The first peach salsa I ever had changed my life. It was 1993 (why do I remember that?) and it was a jarinone of those food gift baskets my mom had gotten from a friend at Christmas. I remember it like it was yesterday: sweet, spicy, a little smoky, and seriouslyaddictive. I scooped it up with blue corn tortilla chips and I was forever changed. Of all thesalsarecipesout there, this one is pretty darn close to the real thing.
What ingredients are in peach salsa?
Diced peaches, red onion, red bell pepper, andfresh jalapeño make up the base. Cilantro (leave it out if you're one of those peoplewho hates cilantro), chili powder, salt,and lime juice bring home the salsa flavor.
Does peach salsa use fresh or canned peaches?
Use real peaches if you prefer! But this is the way I like it, baby—with canned peaches. Using canned peaches means you can make it year-round, too!
Should you seed the jalapeños for peach salsa?
If you like a mild salsa, then feel free to remove all the seeds and membrane of the jalapeño—that's where most of the spice lies in a jalapeño! If you like a little kick like I do, keep some of the seeds. A little spice is delicious with the sweet peaches.
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- Yields:
- 6 serving(s)
- Prep Time:
- 15 mins
- Total Time:
- 15 mins
Ingredients
- 2
28-oz. cans peaches in syrup, drained, juice reserved
- 1
whole medium red onion, diced very fine
- 1
whole red bell pepper, seeded and diced very fine
- 1
whole jalapeño, seeded and minced (include some seeds for spice)
- 1/2
bunch cilantro, chopped
- 1/4 tsp.
chili powder (more to taste)
Dash of salt
Juice of 1 lime
Tortilla chips, to serve
Directions
- Step1Chop the peaches into small pieces and throw them into a bowl with all the other ingredients. Stir and add a splash of the reserved juice. Taste and add a little more salt and chili powder if you prefer.
- Step2Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. Serve with tortilla chips!
The first time I ever tried peach salsa was in 1993. Don’t ask me how I’m able to remember these things. Honestly, on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of daily forgetfulness, I would say I rank upwards of 8 or 9. It’s only because I now faithfully use a to-do app on my phone that I am able to function as a normal person, but my natural state is scatterbrained forgetfulness. I do, however, have this very strange area of my brain that hangs onto details in the distant past: Specific things I wore on dates with Marlboro Man, for instance. Every word of every episode of The Brady Bunch. And exactly when and where I ate certain things for the first time.
The peach salsa I ate in 1993 was part of a gift basket my mom had received from a friend for Christmas. It was stuffed with things like chocolates and vacuum-sealed smoked salmon, and there was a jar of peach salsa with a bag of blue corn chips. The salsa was heavenly and sweet and spicy, and it’s really a shame my mom never got to try it because I think I singlehandedly polished it off myself.
Here’s a version that’s close to the original, though you never really can completely recreate the first time you ever try something delicious, can you?
(But trying sure is fun!)
Lop off the top and bottom of a jalapeno and dice it up very fine. Include some seeds/membranes if you want some brow-sweating heat…leave them out if you’d like to keep things more mild.
Dice up some onion. I used red onion because the color is so beautimous with the orange peaches…but of course, you could just use yellow or white onions, too.
Red bell pepper! Seed and dice it up. I almost used jarred pimentos because I’m open-minded that way…but I had a red bell pepper, so I decided to take a walk on the wild side and live the life I was born to live.
True confession: When I have made this before, I’ve thrown the jalapeno, onion, and bell pepper into the food processor to get them really pulverized before adding them to the peaches, but GUESS WHAT? I think my food processor was struck by lightning during the storms on Saturday because when I tried to use it to make a graham cracker crust yesterday after church, it was unresponsive.
Dead.
Oh, the humanity!
Guess what?
I’m using canned peaches. Please don’t be mad at me. I have two very good reasons:
1. Peaches are not in season yet.
2. Even if peaches were in season, canned peaches are perfectly permissible when making peach salsa! They’re tender and sweet and make for a lovely consistency.
Amen.
Drain the peaches, reserving the juice, and grab a few at a time…
And cut them into small pieces.
Keep going until you have a pile!
Note: I have also made peach salsa where everything goes into the food processor (well, back in the old days when I had a food processor), but I wouldn’t recommend this method because the peaches are so soft and break up so easily, you lose the beauty of those sweet, juicy bites. I mean bits. I mean bites.
Throw the peaches in a bowl…
Then toss in the lovely trio of jalapeno, onion, and bell pepper.
Squeeze in some lime juice (it balances the sweet)…
Then, just for kicks (and for a kick), sprinkle in some chili powder! Not much—a little dab will do ya.
Or a sprinkle, in this case.
Cilantro makes everything perfect! Grab a handful and chop it up…
Then sprinkle it in…
And (this is totally optional) drizzle in a little bit of the reserved juice.
Stir it to combine, give it a taste…
And add a little salt if you think it needs it.
So lovely! Now, the salsa is actually better if you refrigerate it for a bit, so give your kids the bag of tortilla chips and tell them to keep them from you for at least two hours, no matter how hard you beg.
Actually, never mind. That would never work in my house. They’d take the chips and eat them all.
(Boys, I’m talking to you…)
This is so delicious. A sweet and delightful treat, and so delicious with tortilla chips of any kind.
It’s also a great topper for grilled chicken or fish.
It’s also yummy on a big, honkin’ quesadilla.
Grab the recipe from the sidebar, or follow the link below to the printable recipe on Tasty Kitchen. Enjoy!
