February 27, 2014 by Laurie McNamara

Roasted Tomato Salsa + Baked Tortilla Chips

Name: Roasted Tomato Salsa + Homemade Baked Tortillas
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 1 h 25 min
Ingredients: 10 Roma Tomatoes, cored and halved; 1 small Red Onion, trimmed and quartered; 1/2 small White Onion, roughly chopped; 6 cloves Garlic, divided; 1/2 a Jalapeno; 2 tablespoons Olive Oil; 1/4 cup of Fresh Cilantro, more or less to taste; 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin; 3/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt; 1/2 teaspoon Sugar; Olive Oil Spray {I use my mister}; Kosher Salt; Cotija Cheese {optional}

In this roasted tomato salsa, charred vegetables are blended to make for an excellent salsa! Try making your own tortilla chips from scratch! Delicious!

Snacks are probably my favorite meal of the day. Even though I say that about every meal… I really mean it about snacks. Cheese and crackers, apples and peanut butter and chips and salsa. Amen.

My girls get home from school about an hour apart from each other but they both ask the same question when they walk in the door. Did you make anything today? Those little buggers are always hoping I made cookies or something chocolaty. Really I can’t blame them. I remember as a kid waking up on the weekend, running down the stairs and wishing for doughnuts to be on the table.

So although chips and salsa isn’t quite equal to a plate of cookies. They were just as excited, until they realized I had to finish taking pictures. They hovered like vultures waiting for me to say ‘okay, go for it’ and then they swooped in.

I was at Costco over the weekend and found a beautiful container of Roma tomatoes and instantaneously I knew I was going to make a roasted tomato salsa. This was a spur of the moment recipe and I kinda flew into this blind. I didn’t want evvvverything to get roasted because I worried it would taste too cooked, ya know?

But these beauts are getting roasted.

I dug through my mess of a kitchen utensil drawer and found my melon-baller.

After I dusted it off, I cored out the tomatoes and cut them in half.

Trim off the top and root end of the red onion and cut into to quarters.

I decided to keep three cloves raw and roast 3 cloves with the tomatoes. Again, just wanted some freshy-freshness going on in this salsa.

To me, perfect spice is half a jalapeno. I also remove the seeds. But go on use the whole thing, use a habenero… whatevs!

Onto an aluminum sheet pan, lay the tomato halves and jalapeno skin-side-up, throw on half of the garlic cloves and all of the red onion quarters. Drizzle ALL of it with olive oil and slip the tray into your oven that has the broiler on. Crack the door and keep an eye on it. Once the skin starts to crinkle up and blister and char, you’re good to go. It should take 5-8 minutes.

Remove the blistered veggies and let them cool a smidgen before handling.

Once the garlic has cooled, carefully remove the clove from their papery jacket.

Into a food processor add; 1/2 of a white onion {fresh}, 3 fresh {peeled} garlic cloves, the roasted garlic, the jalapeno… and yes with the skin on.

Secure that processor lid and pulse a few times.

Then throw in the charred tomatoes… skin on. That char will add some major flavor.

Pulse a few times, scrape down the sides of the processor bowl…

Toss in the fresh cilantro. Now I lurve cilantro so I added a big fist of it… or two. 🙂

Then pulse again just to get the cilantro mixed in.

Transfer to a bowl and measure in a teaspoon of cumin. I used toast cumin that I *ahem* grounded myself. 😉

Next add a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt.

Lastly squeeze in the lime.

Finally cover and refrigerate the roasted tomato salsa for 2 hours to overnight for the flavors to meld and for it to get salsafied.

What? it’s a word.

If you’re down with making your own chips… I’ve included the recipe in the printable. Baking your own chips isn’t perfect every time, but even the chewy-er ones are delicious. Promise.

So get your snack on!

Enjoy!

My cookbook Simply Scratch : 120 Wholesome Homemade Recipes Made Easy is now available! CLICK HERE for details and THANK YOU in advance!

Roasted Tomato Salsa + Homemade Baked Tortillas

Charred vegetables make for an excellent salsa!

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes

Additional Time 1 hour 2 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes

Ingredients