Roasted Salsa

I had been away for over a week, and returned to some sad old produce and some other scary things in the fridge. I decided I'd better use up the tomatoes, chilies and limes as they certainly weren't getting any better. You can see that all my chilies are getting old and little wrinkly looking...

This salsa is a lot like the restaurant, Chevy's salsa, but mine is a bit hotter.  If you aren't too into the spicy, I would only add 2 jalapenos.  

It kind of looks like I burned everything to a crisp, but it does add to the flavor to the mix. After roasting,  I carefully cut the chilies from the stem, trying to leave behind as many of the seeds as possible. For the onion,  I cut it in half (unpeeled) and grilled the cut sides.  I did finish peeling the outside of the onion skin before blending it though.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups

Ingredients

1 large onion, preferably a sweet one like a Walla Walla

4 medium tomatoes

3-6 chilies, I used half jalapeno and 3 habenaros

4-5 garlic cloves

1 small bunch cilantro

3 limes
Salt, probably about 1 tsp, but to your taste

Roast the tomatoes, onion, garlic and chilies over a medium hot grill until they have a nice amount of char on them, about 5-7 minutes.  I used a skewer to easily grill the peppers and garlic, but you can do whatever you like.

I did finish peeling the outside of the onion skin before blending it though, so it's not as bad as this photo looks!

Roughly chop all the roasted veggies.  In the bottom of the blender, add the cilantro and lime juice and then top with the chopped roasted veggies.  Pulse the mixture until it is a chunky texture. Taste and add salt to your liking.

NOTE:  If your mixture is too hot, you could add some more unroasted tomatoes, just chop them thoroughly before adding to the blender, so that you don't over process the whole batch trying to mix them in.