Breaking New Ground: apple salsa + a culinary tip

When Ben had to avoid just about every food on the planet, one of those was tomatoes. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal because he doesn't like them, however, the man loves salsa. Coincidentally, I came across a recipe via facebook post from Our Best Bites (who I won my Cuisinart Ice Cream maker from). Their recipe actually focuses on the main dish, but I was really only interested in the apple salsa.

Before I had never heard of apple salsa, just mango or pineapple, which are both too sweet for us. I've made this apple salsa several times now and have been working on perfecting it to what we want. I also referenced Rachael Ray's version for quantities since the other was more of a garnish. I made one batch where I used the food processor to chop all the ingredients, another time I tried adding some fuji apples for a little more sweetness. After all the experiments I think I've finally come up with the best version.

Granny Smith Apple Salsa

4 Granny Smith Apples
1/2 small red onion
1/4 cup cilantro
1 small lime
1/4 teaspoon salt

Wash, peel, and coarsely chop the apples. I found that cutting with a santoku knife and then chopping with a mezzaluna worked well for this. Add to medium bowl.

Finely chop the onion or run it through your food processor real quick. Same can be done with the cilantro, but I just chopped it up with the mezzaluna as well. (When you have little ones you can't always rely on loud appliances). Add onion and cilantro to your bowl of chopped apples.

{these had me weeping uncontrollably}

Cut your lime and squeeze the juice into the mix. Salt to taste... I only measure salt when baking. Then stir it all up and enjoy with your favorite tortilla chips or over a spicy dish to give it a little salty sweet kick. Easy and so yummy!

Now here's my little "culinary tip". I actually read this in a magazine but I don't recall which one. Perhaps this is well-known and I'm just discovering it, but you can freeze fresh herbs! Exciting stuff, I know.

Cilantro comes in bundles of much more than I could ever use before it wilts. So this time around I washed it, plucked off all the little leaves from the whole bunch, and coarsely chopped it all. Then I chopped what I was going to use in the salsa a bit finer.

I added a little water to an ice cub tray, put the leftover cilantro in and added a bit more water. The water is really just to make it so you can actually remove the cubes. Then when you're ready to use it, just thaw and drain a few cubes!