This smooth roasted mango salsa is spicy, sweet and slightly smoky. Serve it as a topping for tacos, burritos, and grilled fish. Or use it as a spicy mango hot sauce.
Yield1½ cups
Servings12
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 medium-sized tomatoes, like Roma tomatoes
- 1 red bell pepper
- ½ red onion
- 1 habanero pepper , or more for an extra hot sauce
- 1 jalapeño pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium-sized mango* , peeled an cut into about 2 cups of mango chunks
- ½ cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
- 1 lime, juiced for 2 tablespoons of lime juice
- sea salt and black pepper, adjusted to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 °F.
- Cut the red pepper in half. Remove and discard the cores, veins and seeds. Slice tomatoes in half, and cut red onion into four wedges. Prepare the chiles by removing the stems. Leave the destemmed chiles whole for a spicy salsa. Or half the chiles and deseed them, scraping out the membrane, for a less fiery salsa.
- Place the sliced tomato and bell pepper cut side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Add the onion quarters and whole or halved chiles. Drizzle and rub with olive oil. Place the baking sheet in the top third of the oven.
- Check on the roasting vegetables after 15 minutes. If the habaneros look nice and charred, remove them and return the rest to the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes. The veggies should be charred and wrinkly. If not, finish cooking with a 2-minute broil (grill using the top element). But keep a close eye. It can burn in an instant.
- Remove most of the skin from roasted red pepper and tomatoes – no need to be meticulous here.
- Transfer the roasted vegetables to a food processor bowl. Roughly chop the mango flesh and add it along with ½ teaspoon salt. Blend until smooth (or stop at your preferred consistency if you want a chunkier sauce).
- Add the lime juice and chopped cilantro. Give the mix a short pulse and taste. Adjust with more lime juice, chiles, salt and black pepper to taste.
- Serve the salsa warm. Or, as I like to do, transfer the salsa to an airtight container and chill the salsa in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavours to blend. Then serve the chilled roasted mango salsa with grilled meat or seafood, tortilla chips or tacos.
Notes
- Habaneros are very spicy. I like to add one habanero per mango. Adjust the number of habanero peppers based on your desired spice level. And if you prefer a more moderate heat, swap the habanero for more jalapeño peppers instead.
- Always wear gloves when handling spicy peppers like habaneros!
- You can use canned (and drained) mangoes or defrosted frozen mango.
- Refrigerate your roasted mango sauce in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Or freeze it for up to 3 months – I like to use an ice cube tray to freeze it in portions before transferring it to a freezer bag.
- If you don't have a food processor, you can use the same ingredients to make a fresh mango habanero salsa that requires no blending or cooking.