I don’t know about you guys, but when I first heard of the concept of peach salsa, I was skeptical. Apparently, it was a real thing, and had been around for awhile, but in my two decades of life I hadn’t heard of it. Sweet, fruity salsa? How weird and counter-intuitive it seemed! However, as I found myself with a box of luscious, fragrant peaches sitting invitingly on my counter, it was time to try it.

My Dad was excited to try the finished product, and my brothers…well, my brothers are eating-machines, so they were excited too. If I didn’t care for the salsa, it would be used up one way or another. Turns out, I needn’t have worried! The taste of the peaches in the mixture wasn’t out of place at all, and they even added an exotic tang that made me think of white, sandy Mexican beaches and crystal clear, blue water.

When I set out the bowl and the chips, I had to fight off the other members of my family just so they would save a few tablespoons of it for me! Needless to say, it was a big hit. And it’s just so pretty!

Ingredients: 

2 1/2 to 3 cups of peeled and diced fresh peaches

1 whole medium red onion, diced very fine

1 whole red bell pepper, seeded and diced very fine

1 whole jalapeno, seeded and minced

A small or medium handful of fresh cilantro, chopped

1/4 teaspoon chili powder, more to taste

Dash of salt

Juice of one good sized lime

Directions:

Well, first things first, do all your dicing and mincing and chopping. A word of advice about the jalapeno: I am terrified of making anything too spicy, so I didn’t include ANY of the seeds. I now think I should have left a few in, just to add another dimension. Just know that if you don’t include seeds, it will be completely mild. If you put seeds in, the level of heat will be directly proportionate to how much you include.

Throw everything in a bowl together, and mix it all around! Be careful when you’re stirring the peaches; they are soft, and you don’t want to mush them. You want lovely bright little square pieces all mixed in the colorful salsa!

Taste it. You can add more lime juice, chili powder, or cilantro to suit you better, if you want to. And then break out the chips! There is a debate on whether it tastes better when it’s been refrigerated awhile, or immediately as soon as you’ve done mixing it, so best just taste it both times to be safe. ;) This stuff is great for a party or a gathering, easy to throw together, and really, really good.

Other Uses: A Post Script

IF for some unforeseeable reason, you think you can’t eat the entire bowl of fresh salsa all by yourself, and IF there’s not a line clamoring for the rest, (well, even if there is and you just don’t want to give it to them) there’s also something really fun and super yummy you can do with a little of your salsa. I whipped up a batch of homemade pie-crust; only took four ingredients and a few minutes. Made it into a square, cut it into sixteen smaller squares. I cut a block of cream cheese into sixteen cubes, places a cube in the middle of each pie-crust square, put a dollop of peach salsa on top of the cheese, and then folded up the corners of each square to meet each other at the top. I sealed the edges with a little water, and put them on a cookie sheet. They looked like little envelopes or decorative oriental pillows.  Pop them in the oven until the pie crust is golden and yummy looking, and then voila! A snack for movie-time that was almost completely gone before the film even went off. ;) I think the kids liked it even better than the salsa by itself! Definitely a restaurant-quality morsel.