Summer should be spent outdoors with great food, friends and good times. This smoked tomato salsa recipe is a salute to all that is amazing about Summer – fresh ingredients, back yard parties, friends, family and a few cold ones. So, go grab some fresh ingredients and make yourself a batch of smoked tomato salsa!
Ingredients
Adjust your ingredients to make the portions you need. The quantities below will make enough for a large bowl full of salsa (10 – 12 cups worth)
- 20 ripe roma tomatoes
- 1 large white onion
- 1 large jalapeño pepper
- 6-8 cloves of garlic finely diced or 3 heaping table spoons of pre-minced garlic from a jar
- Handful of cilantro
- 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 teaspoons of lime zest
- Juice of 1/2 a lime
- 6-8 pinches of Kosher salt
- Fresh ground black pepper
- A few dashes of your favorite hot sauce (I like tobasco)
Method
Start with getting your Bradley Smoker heated and producing smoke. Use your favorite bisquette wood. For this recipe we used alder wood. Set your oven temperature to 200 F and your timer for 4 hours.
Start by slicing your tomatoes in half and deseeding them. Use 10 tomatoes for the smoker and set aside the other 10 to dice later. When the smoker is ready, add your rack of tomatoes and smoke for 4 hours or until they look dark and done. Check on them periodically and remove from the smoker when their colour is dark and skin peels off easily.
Alder Wood is a Good Choice for this Recipe
Take half the white onion and dice finely along with the garlic cloves. Heat a saucepan with the olive oil and, when hot, sweat the onions and garlic. When the onions and garlic are soft, turn off your heat and set aside.
Dice the remaining deseeded tomatoes, other half of the white onion, a hand full of cilantro and the deseeded jalapeño. Then, shave off a couple teaspoons of lime zest and dice very finely.
Grab a large bowl and add the freshly diced ingredients. Add the 6-8 pinches of kosher salt to taste. Don’t over salt, but don’t be afraid to bring out the flavour with the salt and pepper. Add a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce if you want to kick up the heat factor a little. Stir everything together until well blended. Set this bowl aside and let the flavours marinate together. Sneak in a chip if you must!
Try it With Your Favourite Chips
When your smoked tomatoes are ready, remove them from the smoker and let cool. I put mine in the fridge overnight. When cool, dice the tomatoes and add them to your bowl of fresh salsa. The skin of the smoked tomatoes might come off easily, but try to chop them with the tomatoes as they’ll add a rich dark color to your salsa.
Give the bowl a few last mixes and salt and pepper further to taste. Add a few cilantro leaves to the top for presentation and grab a bowl of chips. Happy smoking!
