With unbelievable weather in Seattle the past weekend, we started the BBQ season early and made Carne Asada with some homemade Guacamole and Salsa. I hadn’t realized until now that I had never made Guacamole or Salsa from scratch and since I had a couple sous chefs onsite – Thank you Cara and Christy – I thought its about time to do the taste test if homemade guac and salsa is worth the additional work compared to store bought. And the results are in!

Absolutely worthy to make guac and salsa from scratch! As usual making your food from scratch does taste better and for sure is healthier and in my case I got to enjoy both dishes without cilantro, almost impossible for store bought guac and salsa. I used canned tomato’s which gives the salsa a more saucy consistency, if you use fresh tomatoes you will end up with a more “Pico de Gallo” style salsa. But with summer usually comes an abundance of fresh tomato’s and I will try this recipe with fresh tomatoes and will just simmer all the ingredients on low for 30 minutes so that a) I get the saucy texture that I prefer over Pico de Gallo and b) can preserve my salsa through canning (and for that you usually have to heat up your ingredients to kill any bacteria).

And since a good blog should always have some sort of tasty beverage and kitten photo..here some entertainment photos – seriously who wins a price for taking the best guacamole picture….and to be honest, by the time I grabbed my camera my sous chefs already dug into the homemade goodies and I really had to hurry to take photos of full food bowls, so no time for creative guacamole or salsa pictures. Ingredients: Salsa:

• 2 14 ounce cans fire-roasted canned tomatoes puréed
• ½ cup roasted red pepper (jarred), packed
• 1 4-ounce can green chiles (these are not spicy, just add great flavor)
• ½ small red onion, roughly chopped
• ½ cup fresh cilantro (leaves and stems), packed
• 6 medium green (spring) onions, cut in two inch pieces
• 3 medium cloves garlic, peeled
• 1-2 small jalapeño, seeded (if you like a spicier flavor, leaves the seeds in)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Guacamole:

• 4 ripe Avocados, seeded, diced and scooped from peel (about 26 oz before peeled and cored)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp finely chopped red onion
• 1 large Roma tomato, seeds and pulp removed then diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp chopped cilantro 1 – 3 pinches cayenne pepper, optional
• 1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped into very small pieces
•  Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. For the salsa, chop all ingredients into medium size pieces and combine in a food processor. Season with salt and cumin and add the lime juice. Only pulse a few times if you like a more chunky salsa and more pulsing for a liquid consistency.
2. For the guacamole, scoop the avocado meat into a bowl and chop all other ingredients into very small pieces. Add salt and pepper and mix everything together. Tip: Keep the Avocado core and set it into the ready guacamole, it prevents the guacamole from browing.

Guten Appetit!