Hurts so Good 3-Pepper Heirloom Salsa

Mixing three hot peppers along with low-acid heirloom tomatoes makes for a hot, spicy salsa that lingers on your tongue, clears out your sinuses and yes, hurts just a little (in a good sort of way). You can adjust up or down the amount of peppers that you use to control the heat to your liking.

This salsa came about kind of on accident. I just happened to have a huge pile of heirloom tomatoes that were super-ripe and had to be used immediately. I also had several hot peppers in my fridge. Both were from my parents’ garden–when I visited them on Friday, there were tomatoes rotting on the vine and so many peppers there is no way they could ever eat them all, especially the hot peppers. There were SO many! And Mom and Dad were exhausted from the harvest already and running out of jars for canning things. My mom NEVER runs out of jars … it has been an excessively abundant harvest this year.

There are three hot peppers that dad planted this year that I really love and used in this salsa:

1. Jalapeno (of course!)
2. Salsa pepper (which I think are another name for cowhorn peppers–long, red, skinny hot peppers)
3. Carrot pepper – about 3 inches long and bright orange like a carrot. These are hot, lingering peppers that burn long after you taste or touch them. Substitute habanero or ghost peppers if you can’t find carrot peppers.

And the tomatoes I used were:

1. Kellogg’s breakfast tomato – a bright orange, sweet, juicy, low acid tomato. If you don’t have Kellogg’s, use another yellow or orange low-acid variety.
2. A couple red tomatoes – just your garden variety red tomato. Beefsteak or Siberian tomato or another nice tasting tomato
3. German Green tomato – these never change color other than a slightly more yellow tint of green. The only way you can tell if they are ripe is to squeeze them. I only had a half of one of these, so you can skip these if you like.

Many of the tomatoes I used were the breakfast tomatoes, which gave the salsa its vibrant orange color. These less-acidic breakfast tomatoes also made the salsa taste less like tomato, added sweetness to the salsa and allowed the taste and the heat of the peppers and other ingredients to shine through.

It makes for a vibrant, intense salsa that radiates heat in your mouth and keeps the fire burning for a while. If you want it to burn more, I would recommend adding more carrot pepper. (I actually went back and added more carrot pepper after giving away 2 jars of this salsa.)

Hurts so Good 3-Pepper Heirloom Tomato Salsa

• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: About 2 1/2 quarts of salsa 1x

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

---

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 4.5 – 5 lbs. of mixed heirloom tomatoes, peeled & chopped into little bits
• 1 1/3 cups finely chopped onion
• 4 – 7 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped fine
• 1 salsa pepper (or cowhorn), chopped fine
• 1 jalapeno, chopped fine
• 1 carrot pepper, chopped fine
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 2 teaspoons salt

---

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Taste and add more peppers if more heat is desired.
2. Put in jars and refrigerate. Save some for yourself, then give a jar to some of your pepper-head friends.

---

Notes

RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/

© Copyright 2015, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.

This recipe was shared at Munching Monday, Simple Supper Tuesday, Treasure Box Tuesday, Full Plate Thursday, Freedom Fridays with All my Bloggy Friends, Weekend Re-Treat, Foodie FriDIY, Gluten Free Friday, Home Matters and Hearth & Soul Bloghop.