One way you could use up our tomatoes and Jersey sweet corn is in a fresh home-made batch of salsa! There are so many ways to make salsa the way you like it, our recipe we’ll be sharing is black bean and corn, but you can make this recipe any way you’d like by adding or removing the corn, beans, cilantro, and whatever else you might not like. If you do like all of those ingredients though, you’re in for a treat with this tasty dish.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

What You Need:

• 5 – 6 medium tomatoes (14 oz.)
• 1/2 – 1 can tomato paste (4 – 8 oz.)
• 1 chopped garlic clove
• 1 – 2 small white onions or 1 medium onion
• 1/4 cup chopped peppers of your choice
• 1 – 2 tbsp jalapenos
• 1/2 can black beans (4 oz, no liquid)
• 1/2 can corn (4 oz, no liquid)
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp fresh or dry cilantro
• Hot sauce
• Salt
• Pepper

Instructions

1. Start by slicing your tomatoes into quarters, or if using smaller tomatoes, slice into halves. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, and chopped garlic to a blender and blend in small pulses until well mixed. Depending on what consistency you want your salsa to be, you will need to adjust how you dice up your tomatoes and the amount of tomato paste used. We suggest you start with as little as 2 tbsp of tomato paste, and then mix the rest in later until you find the right amount of paste you want in your salsa. If you’re going for a chunkier salsa, set two tomatoes aside and dice them up to add in later so that all the tomatoes aren’t fully liquefied. When done, add the tomato and garlic puree to a bowl and set aside.
2. Next, dice up your jalapenos, onions, and whatever other peppers you choose. Depending how spicy you want it to be, and what kind of peppers you’re using, you can add more or less than 1/4 of a cup. If you want to, you can roast or saute your onions and peppers for the best flavor, but just chopping them up and throwing them in tastes fine too.
3. Add the peppers, corn, onions, and black beans to a pot and let them heat up. Make sure to stir often to ensure nothing burns to the bottom of your pans. Add butter to prevent burning if needed. When hot, add all the vegetables to your tomato and garlic mixture, along with any tomato chunks if you’re going for a chunkier salsa. If you want your salsa to be pastier/stickier, gradually add in more tomato paste until it starts to take on the consistency you want.
4. Add in the rest of the ingredients; lime juice, cilantro, hot sauce, salt, and pepper. You can also add other spices like cumin, cayenne pepper, basil, or whatever else you prefer. Stick it in the fridge for two hours and you’ve got cold, fresh homemade salsa!

Salsa is one of the best, versatile foods out there. There’s so many ways you can prepare it, and if you mess it up somehow, there are so many ways you can correct it just by adding in more ingredients to get it the way you like it. Goffle Brook Farm has a lot of great tomatoes in stock, perfectly ripe and ready for use in whatever kind of salsa you want to make. We’ve also got lots of sweet corn and sweet peppers great for making a nice, sweet salsa for those who can’t stand the heat! Check out what produce we still have on our vegetable page! We hope these tips help you out when preparing your own salsa, let us know what your favorite ingredients to include in your own salsa are!