Got Tomatoes? Fresh tomato salsa recipe

It’s that time of year – tomato season.  I’ve mentioned before that I love tomatoes, but inevitably every year I find myself with an abundance, wondering how I can use them up lest they go to waste.  If you find yourself with a similar conundrum, then you’ve come to the right place.

Not only is this recipe a solution for your tomato overload, it’s easy enough for a weeknight, extremely delicious, and pretty healthy too.  I like to make this salsa with some simple oven roasted tilapia.  It makes sense because the oven’s on for the salsa, so might as well cook the fish in there too.  But you could make the salsa just to eat with chips or other Mexican fare, you could freeze it, or you could can it if you’re into that sort of thing.

There is one jalapeno in the recipe, and the salsa comes out medium-ish.  Not overly spicy.  You could easily ramp up or scale back on the spice level by adjusting the amount of jalapeno you use.  The recipe below is written to make enough for about four servings, but you can halve it to make less or double it to make more.

This is so delicious, every time I’ve made it Tim comments on how fresh it tastes.  It’s just a winner every time.  Oven roasting the tomatoes really concentrates the flavor, and then the added flavor of the roasted onion and garlic, along with the cilantro…yum!  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Tilapia With Roasted Salsa

Adapted from The Neelys

• 4 tilapia filets
• 4 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2-3 teaspoons grill seasoning, such as Montreal Steak Seasoning
• 6 plum tomatoes or medium regular tomatoes, quartered
• 1/2 red onion, sliced into quarters
• 1 jalapeno, cut in half, ribs and seeds removed
• 7 cloves of garlic
• handful of fresh cilantro
• juice of 1/2 to 1 lime
• salt and pepper
• extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Place tomatoes, onions, jalapeno in a bowl, drizzle lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Very gently stir to coat.  Place on baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.

Place garlic cloves on a small square of foil, drizzle lightly with oil, and close up foil to form a small pouch.  Place on baking sheet.

Roast for about 25 minutes, until tomatoes and onions are tender and slightly charred.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, place the fish on a baking rack on top of a baking pan lined with aluminum foil.  Drizzle each side of the fish with lemon juice and sprinkle with grill seasoning.  Bake fish for 13-17 minutes, turning once, until opaque.  Cooking time will depend on the size of the fish filets, but just make sure the fish is no loner pink but doesn’t shrivel up.

After tomatoes, onions, jalapeno, and garlic are removed from the oven, place everything in a food processor along with cilantro and lime juice.  If you have used regular tomatoes (not plum tomatoes), pick them up off the pan with tongs to leave the watery juice behind.  Pulse in food processor until chunky.  This doesn’t take much – about 4-5 pulses should do it.  Taste for salt and pepper and season if necessary.

Serve salsa atop fish, or just with chips if you like.

Enjoy!