Fresh Apricot Salsa

I normally am not a chips and salsa kind of girl. Chocolate and caramel and such are more my thing. That being said, I came up with this recipe last year to enter into our local Apricot Festival and, now that the apricots are ready this year, have rediscovered it.

It is quick, easy, inexpensive, and - most importantly - full of flavour. Depending on your personal preference you can make it as spicy as you like. As written it provides enough of a kick to wake you up but not so much to scare you away after 2 bites. I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to heat so you decide what is right for you!

Fresh Apricot Salsa

Ingredients

3- 4 cloves garlic

1 jalapeno pepper

pinch salt

8 large (16 small) fresh apricots, pits removed

juice and grated rind from 1 lime

1 tsp brown sugar

Directions

In a food processor, pulse garlic and jalapeno pepper until coarsely chopped. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse on and off until coarsely chopped.

(Of course, if you have a Magic Bullet feel free to use it! I did - surprise, surprise! I found it was chopping it too fine though so before serving I mixed in a few more apricots that I chopped by hand to give it a coarser texture.)

Spoon into serving dish, cover, and chill for at least an hour or two before serving.

This is one of those recipes that improves greatly if you let sit in the fridge overnight. The flavours have time to blend together. If you don’t have time to make it a day ahead it’s okay - same day is delicious too just not as intense.

For those of you who, like me, prefer sweet to salty; I encourage you to give this a try. The apricots provide an interesting sweetness amongst the garlic and jalapeno.

For those of you who, like Sue, prefer salty to sweet; I encourage you to try this recipe because it is in an amazing, interesting salsa to enjoy with tortilla chips.

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I just wanted to add - you can also spoon some of this over your chicken or pork before you bake it. It goes really nicely with either.