Roasted Garlic Blender Salsa
My most popular recipe for Easy Blender Salsa gets a tiny (but awesome) makeover with a whole head of roasted garlic. Because let’s be real, roasted garlic is the bomb and is a great addition to just about anything. This Roasted Garlic Blender Salsa is no exception.
It’s what we like to call mud season right now as all the ski mountains are closed for the winter season and it’s still too muddy to start hiking or biking either. I’m always at a loss this time of year wondering what to do with my free time. I almost planted my garden yesterday but held off because it was snowing. Obviously a good idea as I’m pretty sure my seeds don’t like the uber cold. It’s been raining and snowing here the past week and with no mountain to go to and not wanting to deal with super muddy floors, I’m forced to get things done on the inside. Or at least think about it. After a winter of hibernation, my house is screaming at me to be purged, cleaned and organized. But doesn’t my house know that organizing and cleaning is so not my forte. Sheesh.
I don’t do well when I’m cooped up inside. I have a million and one things that I could be doing in my house to either get organized or clean out but I just can’t bring myself to do it. It’s so not my idea of fun. I can’t be alone in this can I? I just spent the weekend at a blogging conference for crafters and DIY’ers and I’m pretty sure they’d get my house into shape in no time. Color coordinated and Pinterest worthy to boot. If any of you actually like cleaning and organizing closets, call me. We can be besties and I’ll make you cookies and tell you how pretty you are in return.
No joke, I’ve been weeding through 2 plus years of food magazines with the intention of pulling out all the recipes I want to try and organizing them in some sort of system according to the season. I have a basket full of torn out magazine recipes by my bed staring me in the face just begging to be organized. But true to my tendencies, I can’t bring myself to start. Perhaps if I had some cute folders or a fun, crafty way of sorting them I’d be more inspired. But since I can barely spell craft, let alone plan something that looks awesome, the recipes sit. My mudroom looks like something out of a horror movie and is still full of all our winter gear. Once again, I can’t bring myself to put all the winter stuff away and pull out our spring and summer toys. The pantry needs a deep clean and the closet in my guest room, where all things that don’t have a proper home, come to die is in desperate need of a major purge. But guess what I’ve done about it? NOTHING.
So many projects, more than enough time and no inspiration.
Put that on a craft board.
Whenever I feel out of sorts (or bored) and I can’t go outside, I go to the kitchen. There is no lack of inspiration or motivation when it comes to creating recipes. So instead of planting a garden, organizing magazine clippings, cleaning my pantry or organizing the mudroom and closet, I made salsa.
Makes perfect sense in my mind.
And you should be thanking me because now I’m giving you a valid excuse to ignore your dirty pantry and unorganized closet too. Salsa trumps organizing any day of the week. And it’s edible which is the ultimate in gratification. So get after it. Make salsa and join me in slackerville where mudrooms are a disaster but the food is good.
PrintRoasted Garlic Blender Salsa
Ingredients
- 1 whole head garlic
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1– 14 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1– 10 oz can orginal Rotel
- 1/2 small onion, roughly chopped
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 jalapeno, seeded
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- medium size handful of cilantro, washed
- juice of 1 lime
Instructions
- Preheat the oven or a toaster oven to 400F degrees. Place the whole head of garlic (the top 1/4 inch cut off) in a piece of tinfoil that is large enough to wrap and cover the garlic. Drizzle the olive oil over the garlic and wrap the foil around the garlic to secure a nice pouch. Roast the garlic in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes until soft and fragrant.
- When the garlic is cooled enough to handle, squeeze the garlic cloves out of the paper.
- Put the diced tomatoes, Rotel, onion, carrot, jalapeño and all the roasted garlic into the base of a food processor. Pulse 8-10 times until the the salsa is evenly blended. Add the honey, salt, cumin, cilantro and lime juice. Pulse 5-6 times just until the cilantro is mixed through and the salsa is desired consistency. Taste for seasoning and adjust to taste. Serve with chips or over tacos.
22 Comments
Sounds like a winner. Thank you. Have a Great Day and Week!
Not only do I love salsa but my little man LOVES salsa. Like, eats it with a spoon. Want this!
Thought I was reading about myself in this post lol, must be your east coast twin! Love your blog and can’t wait till friday night to try this salsa for happy hour.
Oh man do I ever have the same problem with torn out recipes…complete unorganized disaster! And thank you for the lil shoot out 🙂 Never go wrong with margarita’s!
And roasted garlic anyytthingggg has my name all over it. This is going to my next salsa whip up for sure!!
So I totally thought I was commenting on your The Goods post that you mentioned this salsa….so I ended up combining two comments…whoa too early!
Blender salsas. Where have they been my whole life? Chopping is fine and I’m pretty good with a knife. Of course chunky salsas are delicious, but lately I’ve been enamored of the simple whirled version. GREG
Thank you for the distraction- roasted garlic sounds like a delicious addition. I love the original recipe for spring before our tomatoes are available. I to am avoiding an over stuffed closet full of things I thought I might need later, in a room that we are turning into a nursery- I think I still have a few more weeks to work on it.
I will give a guess that you were born in April or maybe late March
I have frends with the same nature . love your thinking oh and your salsa too!
Close…mid March!
I love garlic! I put garlic almost in every dish. Thanks for this amazing recipe! Regards! Brondesbury Carpet Cleaners Ltd.
Hi, I just made this and it is wonderful! I absolutely love it! So much more bang for your buck! I was wondering though, how long will it keep in the fridge?
It should keep for about a week!
This sounds quick and easy, can’t wait to make it. One question: How much is a handful of cilantro? 2-3 tablespoons?
2-3 tablespoons sounds about right!
I wanted to check up and allow you to know how , very much I cherished discovering your blog today.
I would consider it a great honor to do things at my office and be
able to make use of the tips contributed on your
web page and also be a part of visitors’ opinions like this.
Should a position regarding guest author become offered at your end, remember to let me know.
I just made this with garden tomatoes and extra cilantro and have to say this is a brilliant combination!
Awesome!! Thank you and enjoy!!
Superb! And so easy!
Please excuse my ignorant question, but can you tell me what you mean by Rotel? Is it just a brand name? If it is, what’s in it?
It is name brand for a mix of tomatoes, onions and green chilis.
i haven’t tried this yet but it looks delicious.
my wife says she saw someone prepare salsa with roasted garlic without removing the “paper”. the cloves of the garlic i’ve been getting at the produce market are so small that it’s just too time-consuming and tedious to remove the covering. what do you think about making salsa with roasted garlic including the “paper”?
now i have to go look up what Rotel is.
Rotel is a blend of canned tomatoes and chilis. Roast the garlic in the paper and then remove the cloves to use in the salsa.