Mango Avocado Salsa - What Tomatoes Are Meant For

It is still freezing cold out, so I need to think summery thoughts! I love winter and snow, but I have had enough this year!

One thing I have started to make a lot is homemade salsa. I'm not a big fan of tomatoes in general, so I was looking for something to do with all the tomatoes we were getting in our CSA. After looking at Megan's mango guacamole last summer I got inspired and made many variations of this recipe, finding it to be the perfect party and deck-time food!

The Ingredients

This recipe is really something that you can adapt in any number of ways. To begin, I sautéed some diced shallots and chopped tomatoes, cooking them down nicely. To add some much needed spice, I added at least a tablespoon of chili powder and two diced jalapeños. I didn't use all the seeds and ribs, but made sure some of them got in there.

Beginnings of salsa!

I loved Megan's use of mango in her recipe, so while the tomatoes were stewing down I mixed together chopped mango, red onion, cilantro and lime juice. If I had remembered avocado at the grocery store, I would have chopped that up and mixed it in with the rest!

Mango Mixture

Since I added so many tomatoes, it took awhile for the mixture to cook down.  I was going for a thicker salsa rather than a watery one, but its really up to you.

Salsa!

In all honesty I could have just served the cooked down tomato mixture and been perfectly fine! However, once it all cooled down I combined the stewed tomatoes with the mango mixture.

Salsa!

I served this batch shortly after making it, but we did manage to have a bit left over and the following day it was even better!

After figuring out how simple it was to make salsa I didn't buy much of the pre-made stuff the rest of the summer. Nick had been hesitant to get a tomato plant because of the number of tomatoes he would be forced to eat on his own, but after the first salsa batch we went out and bought a tomato plant immediately :) I can definitely see some more tomato plants (and salsa) in our future!

How ready are you for warmer weather?

Do you make your own salsa?