Kids Cook Monday: Garden Veggie Salsa

Are you looking for an easy pre-dinner snack? Have your kids help you make up a quick batch of garden fresh salsa.

My sister grows a gorgeous summer garden and my kids love to harvest some veggies from it just about every afternoon during the summer. After noticing that our tomatoes started piling up a bit on the counter, we decided to make a quick fresh garden veggie salsa. When I say, QUICK, I mean really, really quick. Like ready to eat in 2 minutes – no joke – quick.

All summer long, we probably never made the same salsa twice … lots of tomatillos? Green salsa! Mainly tomatoes? Red! The kids LOVED to watch the fresh-picked veggies combine in the food processor almost magically and then grab a chip to give it a taste.

Garden Veggie Salsa is perfect for little helping hands and it’s very forgiving! It’s one of those no-recipe-recipes. Peppers? No peppers? Tomatillos? Why not! Garlic? You get the idea … whatever you have on hand (or in the garden) will work in this salsa.  While our garden was producing handfuls of tomatoes and tomatillos and herbs, we were making a quick batch of garden veggie salsa every day before dinner.

My parents have a small, 2-cup food processor. It was the perfect size for our nightly bowl of salsa. That food processor got a serious workout this summer. The kids were not allowed near the food processor because the blades were so sharp but they could easily quarter the tomatoes and onions and slice the peppers before they met their match with the super sharp food processor blade. Their favorite part of salsa prep was probably picking the herbs. Armed with a small scissors, they loved collecting herbs from the pots of herbs all over my mom’s back steps. If you grow nothing else, try your hand at growing herbs. It’s such a money saver and herbs are generally hard to kill.

Happy Kids Cook Monday! Get your kids in the kitchen and make an easy, healthy salsa!

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Fresh Garden Veggie Salsa

This easy salsa is perfect for all of your fresh garden veggies!

Course Appetizer

Author Erin Brighton

Ingredients

• 1 large tomato , quartered and seeds removed
• 4 to 5 tomatillos
• 1 small jalapeno pepper , seeds removed
• 1/2 medium onion
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic
• 1 handful cilantro , stems removed
• Salt , to taste

Instructions

1. In a small food processor, combine all the ingredients. Pulse for a few seconds until the veggies are finely chopped. Add salt to taste. Serve immediately with your favorite tortilla chips.