If you are asked to taste food with a blindfold, it can be embarrassing. People will confuse carrots and onion. Celery and hearty lettuce. Can you recognize parsnip with blindfold on? Not a chance.
But, there are some flavors that cannot be missed. Say, pumpkin. With that distinctive, I’ll say earthy, taste and hustle of flavor notes, pumpkin is formidably recognizable. Not just the “meat” that comes in pumpkin pie. Once you have tasted a pumpkin seed, those crashing flavor notes cannot be forgotten. Use pumpkin seeds in any recipe, and you’ll know.
Like this salsa. Unless you have summered in Mexico and gone along the byways, you’ve never tasted this. But one bite, and you’ll be seeing cactus and hankering for a margarita, heavy on the tequila.
“Salsa” means “sauce” and this salsa can be used in multiple ways. Chips, with that margarita or a deep beer? Of course! Yet, the potential is far more. Atop chicken or fish. Used to spike up a stew. As part of a salad dressing, or, as you see here, just sitting in that hole where the avocado pit once was nestled so tightly.
Suzen is an avocado advocate, enjoying them in salads, guacamole, over chicken, or just by themselves. Or, just as you see here, not by themselves but adorned with this salsa. The smooth avocado is a grand base for the spikey salsa flavor that these pumpkin seeds drive into your palate.
You can make this salsa by the batch load, refrigerate, and use at will. The good news: the flavor is exceptional. The better new: it’s actually heathy. Healthy and good? How can you resist.
Roasted Tomato and Pumpkin Seed Salsa
Yield: About 2 ½ cups
Ingredients:
- 3 or 4 tomatoes, for a total of about 1 ½ pounds
- 1 medium to large serrano chile
- ½-inch slice of white onion
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- ½ cup toasted and ground pumpkin seeds (pepitas) (from ⅔ cup raw hulled pumpkin seeds)
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Preparation:
Cook the vegetables. Put the tomatoes and chile on a baking sheet as close to your broiler as possible and broil until the tomatoes have softened and just begin to char, 10-15 minutes. Add the onion and garlic and continue cooking until the onion is a bit charred and the garlic is soft, 5-10 more minutes. Make sure the tomatoes are cooked through and quite soft. Remove the vegetables from the oven, put them in a food processor, add the salt, and process until the sauce is smooth.
Toast and grind the pumpkin seeds and finish the salsa. While the vegetables are broiling, heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat and toast the pumpkin seeds, stirring or shaking often, until most of them have popped (like popcorn, but not nearly as violently). Don’t let them scorch. Grind the toasted seeds to a powder in a spice or coffee grinder. Add ½ cup of ground seeds and the salt to the processor and pulse with the other ingredients until everything is well combined.
Source: Naturally Healthy Mexican Cooking by Jim Peyton
Photo Information: Canon T2i, EFS 60mm Macro Lens, F/4.5 for1/50th second at ISO 1000