Five-Ingredient Summer Salsa

Every summer, I look forward to shopping at the local farmer’s markets. I love walking down the aisles of tents, admiring the colorful fruits and vegetables as my mouth starts watering. On a recent visit, I saw beautiful red tomatoes sitting just a few stands away from fresh corn. This sparked an idea to come up with a delicious summer salsa recipe. I purchased tomatoes, corn, and jalapeños from the local farmers and got back home to create a new recipe. With just a couple more ingredients, I came up with a super easy-to-make salsa recipe that goes great with tortilla chips, as a topping for grilled chicken, or even as an addition to spice up a salad.

This five-ingredient summer salsa is a great way to add color and nutrients to your meal. It is high in vitamins and minerals.

Why Shop Local?

I’m a big supporter of shopping for food locally when you can. Although it may take some extra time to find local businesses, the farmer’s market is a great place to visit where there are tons of local farmers you can buy from. A weekend visit to the farmer’s market on a sunny day can also be a fun activity for the family!

Yet shopping local isn’t only about fun. Here are some additional benefits for shopping locally:

Shopping local can be better for your health. When you buy local, you know you are getting fresh food. If you buy food that has traveled hundreds of miles and then waited in storage before being displayed at your local superstore, then it likely has lost some of its nutritional value.
Locally grown foods taste better. Again, the distance food travels impacts its quality. When food is harvested and sold within the same few days, it stays fresh, crisp, and very flavorful.
Buying local products helps support the local economy and farmers. When we buy from local merchants, we help them stay in business. This is important to keep our smaller communities thriving. I also like to think about how when I buy from a local farmer, I am giving back to them in return for the hard work and time they put into producing food that will nourish my body.

Practical Tips for Making This Summer Salsa Recipe

When I was testing this recipe, I came up with a few helpful tips that will make it easier for you to make this recipe yourself.

Corn

First of all, there are a few different options for the corn. You can trim the kernels right off a fresh cob. If you have leftover grilled or boiled corn from the night before, go ahead and use that for the same great taste. Finally, you can defrost frozen corn for this salsa. Frozen corn has the same nutritional benefits as fresh corn. However, frozen corn may not have quite the same texture as fresh corn, so take that into consideration.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes offer a lot of options too. If you like some extra juice in your salsa, you may want to use heirloom beefsteak tomatoes. If you want less juice, try to find something like a roma tomato. I used two medium-sized tomatoes to get 1 cup of diced tomatoes for the salsa.

Jalapeños

Dealing with jalapeños can be tricky. You may want to take precautions to avoid irritating your skin and eyes, especially if you are cooking with kids. You can pick up some plastic kitchen gloves at most grocery stores. Use plastic gloves when cutting the jalapeño to avoid that terrible feeling when you accidentally touch your face after working with a spicy pepper.

Adding Ingredients

Depending on where you are, you may be able to find all of these ingredients at your local farmer’s market! But if not, remember that you can always substitute other ingredients to use what is available to you. For example, replace the jalapeño with a red onion to maintain some of that level of spice. Or you can switch it up even more by adding a fresh fruit to the salsa, such as mango or peaches. You may be surprised by how delicious a sweet salsa can taste!