How To Make Salsa From Georgia Grown Veggies

I love to cook, like really love it. Especially when it involves chopping, dicing, slicing and using any type of kitchen appliance lol. Which means I really love the growing seasons in south Georgia. With our temperate weather and fertile soil there are so many opportunities to indulge my need to use a knife that I can barely keep up! Little roadside stands pop up everywhere selling fresh, farm-to-table veggies and fruits which inspire my culinary appetites and set me to spending more and more time in the kitchen. Also having a local farmers market every Thursday helps too! And then the multitude of friends and family who are kind enough to garden for me and just let me reap the bounty!
Lately I have been on a salsa kick so I thought why not share the two recipes I have been playing around with & see what you think. Knowing that I just use what’s on hand and what I am given, these recipes are of course subject to your own variations & pantry inventory. I would say the fresher the better, please don’t use canned tomatoes! And all of my ingredients were locally sourced from several friends’ gardens and my own herbs (and a quick grocery store trip for the beans & chips!). Bon appetit!

 

 

 

 

Southwest Salsa
1 large onion (Vidalia preferred)
Tomatoes (as you can see I used Roma, Early Girl & Plum)*
Banana Peppers (4 large)
Bell Pepper (one large)
Limes (2 juiced)
Garlic (1 fresh clove)
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
Fresh Cilantro (to taste)
Silver Queen (1 ear steamed & removed from cob)
1 can of black beans (well washed and drained)
How to: I start out washing all of the veggies that are going into the salsa. I then rinse & drain the beans and set them aside with the corn after it has been taken from the cob. I grab the food processor (it’s almost as old as I am) and from there it’s pretty simple. I hand chop all of the veggies into bite size pieces and put them into the processor along with the cilantro that I have chopped from the stalks and the one clove of garlic chopped. I pour the lime juice in as well. I “pulse” everything in the food processor because I like my salsa with some chunks of veggies and then everything goes into a mixing bowl for the addition of the black beans, corn, salt & pepper. Again a personal preference is to serve salsa at room temperature, it seems to have more flavor that way.
*Tomato quantity and type is completely up to you. As mentioned I used what was given to me and in this instance I used about half of the pictured basket for one batch of salsa and the other half for a different type of salsa, recipe below.

 

 

 

 

Simple Salsa
1 large onion (Vidalia preferred)
Tomatoes (as you can see I used Roma, Early Girl & Plum)*
Banana Peppers (4 large)
Bell Pepper (one large)
Jalapeno (1 seeded)
Limes (2 juiced)
Garlic (2 fresh cloves)
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
Red Pepper (to taste)
Fresh Cilantro (to taste)
How to: I start out washing all of the veggies that are going into the salsa. I grab the food processor and from there it’s pretty simple. I hand chop all of the veggies into bite size pieces and put them into the processor along with the cilantro that I have chopped from the stalks and two cloves of garlic chopped. For the jalapeno, I will sometimes include some of the seeds for whatever level of spice I want to punch the salsa up to. I pour the lime juice in as well. I “pulse” everything in the food processor because I like my salsa with some chunks of veggies and then everything goes into a mixing bowl for the addition of the spices. Again a personal preference is to serve salsa at room temperature, it seems to have more flavor that way.

 

 

 

 

It would be my hope that these quick & easy recipes will #1 inspire you to venture out to the Hinesville Farmers Market held each Thursday in Bradwell Park in Hinesville and #2 to also stop at some of those roadside stands that are popping up all over! Explore Liberty County & come to love it as much as we do! Enjoy!

-Leah Poole, CEO of the Liberty County Chamber & CVB

The Right Blend Blog is written by three different authors employed by the Liberty County Chamber/CVB. As we are able, we rotate weeks and each write about our individual experiences, opinions and let our writing reflect our personalities and creativity. All content provided on The Right Blend blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.