Tomato Salsa

Tomato salsa is a normal part of many Mexican meals and snacks. It can be served with most meals in Mexico as an accompaniment in a similar way to guacamole, tortilla chips and habanero sauce.

You’ll need (provides a bowl for around 4-6 people as a dip or accompaniment to main meal):

• 5-6 medium tomatoes
• 1 small onion, or half a bigger one. Red onions are good to use, or a medium sized shallot
• 2 Tablespoons of fresh chopped coriander (fresh is so much better than dried so do try to get fresh).
• The juice of 1 lime
• 1 chilli, red or green
• Salt to flavour

Method

• Remove the skin from the tomatoes. To do this, cut a cross into the skin on the base of each tomato and place in a pan. Cover with boiling hot water and leave for 3-5 minutes. Remove from the hot water and put them in a bowl of cold water (use of a holey or slotted spoon if helpful). Leave them in the cold water for a minute or so and the drain the water off. The skins should then slip off with-out much effort on your part. Throw the skin away.
• Slice the tomatoes and remove and discard the seeds. Chop the remaining tomato flesh into cubes approximately ½ - 1 cm in size. Put these in a bowl while you do the rest.
• Finely dice the onion and mix into the tomatoes.
• Deseed the chilli and chop them finely.
• Chop the coriander and mix this, the lime juice and the chillies into the tomatoes and onions.
• Sprinkle with a small bit of salt.

Variations

• Try adding a chopped red pepper to give a different (pepper-ish) flavour. For a smoked pepper flavour, grill the peppers until the skin turns black, remove the skin then chop the peppers and add them to the salsa.
• You could also mix in a small crushed garlic clove, but ensure it’s thoroughly mixed in.
• You could add a few other ingredients like chopped olives, a splash of extra virgin olive oil, some chives, some parsley or ground black pepper.