Chunky Salsa

Nowadays it seems every eatery has salsa on the menu in one form or another. However, I haven't come across one that is close to the salsa recipe I've used. It might be because mine is home made and it's very chunky, just the way I like it. I got the recipe during my brief stay in Arizona when I first moved to the States. After moving to Georgia, I took it to my workplace Thanksgiving potluck feast one year. I know I know, it was not a traditional Thanksgiving dish, but at the time I was new to the whole Thanksgiving theme and I hadn't cooked much western dishes, so I figured it would add a new zest to the feast; plus I didn't have to worry about someone else bringing another salsa dish. The salsa surprised everybody, pleasantly of course, not only because people liked it a lot, but also because it was from me, an Asian chick who brought such a non-Asian dish. As a result, the recipe was emailed to many at request.

Here is the original recipe I made my famous salsa from:

2 14.5oz cans of diced tomatoes (or equal quantity of fresh diced/mashed tomatoes)
2 small cans of diced green chilies
1 mid-large onion, diced
6 stalks of green onions, diced
6-8 stalks of cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Garlic salt to taste
Ground lemon pepper/pepper to taste
Jalapeno pepper (optional)

Mix all the ingredients well together and it's ready to serve.

I've always used much less onion (not a fan of raw onion), more cilantro (love cilantro) and left out the jalapeno. I was also careful with the garlic salt since it had more salt than garlic taste. It was not super spicy, but has enough to wake up your taste buds to dance a bit.

As good as it was, strangely enough, I haven't made it at home much. The culprit was probably my laziness. For a while, we kept buying it from a local restaurant that had a booth at the farmer's market in town. Years went by, one day dear hubby was having a hard time to think of a dish to take to Thanksgiving potluck feast at work. So I offered my salsa recipe but suggested he should put it together to make it his own. He did it with a few tweaks. The dish was consumed and it was a hit. Everyone was asking him for the recipe. He was quite pleased and proud as he should be. From then on, he became our family salsa man. He has made salsa regularly for two of us to enjoy while we are watching movies or anime at night. Here is the updated recipe (hubby halved it as our own movie snack).

2 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes with zesty mild green chilies
1 medium-sized onion, diced
6 stalks of green onions, diced
10 stalks of cilantro (leafy parts), chopped
2 medium-small fresh jalapeno peppers, diced
Add the following to taste:
Sea salt
Garlic powder
Black pepper
Vege-Sal
Lemon juice

Vege-Sal package looks like this. It can be found at health food stores.

Mix the ingredients well together. Voila! Hubby often uses less onion to accommodate my taste. The two recipes each hold their own. Depending on your personal preference, one might taste better than the other, but I like them both. Perhaps, I like the new one just a tad more, because hubby makes it and you don't have as many cans to open. If you want you can try both versions, and/or make your own adjustment to get the best taste to your liking.

This is about half of the recipe amount as our movie-time snack.

Oh, by the way, for the chips to go with the salsa, we usually get Tostitos Natural Blue Corn Tortilla Chips. Yum!