Saturday, May 17, 2025

{New} A Quick, Charred Salsa to Drizzle Over Everything + A Favorite White Bean Salad + 5 More Salads to Make Right Now

Hi Friends,

I started making this salsa last July. It's a simplified version of this fresh enchilada sauce recipe, and when the tomatoes are at their peak, it is irresistible, the kind of sauce you want to spoon over everything.

And last summer and fall, as a family, we did: we spooned it over tacos, mostly these, but also over a variation made with grilled chicken (the recipe for which I will share soon as it's so fast and delicious ... see photo below). We drizzled it over rice and bean bowls. We dragged our scrambled eggs through it and, of course, we dipped tortilla chips in it.

The beauty of this salsa is that it requires very little chopping and very little prep overall: place cherry tomatoes, a roughly chopped onion and jalapeño, and a few garlic cloves on a sheet pan; toss with olive oil and salt; broil for 10 minutes; then purée with fresh lime juice and cilantro (if you wish... omit it if you hate it).

As noted, it is especially tasty when made at peak tomato season, which here in Upstate New York feels an eternity away. Craving it recently, I made it with two beefsteak tomatoes my sister had left at our house at Easter and the remains of a can of yellow tomatoes, and I was shocked by how good it tasted.

Inspired by this victory using subpar tomatoes, I made it again with grocery store cherry tomatoes on the vine — the ones labeled "sugar bombs" — and it was even better: sweet and spicy with a nice balance of acidity, just what our tacos have been missing all these months, just the sauce we need to bridge the very long gap till true tomato season arrives.

Should the same tomato timeline exist for you, I can't recommend making this salsa enough 🍅🧅🧄🌶️

Quick Charred Tomato Salsa

PS: Here are a few ways we use this salsa...

... over grilled chicken tacos (this three-ingredient grilled chicken "recipe" is coming soon.. stay tuned!):

... over rice and bean bowls:

... and with chips:

Review of the Week

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Simple White Bean Salad

"This recipe is truly fabulous! I made it as written, except I increased the finely chopped zucchini to 3 cups and the sundried tomatoes to approximately 1/2 cup. Also, I didn't have fresh corn, so I used frozen. This is the first time I've eaten raw zucchini in a dish, and it was wonderful."

— Darlene

5 More Salads to Make Right Now

Classic Chopped Salad with Italian Vinaigrette

A classic chopped salad in a large salad bowl with tongs.

Cauliflower Couscous with Almonds, Herbs, and Cherries

If you love a raw kale salad, you will love this Swiss Chard Salad with Lemon, Parmesan and Bread Crumbs

Raw Summer Squash Salad (For the first, tender squash of the season.)

Charred Broccoli Chopped Salad with Spicy Cashew Dressing

A bowl of chopped salad with cashew dressing.

And for dessert: Jessie Sheehan's One-Bowl Lemon-Blueberry Loaf

In Case You Missed It:

A few weeks ago, I created a Sourdough Starter from Scratch Challenge. It has been a lot of fun hearing about everybody's experiences and seeing the bubbly, beautiful starters that have been created in the process. If you have any interest in building a starter from scratch, now — with the temperatures outside climbing — is the time! Click here to join the challenge! It will require no more than 1-2 minutes of work a day for the next 7 days. Every morning for the next week, you will receive an email with a short video showing you what to do.

Sourdough Starter from Scratch Challenge

Bonus: This is a zero-waste challenge! If you join the challenge, you'll receive lots of recipes that will put your sourdough "discard" to good use, namely these: Sourdough Discard Waffles

From reader Phoebe: "My children (and husband) devoured these!! I am on day 6 of the sourdough starter challenge and used some of the discard for these. SOOO crisp and delish!" ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️