Roasted Hatch Green Chile Tomato Salsa

              Living in the South ie. North Texas has been a major adjustment for this Alaska grown girl...the heat, lack of trees, no mountains, water quality, fresh seafood is an arm and a leg if you can even find it .... my list could go on and on! That all being said though, the South is starting to grow on me... I love the friendliness of the people, the winters are much nicer than home and I love love the availability of fresh produce all the time!

In college I road tripped to New Mexico with some friends to visit their families and was introduced to Hatch green chiles. (I can't believe I lived so long without them now!) It was love at first bite...mmmmmm fresh roasted green chiles are seriously divine! I can't think of a way that I've had them that I haven't liked!

This past weekend one of the grocery stores in town had a "mini mini" hatch green chile fest...really they just had a big roaster that they were roasting green chiles in that were available for purchase and some samples of different items with green chiles in them inside the store. Regardless...they had FRESHLY roasted Hatch green chiles!! Yay!! I've roasted my own many a times and they are work!! To get them straight from the roaster is AWESOME!! You still have to clean them and chop them but to me that is not a problem!! Hubby and I bought a whole box...half hot and half mild as the last ones I bought were spicy spicy we figured if they were we could mix the two.

We cleaned them, seeded them & chopped them...into freezer bags they went (minus the ones we had for dinner in our steak tacos). I left two bags out of the freezer to use right away... one bag I turned into the below salsa recipe and the other I've been using in turkey burgers & eggs!! So many uses for green chiles...if you've never tried them give this and other green chile recipes a go! You won't be disappointed!!

Roasted Hatch Green Chile Tomato Salsa
8-10 Roasted, Cleaned and Diced Hatch Green Chiles (I used a mixture of hot & mild)

(or substitute 2 cans of diced green chiles)

28 oz diced tomatoes

2 tsp garlic powder

2-4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1/2 med. sized onion, diced

2 tsp salt (or to taste)

2 Tbsp lime juice

 

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and then using a blender/food processor/immersion blender blend to desired consistency.

*If possible make the day before you are wanting to serve it. Tastes fabulous right away but even better after the ingredients have had an opportunity to meld together!!