{"id":27185,"date":"2026-08-19T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=27185"},"modified":"2026-07-29T13:11:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:11:32","slug":"cooking-with-salsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2026\/08\/19\/cooking-with-salsa\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking with Salsa!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_27187\" style=\"width: 204px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Salsa-photo-from-Magnific-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27187\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27187\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Salsa-photo-from-Magnific-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"193\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Salsa-photo-from-Magnific-1.png 194w, https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Salsa-photo-from-Magnific-1-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-27187\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">photo from Magnific<\/p><\/div>\n<p>By Chef Nancy Berkoff, EdD, RD<\/p>\n<p>Salsa adds sauciness to soups, salads, (veggie) smoothies, spaghetti, sandwiches\u2026 and even foods that don\u2019t begin with an \u201cs!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Salsa can elevate a meal several notches on the \u201czest\u201d scale or help make health eating extremely enjoyable. Salsa can be a lowfat, high flavor alternate to gravies and sauces. Not just an accessory for chips, salsa can be used as a condiment for\u00a0salads, soups, grilled entr\u00e9es, baked casseroles, and all types of vegetables and grains.<\/p>\n<p>Ripe, red tomatoes were the traditional base for salsas, but with ingenuity comes variety! Nowadays when we\u00a0think salsa,\u00a0mango, papaya, pineapple, oranges, summer squash, roasted vegetables, mushrooms, eggplant, peaches, and corn come to mind. The term \u201csalsa\u201d has come to mean just about any combination of chopped fruit or vegetables with hot or mild spicing.<\/p>\n<p>Although most salsa ingredients are generally uncooked, chilies can be roasted,\u00a0nuts and fruit can be toasted, and vegetables grilled for more flavor and a variety in texture. Roast a fresh chili or bell pepper by placing the pepper on a direct flame (right on the burner or under a broiler or on the grill) and allow to cook, turning, until the skin has blistered. If no direct flame is available, roast peppers on a baking sheet, in the oven, on high heat (400 degrees or higher). Place the roasted peppers in a plastic bag and allow to \u201crest\u201d for several minutes. Remove from bag and peel, discarding the peel and seeds, chop, and add to salsa. By the way, this technique can be used for smaller eggplants, such as Thai eggplant, as well.<\/p>\n<p>Here are just\u00a0some fresh fruits and vegetables that stand up very nicely to grilling on the barbecue, and then used as a salsa ingredient:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>plums<\/li>\n<li>peaches<\/li>\n<li>apricots<\/li>\n<li>grapes (threading them on a skewer makes it easy)<\/li>\n<li>mango<\/li>\n<li>pineapple<\/li>\n<li>zucchini or yellow squash<\/li>\n<li>bell peppers<\/li>\n<li>sweet onions<\/li>\n<li>corn<\/li>\n<li>tomatoes<\/li>\n<li>yucca<\/li>\n<li>plantains<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Take a salsa-building tour of the local grocery store or farmers\u2019 market. Chilies can be purchased fresh, canned, or dried, selecting them on the basis of the heat desired. Bell peppers are extremely mild. Anaheim chilies are fairly mild. Moving up the scale, jalape\u00f1os and serranos are hot and habanero (also called Scotch bonnets) and Thai chilies are very hot. Removing the seeds decreases some, but not all, of the heat. If using dried chilies, you\u2019ll want to soak them, in water or juice, prior to adding to the salsa mixing bowl.<\/p>\n<p>Salsas can be sweet or savory. Try sweet combinations, such as strawberries, vinegar, maple or agave syrup,\u00a0and black pepper or fresh peaches,\u00a0oranges, mango, chopped chili, chopped cilantro, and lime juice.<\/p>\n<p>To a basic blend of chopped onions and chopped chilies, add a combination of several ingredients such as cooked beans, sliced olives, parsley, cut corn, minced garlic, chopped bell peppers, chopped fresh\u00a0or grilled pineapple, fresh or frozen mango cubes, papaya, kiwi or banana, zucchini, crookneck squash or apples (for extra flavor, grill fruit or veggies, allow to cool and then chop), avocado, grapefruit or oranges, or berries.<\/p>\n<p>Salsas can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for up to two days in plastic or glass containers. Think sweet salsas for savory entr\u00e9es, such as grilled mushrooms or tofu and veggie skewers dishes and Think savory salsas for grilled summer vegetables, salad dressings, dips, and\u00a0as an addition for cold soups\u00a0or to dress a salad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Chef Nancy Berkoff, EdD, RD Salsa adds sauciness to soups, salads, (veggie) smoothies, spaghetti, sandwiches\u2026 and even foods that don\u2019t begin with an \u201cs!\u201d Salsa can elevate a meal several notches on the \u201czest\u201d scale or help make health eating extremely enjoyable. Salsa can be a lowfat, high flavor alternate to gravies and sauces. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27188,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27185\/revisions\/27188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}