Simple Salsa

Last night I came home and fixed a huge salad for supper.  I also boiled a pound of jalapeno peppers to make some salsa for dh.  He loves the stuff  and adds it to almost everything he eats.

 What I normally do is to add an onion and some garlic into the pan with the peppers, but this was one of those times I didn't. I let those green-hot beauties boil for about ten minutes and then cut off the heat and let them cool while I ate supper.

Afterwards, I destemmed them and plunked them into my Vita-mix canister.  And by the way, when I do use onion and garlic, I leave the garlic cloves whole and cut the onion in forths.  But as I said previously, I didn't add them in last night so I reached for the onion and garlic powder allowing them to pour like sand into the canister until I think I've added enough. 

Everyone's different when it comes to taste.  My dh is more of a plain and simple with some of his food and salsa's one of those foods.  If you wanted more flavor, you could add tomatillos, cilantro, oregano, cumin, etc., but for dh, onion and garlic makes him happy. 

I don't add salt like I use to, but the 28 oz  can of diced tomatoes I dumped on top of the peppers have 220 mg per 1/2 cup serving.  So that's not too bad for someone cutting down on salt.

I try to have only 300 mg of added sodium per day, but dh is not quite there yet.  So I've adjusted my eating habits somewhat to accomodate what he's able to handle and although he's cut down on his sodium intake quite a bit, he's not ready to follow Dr. Fuhrman's recommendation just yet. 

So at this point I turn the dial from low to high real quick and flip the power button off.  We like our salsa a little chunky, but if you want yours less chunky or completely smooth, you'll need to leave it on a little longer. 

Also, this salsa is really hot.  You may need to experiment with your ratio of peppers to tomatoes.  I have a friend who would make this and she added some tomato juice because it was just way too hot.  But that makes it more liquidy.  So it really depends on what you like.  You may want to try 1/4 of a pound of jalapenos to a 28 oz can of tomatoes.   Even that may be too hot for some. 

I use the home-made salsa every night when I roll up a flour tortilla with pinto beans in the center topped off with this fiery-hot stuff.  This is for dh's breakfast in the morning.  He's not quite ready for a green smoothie. 

I also peel and orange and drop it into a Ziploc bag and there are cans of low-sodium V-8 juice in the fridge and he takes one of those with him too.

Sometimes the jalapenos we get here don't have a lot of heat and maybe that's true for you too.  Dh is always disappointed when they end up mild so I  add some hot chili powder to give the salsa some heat.  If any of you try the salsa recipe, I'd like to hear how it goes.