Grilled Tomato and Chipotle Salsa

When we were in Fredericksburg we picked up a load of homegrown tomatoes.  They were the ugly ones, but they still taste so good!  We hurried off to Dallas last week and I threw the load of whole tomatoes right into a freezer bag, and into the freezer.

How I Grilled The Tomatoes:  

When I got home I tossed them frozen right onto the grill.  That's right!  We have a gas grill, and I turned it on med high and tossed them in my veggie basket to grill.  No oil or anything, but I'm sure you could toss them in olive oil if you wanted to.

After they became soft, their skins peeling, and had some grill marks on them I took them off.  They were completely defrosted.  I think it took about 30 min.

I had at least 12 good sized tomatoes.  The cooking reduced them a bit, but not too much.  Then I made this salsa out of them!

Grilled Tomato and Chipotle Salsa

12 grilled tomatoes
4 large fresh tomatoes
1/4 large red onion
handful of cilantro
1 1/2 limes
1 7.5 oz can chilpotle peppers in Adobo Sauce
2 cloves of garlic w/out skin
sea salt

1.  Place chipotle peppers in bowl of food processor.  Pulse until finely pureed.
2.  Remove tomato cores from grilled tomatoes and place them and their juice into a food processor.  Pulse tomatoes 2-4 times.  It should look like a tomato puree, but still mildly chunky.  Remove from processor and place in a large bowl.
3.  Place onion and garlic into food processor, squeeze limes into processor with lime press or however you like to juice your limes.  Pulse food processor maybe 4-6 or so times until onion is finely chopped but not pureed.
4.  Cut the cilantro stems off and place into food processor with onion and pulse maybe 2 or 3 times until finely chopped.
5.  Quarter and core fresh tomatoes, place in processor with onion & cilantro mix.  Pulse until desired consistency.  I like mine slightly chunky.  Remove from processor and mix with grilled tomato mixture.
6.  Stir salsa (I use a large wooden spoon) and sprinkle with sea salt to taste.
7.  Store remaining salsa in glass jars for best results.

Hope you had a happy 4th!  

Blessings, Rachel