Reading · Betty Eatz Newsletter

August is the perfect time to learn (or revisit) how to make your own salsa! With fresh produce overflowing at grocery stores, farmers markets, and co-ops, you can’t help but want to throw it into a salsa.

Should you use raw or roasted ingredients?

Best way to make it milder or hotter?

What difference do dried chiles make?

We will explore all these questions today with our special guest!

Hello and welcome! If you like tacos, kimchi, seasonal produce, and bright flavors, you’re in the right place. I’m Betty, a food writer, recipe developer, home cook, and Southern California gal.

Every Friday in this newsletter, I help you plan meals with California Cuisine recipes to inspire you, no matter where you live in the world. California is the most ethnically diverse state in the U.S. and is home to many peeps from Asia, South America, and the Mediterranean. The cuisine here reflects that and is a beautiful mash-up of flavors!

Other places to find me: my food blog, podcast, YouTube, and Instagram.

Have you signed up for my kimchi-making class? It’s happening today (Friday, August 21) at 12 noon Pacific/3 pm Eastern.

I’ll be sharing a fermentation primer (you’ll learn the difference between pickling and fermenting), and doing a hands-on workshop where you’ll learn to make a quick-pickled cucumber kimchi and fermented cabbage kimchi.

This class is part of the CookStack Collective monthly cooking classes. The CookStack Collective brings together 12 talented Substack food writers and recipe developers (including myself!) for an entire year of lively, seasonal cooking classes.

Paid subscribers, this class is free for you and part of your subscription! Thanks for being here. Your registration link for the class is here:

If you’re on the fence about a paid subscription, now is a great time to upgrade! It’s $5 per month or $50 per year (yes, you get 2 months free!). See the complete list of paid goodies in the Premium Content Library.

If you are unfamiliar with salsa, it is a Mexican condiment whose name literally means “sauce” in Spanish. Salsas are made with fresh, roasted, and dried chilies as well as other vegetables. They are even made with fruits!

August has been a month of salsa recipes around here, including summery fruit salsas (peach, mango, and pineapple) and even a dessert salsa. Today, we’re talking about green salsas! They are tangy, bright, and so pretty.

My special guest is Andrés Carnalla. He is a longtime professional photographer originally from Mexico. And he also used to run a cafe, so he is a fellow foodie! Andrés and his business partner Douglas Cullen run the food blog Mexican Food Journal and the newsletter Inspired by Mexico. The publications share his family recipes as well as classic Mexican recipes from the cafes that he and Douglas have operated in both California and Mexico.

I asked Andrés to share his knowledge about salsa with us!

What kinds of salsas did you grow up eating? Were they specific to a particular region of Mexico in terms of ingredients or preparation?

Andrés: I grew up in central Mexico, in the state of Morelos, a region blessed with a privileged geography of valleys, rivers, and high mountains. Although it is not a particularly large state, its diverse microclimates support an extraordinary variety of crops.

At home, there was always a salsa on the table to accompany every meal. We always had both red and green salsa. The red salsa was the simplest: tomatoes, garlic, serrano peppers, and salt. The green salsa, made with tomatillos, was almost always prepared raw with tomatillos, onion, garlic, serrano peppers, and salt. The red salsa was our favorite for meats, while the green salsa paired perfectly with fish and rice dishes.

One important detail is that our salsas were never overwhelmingly spicy. My mother never enjoyed cooking food that was extremely hot. That philosophy has stayed with me to this day. I always make sure my salsas have just the right amount of heat—enough to enhance the flavors, but never so much that the spiciness overpowers the other ingredients, like in this Fresh Tomatillo Salsa Verde.

In your opinion, what is the most important thing to remember when making a homemade salsa? What are some tips for success for the home cook who has never made their own?

Andrés: As I mentioned earlier, a salsa shouldn’t be overwhelmingly spicy. One tip I’d share with anyone just beginning to make salsas is to adjust the amount of chile in each recipe until you find the level of heat that suits your taste.

For example, if a recipe calls for three fresh chiles, I usually use one and a half. From the second chile, I remove the seeds and the white membranes, where much of the heat is concentrated. This simple adjustment significantly reduces the spiciness while preserving the chile’s flavor (like in this Roasted Jalapeno Salsa). The same approach can be used with dried chiles. Because they have been dried, they generally lose some of their spiciness, making them easier to adjust to your preferred level of heat.

Do you have a favorite salsa? And what dishes do you like to eat with it?

Andrés: Avocado salsa verde is one of my absolute favorites. It pairs beautifully with all kinds of tacos, especially fish tacos. But if I’m being honest, my favorite way to enjoy it is spread on a ham or turkey sandwich. The combination of creamy avocado salsa and mayonnaise is simply irresistible—it transforms an everyday sandwich into something truly indulgent.

Try Andrés’ favorite, Avocado Salsa with Chicken Tacos!

A big Gracias to Andrés for sharing his salsa expertise with us all!

Friends, you will want to visit the Inspired by Mexico newsletter that Andrés and Douglas run together, as well as their blog, Mexican Food Journal, for authentic, classic Mexican recipes.

I’ve also linked the podcast interview I did with Douglas below:

Because one can’t get enough of green salsas, I’m also sharing two personal favorites!

Fresh green goodness! Salsa Verde is both fresh and slightly smoky, thanks to the charred veggies. Made from tomatillos, jalapenos, garlic, onion, cilantro, and lime. It is excellent spooned on tacos, nachos, grilled meats, tortilla chips, and just about any breakfast sandwich.

Salsa Verde recipe

Fresh, green, and pickle-y? Yes! This Dill Pickle Salsa is everything you love in a green salsa with the addition of some briny tang. The secret ingredient? Crunchy dill pickles. Don’t knock it until you try it!