Mexico · 35 min · Vegan · Sauce & seasoning · For beginners
Salsa de Chipotle
In German: Tomaten-Chipotle-Salsa · In English: Tomato-Chipotle Salsa
For 4 servings · US units
Oven-roasted tomatoes and smoky chipotles, blended smooth and as hot as you like
This salsa comes down to two things: tomatoes roasted in the oven until soft and sweet, and chipotles in adobo, which bring that deep, smoky heat. It's vegan, done in just over half an hour, and good any time of year. Best of all, you add the chipotles a little at a time, so you decide how much fire ends up in the jar.
Ingredients
- 4tomatoesstems removed
- 2stemmed and seeded, dose to desired heatSmoked, dried jalapeños packed in a dark, sweet-sour sauce of tomato, vinegar and spices, smoky and properly hot.Substitute: Dried chipotles, soaked and blended with a little tomato paste and a splash of vinegar, come closest; at a pinch, smoked paprika and a little cayenne with tomato paste give smoke and heat, but not the fleshy texture or the sweet-sour depth of the sauce.Read more
- 1onionroughly chopped
- 1 clovesgarlicpeeled
- saltto taste
- 1 tspoilfor briefly simmering the salsa (optional)
Method
- Prep the oven and tomatoesPreheat the oven to 390 °F (400 °F). Wash the tomatoes, cut out the stem ends and set them on a baking sheet.
- Roast the tomatoesRoast the tomatoes for about 20–25 minutes, until they're soft and the skins are blistered.
- Seed the chipotlesMeanwhile, stem the chipotles, slit them open lengthwise and scrape out the seeds and veins.
- Blend everything smoothPut the roasted tomatoes in a blender with the onion, the garlic and just a little of the chipotle to start, then blend until smooth.
- Dial in the heatTaste the salsa. If it's still too mild for you, add more chipotle and blend again until the heat is where you want it.
- Optional: simmer to thickenIf you like it a bit thicker, heat the vegetable oil in a saucepan, pour in the salsa (careful, it will spatter) and let it simmer for about 5 minutes, until it thickens slightly.
- Season with saltFinish by seasoning the salsa with salt.
- Serve and storeServe the salsa, and keep any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge.
Tips and variations
For a pourable chipotle hot sauce with no tomatoes at all, blend the chipotles very finely with sautéed onion and garlic, white wine vinegar, water, orange juice, Mexican oregano and cumin, plus a little sugar if you like; kept in the fridge, it lasts about a month. A quick no-cook version skips the roasted tomatoes, the oven and the blender altogether: ketchup takes the place of the tomatoes, and you simply stir it together with chipotle, a dash of Maggi seasoning and a splash of orange soda. You can also blend the tomatoes raw instead of roasting them, then cook the salsa down in oil with a tomato-chicken bouillon cube (which means it's no longer vegan); made that way, it's lovely with potato cakes.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
