Raspberry salsa is generally a spicy salsa that includes raspberries. There are many different variations of this dish, however. Some include traditional salsa ingredients, like tomatoes and garlic, while others replace these acidic veggies in favor of other fruits. Another option includes sweet vegetables, like carrot matchsticks. There are also two ways to prepare raspberry salsa: cooks may either puree the ingredients for a thick, liquid salsa or chop them into small pieces for a chunky version.
Those that want to add raspberries to traditional salsa should typically add several other ingredients as well. Sugar or honey helps bring out the sweetness and acidity of the raspberries, but cooks should taste the salsa several times to make sure these ingredients don’t make the salsa cloyingly sweet. Raspberry flavoring or extract may also help to underscore the raspberry taste and infuse the rest of the ingredients with a subtle fruitiness. Roughly a capful of extract should add plenty of flavor.
Tomatoes, garlic, raw onions, and spicy peppers may not be appetizing additions to raspberries for some cooks. For this reason, a large majority of raspberry salsa recipes call for other fruits instead of vegetables. Lychee, watermelon, blackberries, chopped peaches, and mandarin oranges are all popular additions to these fruitier salsas. Honey and chili pepper puree are often mixed together to create a spicy-sweet syrup that complements the fruits while giving them a kick.
Those that find a fruit-based salsa too sweet, but still want to complement the raspberries, might try choosing sweeter vegetables to go into their salsa. Grated or julienned carrots, cucumbers, celery, and zucchini all absorb flavors easily and generally aren’t as savory as tomatoes or onions. The raspberries in this kind of salsa are almost always the star because these sweet veggies don’t usually have strong enough flavors to overpower them.
A few cooks may choose to highlight the raspberries in salsa by omitting most other fruits and veggies. These raspberry salsas typically contain raspberries, cilantro, lemon or lime juice, sugar, and some kind of spicy puree. This version might be a tasty way to dress up grilled chicken, fish, or pork.
No matter what version of raspberry salsa a cook makes, he or she usually has one more choice to make once the ingredients are chosen: to puree or not to puree. Pureed raspberry salsa usually has a zesty, cold summer soup feel to it, while chunky salsas often feel traditional and comforting. This choice is largely a matter of taste, though pureeing raspberry salsa usually pulverizes these soft berries easily and distributes their flavor evenly throughout the dish.