The beauty of salsa is its versatility and adaptability. Homemade salsa combines all that is great about salsa with fresh vegetables and fruit creating a taste sensation. At its most basic, salsa contains chopped or pureed tomatoes, chiles, onions, and cilantro, flavored with a squeeze of lime juice. Jungle Jim's Deli features a Homemade Salsa Bar that is stocked daily with fresh, made in our kitchen Salsa's.
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Salsa has become a more popular condiment than ketchup, according to some sales reports. Spicy, zesty, tangy, sweet or just down right hot - salsa is the quintessential accompaniment for everything from tortilla chips to salads to quesadillas to a great steak. Salsa can also help us meet the goal of working more fruits and vegetables into a healthful and delicious diet. Salsa actually means sauce, and traditionally has referred to a very specific combination of tomatoes, onions, cilantro and spice from chili peppers. Originally we reserved it for Mexican food and as a dip for chips. In recent years, however, Americans have been using it as a condiment almost any place they would put ketchup: on burgers, baked potatoes, eggs and other foods. The main nutritional advantages of homemade salsa come from the freshness of the ingredients and the lower sodium. Most commercial salsa contains from 90 to 270 milligrams (mg) of sodium in just two tablespoons. That’s half the sodium content of ketchup. But if you use a half-cup of one of the higher-sodium salsas, you get more than one-third of the recommended limit on sodium for a whole day. Homemade salsas don’t require added salt for flavor, so they can contain only 2 to 10 mg of sodium in a much larger half-cup portion. |
