You may have eaten salsa with tortilla chips and tacos. Have you ever asked yourself, though, just what is salsa? Salsa is the Spanish word for sauce, which makes sense considering that salsa is often used as a condiment. However, when you inquire, “what is salsa,” you are probably asking about one specific type of condiment put on Mexican food, a tomato based dip that can be either mild, moderate, or extreme in the extent of its spiciness.
To provide an answer to the question, “what is salsa,” it is necessary to realize that there are a number of different versions of salsa that are used in different ways. There is the plain old salsa dip of the sort brought by waitresses at Mexican restaurants. Then there is salsa cruda, an uncooked mix of chopped tomatoes, onions, jalapeno peppers, cilantro, and coriander leaf. As well, when asking “what is salsa,” one might be referring to pico de gallo salsa dips which are created with with a combination of raw tomatoes, lime juice, onions, chili peppers, and cilantro leaves.
There happen to be many main course recipes with salsa dip as one of the major ingredients. One of these southwestern salsa recipes is Lentil and Chunky Vegetable Chili. Its ingredients include 2 lbs of ground beef, 1 lb of dried lentils, 2 cans of whole chopped tomatoes, 2 peeled and coarsely chopped white onions, 4 peeled and sliced carrots, 2 diced stalks of celery, 2 slivered garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon of ground cumin, 3 tablespoons of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of sea salt, 6 cups of beef stock, a half a pound of shredded cheddar or jack cheese, 1 4th cup of canned green chili, a half a cup of full fat sour cream, olive oil to saute everything, and of course, a 16 oz. jar of salsa nutrition.
So what is salsa? Is it a mild condiment? A gourmet sauce? An ingredient in main course meals? Perhaps the best response to the question, “what is salsa,” is that salsa is a great tasting food. So go have some salsa today!