Vegan Eats & Treats!

SUNDAY, MAY 06, 2012

Product Review: Salsa Time!

The folks at Casa Martinez sent me two jars of salsa to review – and I was really impressed with it. When it comes to salsa, I usually either make my own fresh pico de gallo salsa, or buy the fresh salsa in the refrigerated section. I truly never buy salsa in a jar because it always tastes weirdly over-cooked and usually has sugar or some other creepy stuff added to it. Plus, you really can’t grow up in California – surrounded by taquerias – and not develop some strong feelings about salsa! But these two salsas that I tried from Casa Martinez were really great, and I would definitely buy them again. No gross preservatives or weirdo ingredients, and clean salsa flavors.I was especially stoked because, with the help of these salsas, I whipped up two super delicious, super easy, and super nutritious weeknight dinners and 3-4 daytime lunches. Just for that, it would be worth keeping a can of refried beans and a jar of Casa Martinez salsa on hand in the cupboards.

The first one we opened was the Nopal salsa: a green salsa made with green tomatoes and nopales (cactus leaves). YUM. This is a mild salsa with all the bright, acidic tang that you would expect from a green salsa. I loved the fresh, chunky texture that came from the nopales. I used this salsa for Taco Night! I added about half the jar to a can of refries which magically transformed the refries into tasty deliciousness.

I also stir-fried up some zukes with garlic, and chopped up some lime wedges from our lime tree.

Next, I stir-fried up a huge batch of fresh spinach with garlic, and chopped up a pile of cilantro and fresh cabbage.

Here’s the whole Taco Assembly Station.

And here are my taco creations – beans, spinach, avocado, cilantro (and lots of extra salsa!) on one …
and beans, cabbage, zukes, and mucho salsa on the other.

Seriously, this was such a delicious dinner. We were stoked.

The other jar they sent us was Chipotle salsa, and it’s a medium-spicy salsa. This salsa is made with two different types of peppers and is decidedly smokier and earthier than the Nopal salsa, as you would expect. I used  it for Burrito Night! You might notice that the ingredients in Burrito Night are suspiciously similar to those of Taco Night… Why mess with success?! I added a bunch of the salsa to the refries and then added lots of extra to the burrito while I was eating it. I like lots of salsa.

Here is my burrito all dressed up and ready for a night on the town.

Both of these salsas still had enough left over after dinner that I was able to make some simplified versions of tacos and burritos for lunch for a few days too. So good. I was really impressed with this stuff – it’s definitely the best jarred salsa I’ve ever tasted, and I’m really grateful for the delicious meals we made with it. If you try it, let me know what you think.