Chipotle & Roasted Corn Salsa

With all the heir­loom toma­toes we’ve received from our CSA recently, it’s been hard to keep up! Now, Megan is not a fan of raw toma­toes at all so we’ve worked hard to come up with inter­est­ing ways that we can both enjoy them. There have been lots of pasta and pizza sauces made, and even times when I’ve taken advan­tage of their won­der­ful raw qual­i­ties by myself. But this week I wanted salsa. For the full recipe and more pic­tures, keep reading.

I love good salsa, and often the hot­ter the bet­ter. Inspired by the smokey Diablo sauce at our favorite Mexican restau­rant I decided to try a chipo­tle salsa. Initially, there was too much tomato, so I decided to add more chipo­tles. Unfortunately, I added too much and the heat took over. I knew that the corn would help cool it down some, but I already had enough in there and I didn’t want the corn to take over.

I decided to try cucum­ber as a cool­ing agent, but just a lit­tle. To our sur­prise, this pulled back the heat on the front end just enough to where you can taste this won­der­ful salsa. But beware, it still packs a punch in the form of a lin­ger­ing after burn.

Chipotle & Roasted Corn Salsa

For Roasted Corn and Tomatoes:
4 large toma­toes 1
tbsp. extra vir­gin olive oil
1 ear of corn
1 tsp. but­ter
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

For Sautéed Onions:
1 tbsp. extra vir­gin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove of gar­lic, minced
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/3 cup chipo­tles in adobo sauce
3″ por­tion of cucum­ber, diced, seeds removed
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 clove of gar­lic, minced
juice of 1 lime
1/8 tsp. cumin

Preheat oven to 400º F. Cut toma­toes in half and place cut side up on a bak­ing dish and cover with 1 tbsp. olive oil. Rub but­ter over ear of corn. Sprinkle salt and pep­per over toma­toes and corn. place toma­toes in bak­ing dish in oven. Wrap corn in alu­minum foil and place directly on oven rack. Cook for 30 minutes.

Pour 1 tbsp. olive oil in a shal­low sauté pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook 2 min­utes. Add gar­lic, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp. pep­per and con­tinue cook­ing until the onions begin to turn translu­cent. remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Remove toma­toes and corn from oven and let cool 10 min­utes. Remove peels from toma­toes and dis­card. Remove corn ker­nels from cob and set half aside. Place peeled toma­toes (includ­ing juices from cook­ing), half the roasted corn ker­nels and all other ingre­di­ents in a food proces­sor and pulse until desired con­sis­tency. Remove to bowl and stir in remain­ing corn. Serve with tor­tilla chips or try it as a mari­nade before grilling chicken.

Of course you could always use salsa as part of a com­plete bal­anced break­fast like I did this morn­ing. I made a ched­dar omelette topped with this salsa and some deli­cious home fries. Perfect after a late night out with friends.

As always, if you make this please let me know in the comments!