Salsa (Fermented)
Serves 8 Time Prep: 15 minutes Fermentation: 2–3 days Ingredients 8 Steps 9
This fermented salsa recipe produces a tangy tomato sauce with strong flavour. No cooking is required.
Ingredients
- 1 kg (2 lb) fresh tomatoes
- 1 large capsicum (bell pepper)
- 3–6 fresh chiles
- 1 fresh red onion
- 3–4 cloves of garlic
- 1 bunch of fresh cilantro (coriander leaf, Chinese parsley)
- 1–2 teaspoons non-iodised salt
- spices to taste (optional)
Steps
- Clean and dry a large (1 litre) preserves jar and a large bowl.
- Dice the tomatoes.
- Quarter and slice the capsicum.
- Finely slice the chilis, removing seeds if preferred. Wash hands right after. Do not touch eyes or face afterwards.
- Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Roughly chop the cilantro.
- Mix all ingredients in the bowl with salt and optional spices.
- Pack tightly into the jar, leaving 1 cm space at the top.
- Cover the jar with a cloth or cling-wrap. Stand the jar in a bowl or on a plate to catch overflow. Ferment at room temperature.
- Ferment 2–3 days, depending on climate. Wipe excess liquid from around the jar. Close the lid tightly. Refrigerate.
Notes from the original
- With the above fresh ingredients, there should be enough microbial load for the salsa to start fermenting by itself. Bubbles will begin rising to the top of the jar, showing that fermentation is under way—you should be able to see this through the side of the jar. Don't seal the jar while it is fermenting, as it will build up gas pressure and might break the jar. If you are concerned that fermentation will not start by itself, you can add a starter culture. A good starter culture is a little juice from a recently-fermented sauerkraut or kimchi, as this will bring across the necessary lactic acid bacteria and yeasts.
- This is best within a few days, unless you like it quite sour!
- The salt used should be non-iodised salt if possible (e.g. pickling salt, kosher salt). This is because the iodine in iodised table salt will inhibit the fermentation a little. Use what you've got, but best results will be obtained without the iodine.
- Use fresh ingredients where possible; if you do use canned or dried ingredients, you may need to use a starter (see above).
- This recipe prefers to ferment at a temperature between 18–22°C (64–72°F). It will happily ferment outside that range, but if you want to keep it in that range, there are some tips available on the fermentation page.
- There is a suggestion on the talk page that more salt is required; read the discussion and decide for yourself, but traditional French recipes add no salt during the fermentation of crushed tomatoes. Salt volume recommendations made without specifying brand (and therefore grain size and shape) are not precise in any case.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Salsa (Fermented)” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-06-19, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Salsa ferment.jpg by Webaware, Public domain, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.