Make Salt Free Tortilla Chips And Tomatillo Salsa
Chips and salsa are a regular snack or side order in many of my meals. Post heart issues if I was going to keep it in the mix I had to hack the salt and make it as salt free as possible without losing any taste. Salt Free Corn Tortilla Chips & Tomatillo Salsa is great for any parties, especially for Cinco de Mayo or just to have on hand to watch the big game. It also goes great with tacos. You can get my Salt free taco seasoning recipe here and use with the corn tortillas we will talk about below. Today, we will make salt free corn tortilla chips and tomatillo salsa.
Hidden Salt In Chips And Salsa
The salt here is hidden in and on the chips, and in the salsa. You can go two routes for the chips. The first is to purchase a low/no sodium brand of corn tortillas commercially at a store, then cut them into fourths and bake them until golden brown. The second route is to make the corn tortillas from scratch at home. The fun thing about making your own is that you control the amount of sodium, and you can experiment and add some of your own flavorings to make the chips awesome! I add lime juice and finely diced jalapenos to kick it up a notch.
The best corn tortillas are made with Masa. Masa, the Spanish word for “dough,” is the traditional dough used to make corn tortillas. It is made with hominy, or dried corn kernels that have been cooked and soaked in limewater, which is ground into masa. Masa harina (“dough flour”) is flour made from dried masa. The nixtamalization process (soaking in limewater) was developed in Mesoamerica thousands of years ago.
Corn Tortillas are then typically fried to cook them either for making tacos or for transforming them into chips. A local Minneapolis Mexican Restaurant who has been a client of ours for my day job doing PR, Little Tijuana, introduced me to the wonderful experience baked corn tortilla chips. They allow you to order baked or fried.
If you are going to go the route of using pre-made corn tortillas here are the directions to create the baked tortilla chips:
- Start by crosscutting all of the tortillas into 4 wedges (like mini pizza slices would look).
- To bake, spread the wedge cut tortillas onto a shallow flat baking sheet.
- Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Place the sheet into the oven and bake for about 7 minutes.
- Rotate the pan and bake for another 8 minutes or until the chips are crisp, but not too brown.
The Recipe For Salt Free Tortilla Chips
Salt Free Tortilla Chips
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups masa harina Bob's Red Mill Golden Masa Flour is salt free
- 1 1/8 cups water
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, mix together masa harina and hot water until thoroughly mixed together.
- Place dough on a clean surface and knead until pliable and smooth.
- If your dough is too sticky, add more masa harina; if it begins to dry out, sprinkle with water.
- Cover dough tightly with plastic wrap and allow to stand for 30 minutes.
- Divide dough into 15 equal-size balls.
- Using a rolling pin, or your hands, press each ball of dough flat between two sheets of plastic wrap.
- Try to make them as thin as possible for the best effect.
- You may also use a tortilla press if you have access to one.
Nutrition
Once the tortillas are made, then follow the five steps above to make them into chips. Remember when crafting the recipe for the tortillas you have a chance to add in some extra flavoring. I finely dice jalapenos and add a few dashes of lime juice to mine.
Now that the chips are ready you need to have a salt free salsa to dip them into. While living in Florida and California, a lot of the salsas we ate were green in color and used tomatillos as the base instead of tomatoes. This is one of my favorite recipes! I use this salsa on chicken, pork, and fish. I also have it with eggs at breakfast.
The Recipe For Low Salt Tomatillo Salsa
Low Salt Tomatillo Salsa
Ingredients
- 1 cup green tomatillos (you can get canned make sure there is no salt added or used to preserve)
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1/2 Tbsp dark molasses
- 1/4 cup chopped yellow onions
- 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1/2 tsp lime juice
- 1 tsp minced shallots
- 1 tbsp jalapenos or more depending on your desired heat level
Instructions
- Add all ingredients into a food processor or blender
- Blend until processed or smooth
- Store in refrigerator until ready to use
- Keep chilled
Nutrition
Thank You !
May I suggest m for those who prefer to buy chips, Our favorite brand, called “Donkey Chips”.
They offer unsalted chips in a green bag that are really tasty, have a nice crunch, and go very well with hummus. (homemade in our case