Salsa Dishes from the Garden

By Rob Proctor And David Macke
Published on August 1, 1998
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This pot contains salsa fixings, including tomatoes, tomatillos, cilantro, chiles, and onions. We’ve also tucked in an Aztec sweet herb, whose leaves sweeten the iced tea that quenches the fire.
This pot contains salsa fixings, including tomatoes, tomatillos, cilantro, chiles, and onions. We’ve also tucked in an Aztec sweet herb, whose leaves sweeten the iced tea that quenches the fire.
2 / 3

Herbs and summery vegetables go easily from a salsa pot garden to a great pot of salsa.
Herbs and summery vegetables go easily from a salsa pot garden to a great pot of salsa.
3 / 3

This pot contains salsa fixings, including tomatoes, tomatillos, cilantro, chiles, and onions. We’ve also tucked in an Aztec sweet herb, whose leaves sweeten the iced tea that quenches the fire.
This pot contains salsa fixings, including tomatoes, tomatillos, cilantro, chiles, and onions. We’ve also tucked in an Aztec sweet herb, whose leaves sweeten the iced tea that quenches the fire.

Recipes

Basic Fresh Salsa
Gazpacho
Pico de Gallo

Mexican food is hot. People from all regions of the United States are wild about the south-of-the-border taste of tacos, tamales, enchiladas, ­burritos, chimichangas, and fajitas. Even Chihuahuas tout Mexican cuisine in television commercials.

We think every Mexican dish is better smothered in salsa–a sometimes mild, sometimes wild, endlessly variable mixture of tomatoes, chiles, onions, and herbs. The pleasures of fresh salsa (and gazpacho, picante sauce, pico de gallo, and all those other related concoctions) enliven our summer meals and add fire to our dinners even when frost first grips the autumn garden.

Store-bought salsa may serve well enough in winter, but no self-respecting cook will put up with salsa from New York City or anywhere else when fresh ingredients are on hand. These are available in many local markets these days, but growing your own can be easy and rewarding. You can cultivate whatever variety of chile pepper is most compatible with your own taste buds, from warm to five-alarm, as well as onions that suit your palate and color sense. And the tomatoes–well, there’s no substitute for a juicy, homegrown tomato.

The One-Pot Garden

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