Happy Cinco de Mayo! Or maybe better said – “¡Feliz cinco de mayo!”. Of course, all self-respecting Texans are celebrating by eating some sort of Mexican food. And given that Cinco de Mayo this year serendipitously lands on Taco Tuesday, life is just that much better (in spite of COVID-induced self-quarantining).

What better thing to do while stuck at home on Cinco de Mayo than make my own smoky salsa. That’s exactly what I did. I think this recipe started in our family with my mom (I can no longer remember if she created it or if she got it from elsewhere), but one of my younger brothers is now a certified expert in making this salsa. So I went to him to get the recipe. Thankfully it turns out that it’s not very hard to make. And it is a fresh salsa. So no cooking required – which is my favorite part. 🙂 The simpler the better. I of course had to tweak the recipe a bit, because that’s just who I am. I am a huge fan of smoked jalapeños – better known as chipotle peppers – so I had to add them to this recipe. Shocker, right? 😛 Me, the smoked food addict, liking smoked peppers?

My total time spent making this recipe was about 20 minutes – honestly. The truth is, I spent a lot more time in the kitchen than that, but it was mostly just eating tortilla chips and the newly-made salsa. Here’s how I made it:

• 1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes (I grabbed HEB’s fire roasted version with garlic)
• 1/2 white onion
• 1/2-1 bunch of cilantro (I used about half the bunch)
• 1 jalapeño pepper
• 2 habañero peppers (this was my own addition to increase the heat and add some lingering burn)
• 1 small can chipotle in adobo (I used the La Costeña brand)
• 1/2-1 Tbsp salt (to taste)
• 1/2 Tbsp pepper
• 2-3 cloves of fresh garlic
• 1/2 Tbsp lemon or lime juice

I did some very minimal prep work, as follows:

• I cut up the white onions into smaller chunks just cuz
• I cut the tops off the jalapeño and removed some of the seeds. I Also cut the tops off the habañeros, but did not strip out any of their seeds.

All of these ingredients went into the blender. I blended them all up until it got to a consistency that seemed to be reasonable. I did a taste test to make sure it was ready – needed more salt, needed more jalapeño (I had extras), needed additional lemon juice, etc. It was just about perfect as is, so I didn’t need to tweak anything. The resulting salsa can fit easily into a quart canning jar. This stuff won’t last very long – so I am not too worried about the lack of cooking. It won’t be around long enough to go bad – that I guarantee.

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