Recipes › Chilli Pepper (Hot) › Roasted Chilli Salsa Roja
Roasted Chilli Salsa Roja
A deeply flavoured Mexican-style table salsa where the chillies are genuinely in charge. Tomatoes and tomatillos provide acidity and body, but it is the fire-blistered chillies — roasted until their skins blacken and their flesh turns jammy — that define the whole thing. This is not a pourable sauce but a thick, smoky, spoonable salsa that improves enormously after an hour in the fridge.
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Ingredients
- 8 Chilli Pepper (Hot), red or mixed colours, left wholeUse a mix of heat levels to build complexity
- 500 g ripe tomatoes, halved
- 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
- 1 white onion, cut into 6 wedges
- 20 g fresh coriander, roughly chopped, stalks and all
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Method
- Heat your grill to its highest setting, or place a dry cast-iron griddle pan over a high flame until it is very hot.About 3 min
- Place the whole chillies, halved tomatoes (cut-side up), onion wedges and unpeeled garlic cloves on a grill tray or directly in the hot griddle pan. Drizzle with the olive oil.About 1 min
- Grill or char for 20 to 25 minutes, turning the chillies and onion halfway, until the chilli skins are heavily blackened in places and collapsed, the tomatoes are blistered and jammy, and the garlic cloves are soft inside their skins. The chillies should look well past the point you would normally pull them — this charring is the flavour.About 22 min
- Remove everything from the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes until safe to handle. Peel the garlic cloves and pull the stems from the chillies. If you want a less fiery result, scrape out some of the seeds from the chillies at this point, though I recommend leaving at least half of them in.About 5 min
- Transfer all the roasted ingredients, including any juices on the tray, to a blender or food processor. Add the coriander, lime juice and salt. Pulse firmly — you want a thick, textured salsa with some chunks, not a smooth puree. Taste and adjust the salt and lime.About 2 min
- Transfer to a bowl and rest for at least 15 minutes before serving. The flavour changes significantly as it cools and the char notes settle. Serve at room temperature.
Tips
- Do not be alarmed by how dark the chillies get — proper charring is what gives roasted salsa its distinctive smoky depth that you simply cannot get any other way.
- Leaving the garlic in its skin during roasting prevents it from burning and lets it steam-roast into something sweet and mellow rather than harsh.
- This salsa is noticeably better after a couple of hours in the fridge. Make it in the afternoon if you are serving it at dinner.
Ring the changes
- Add one dried chipotle or ancho chilli (rehydrated in boiling water for 15 minutes and drained) to the blender for an extra layer of smokiness.
- For a salsa verde style, replace the tomatoes with 500g tomatillos (tinned or fresh) and keep the chillies green.
Keeping it
Store in a sealed jar or airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. The heat often intensifies slightly over time. Not suitable for freezing as the texture becomes watery.
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