Did you know that, according to BusinessWeek, the American snack food landscape has dramatically shifted over the last few years? Annual sales across salsa brands in the United States show that Americans spend $1.1 billion on the chunky tomato perfection annually — that puts salsa sales well ahead of that all American condiment ketchup.
The key to salsa’s success, not to mention its cousin, hummus, is Americans’ increasing desire to make healthier choices, both with their snack food and their main meals. That’s why the sales of hummus dip are growing by 14% each year.
Now that football season is here, Americans from around the country are buffing up their supply of salsa, chips, and other game day goodies. The problem? People often buy too much salsa. While classic mild salsa has a lengthy shelf life, after a couple of weeks it will begin to lose its flavor. A few weeks after that, it will start turning color. What can you do now to use up your favorite mild salsa while it’s still good? Start by trying out these simple ideas for classic mild salsa.
What to Do with That Excess Classic Mild Salsa
- Make a Spicy TexMex Breakfast
- Combine Salsa and Butter for a Compound Butter
- Use It as a Spicy Base for Chili
For the digital foodie haven Food52, few ways of using up your salsa are quite as delicious as papas en chile rojo, or spicy potato hash. After par boiling sliced potatoes like you would for typical hash browns, toss them into a hot pan with unsalted brown butter. Add salt and pepper to taste, and let the potatoes sit to develop that beautiful, crunchy skin. After flipping the potatoes over to develop color on the other side, add in your favorite salsa. You’re done — easy, cheap, delicious. Get extra creative by pairing this with fried eggs slathered in one of your favorite hummus dips.
There are few things that improve foods quite like butter and salsa, right? Why not combine the two together? Serious Eats recommends mixing butter with salsa to make a simple compound butter. This is a fantastic, flavor-packed accoutrement for steak, lobster tails, and more. You only need to cook up your dish and add a healthy slab of the butter for a sweet, spicy kick.
Traditionally, chili is built on the backs of tomato sauce, fresh chopped onion, chiles, and garlic. Using salsa as a chili base, as Taste of Home suggests, can help you avoid the work of chopping up a bunch of vegetables to start your chili with. Dump your leftover salsa into your slow cooker, dilute it slightly with water, add your beans, and close the top. That’s really all there is to it.
What do you do with your leftover salsa? Let us know in the comments below. More information like this.