mixture to ensure that they combine well. However, you are not supposed to mush the mixture together, which is why you need to make sure that you mix gently.
Add Salt
After all the ingredients have combined well, it is time to add the salt. Here, you need to add the salt while mixing to taste. Adding the salt comes last because if you want to use the salsa primarily for eating chips, you may need to try it out before deciding on how much salt you need.
Enjoy
The last step is to enjoy your homemade salt as you deem it best. If you want to eat your salsa afterward, put it in the fridge.
Smoked Salsa Recipe
Smoked salsa is a perfect way of infusing smoky flavor into your salsa. Although the ingredients remain the same, smoked salsa is more flavorful as you have to introduce wood chips of your preferences. Making smoked salsa at home is simple, as you only need a handful of fresh ingredients.
How Do You Make Smoked Salsa?
The ingredients for making smoked salsa are onion, garlic cloves, jalapeno, tomatoes, lime juice, salt, and wood chips. Smoked salsa may take a bit of extra work compared to ordinary salsa. When making smoked salsa at home, follow these steps.
1. Prepare The Veggies
The first step is to prepare the veggies and ensure they are ready for the process. The preparation of veggies entails cutting the onions and tomatoes into sizable wedges that will not fall through the grill grates. Additionally, you need to remove the ribs and seeds from the jalapeno if you do not need a bold salsa. However, if you want extra heat and boldness in your salsa, you can leave them.
2. The Smoking
After you have prepared your veggies well, the next step is to smoke. Set your some at 224 degrees Fahrenheit and put the prepared veggies directly on the grill grates of the smoker. Smoke them for about 90 minutes.
3. Blend And Enjoy
The last step is to blend your smoked veggies. Add the smoked onion, tomatoes, jalapeno, and garlic into a food processor or a blender jar. Add the lime juice, cilantro, pulse, and salt until all the mixture is blended. Although you can leave your salsa a bit chunky, it is okay to blend it until it is very smooth.
You can immediately eat your smoked salsa if you like hot salsa or let it cool before consuming it. The smoked salsa tastes fantastic when you allow it to rest for about 24 hours, as resting allows for the mixing of flavors.
How To Can Smoked Salsa
After spending your precious time preparing your smoked salsa, you must store it well for future use. One of the best ways of storing smoked salsa is canning.
Canning is pretty straightforward as long as you have all the necessary equipment. Some essential ingredients to the successful canning process include a canning pot, a pint-sized canning jar, and a flat steamer rack.
To start the canning process, heat the jars in a pot of boiling water. This step is vital as it helps sterilize the can and ensure it is safe. The next step is to pour your hot salsa into clean hot pint canning jars and ensure that you leave a half-inch headspace. Get rid of air bubbles, wipe the rim, and cap each can as soon as it gets filled.
If the salsa comprises low acid food such as chilies, you may need to add enough acidity or pressure the cans to inhibit the growth of bacteria.
Vinegar Makes Salsa Safe To Can
The use of vinegar comes in handy to ensure that you can safely preserve your salsa without running the risk of it going bad. The idea is that if you have the right level of acidity, it makes the environment hostile to the growth of bacteria.
Adding vinegar as one of the ingredients in making salsa renders it safe for canning, especially when using a water bath canning method. While tomatoes have some acidity, there is not enough to make the salsa safe, which is why adding more vinegar will save the day.
Add some sugar to the mix to balance the flavor of vinegar in canned salsa. The sugar enhances the taste of salsa while preventing it from tasting too vinegary.
How Long Does Smoked Salsa Last?
If you do not want a situation where whenever you want to eat salsa, you start preparing it, then you may want to prepare a large volume of it and store it well. But the obvious question is how long does smoked salsa last?
The smoked salsa stored in an airtight container and well refrigerated can last 5-7 days in the fridge. Smoke is an essential component in the storage of salsa. However, if you want to further the shelf life of your smoked salsa, then you may want to consider freezing it.
An adequately stored salsa can last in the freezer for about two months and still maintain an incredible quality. Although the salsa can remain safe beyond the lifespan of 2 months, its quality may degrade a little bit.
How To Tell If Salsa Is Spoilt
Failing to store your salsa well will result in it getting spoiled. You do not want to consume spoiled salsa as it might have a catastrophic health impact. Therefore, it is prudent to distinguish between spoilt and fresh salsa.
The best way to tell whether salsa is bad is to smell and use the sight sense. If you spot molds in your salsa with a bad odor, those are clear indications that it has gone bad, and you should discard it as soon as possible.
Conclusion
Making smoked salsa is a simple process that you should enjoy. All you would need is the seven ingredients; jalapenos, tomatoes, onion, cilantro, garlic, salt, and lime juice, and a good smoker to complete the task. Remember that salsa is good in the fridge for less than seven days.
Scot has loved smoking food in his free time for the last few years. Each major holiday or off-weekend, Scot spends days testing and prepping new recipes for perfection.