Stone Fruit Salsa
Drupes or stone fruits come available from late May and early June through the first frosts of September in Idaho. They are easy to identify as they all have a large hard pit in the center. Cherries, apricots, plums, nectarines and peaches…oh, my. They are lovely to eat fresh by themselves or to use desserts, jams, sauces and jellies. And, yes, they lend themselves well to savory dishes like meat sauces and salsas. The recipe is a nice blend of some firm fleshed drupes and some fast softening apricots that needed used.
Servings: 6 Prep Time: 10 mins
Ingredients
2 lbs mixed drupes (stone fruits) I used cherries, plums, apricots, peaches and nectarines
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 small red onion finely minced
2-3 Tbsp minced cilantro
sea salt
organic sugar optional
Instructions
Clean and pit and coarsely chop the fruit. I had 2 apricots that were very soft, and they were more a mash. In a medium bowl, combine fruit with lime juice and cilantro and mix gently. Add salt to taste. Add sugar 1 tsp at a time if the fruits are sour. I often don't have to add sugar. This recipe can easily be modified with 1/2 a cup of red bell pepper. I omitted it this time as the pepper flavor wasn't going to match the rest of dinner's flavor.
This salsa can be canned. Have an over abundance of fruit that needs used up? Save this salsa for later. Fill hot salsa into hot jars, leaving ½ inch of headspace. Remove air bubbles (I tap the jars and use a knife or chop stick to poke out bubbles) and adjust headspace, if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel. Adjust lids. Process pint jars in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
Recipe highlights and energetics
Cherries, peaches, plums, apricots and nectarines all nourish Yin and moisten fluids. Their sweet nature lends them to Earth element. The lime is sour and astringes, helping to keep excess sweet in place. Onions are pungent, drain phlegm and benefit the digestion.
