Saying cherry salsa already makes my mouth water after making this recipe. This was all inspired by a family vacation to Door County, Wisconsin. A beautiful tourist driven town on the Eastern peninsula with tons of history and intrigue. We grew up going here and shopping in stores, eating at restaurants, and going to apple orchards. The apple orchards are amazing because of how much retail they sell after you’re done apple picking. You can find beef sticks and apple cider donuts, but the highlight are every orchard has their own brand of cherry salsa. Door county is known for cherries, so why not make an appetizer out of it!

Cherry makes sense to me in salsa. It’s the perfect hue of red and purple, they are sometime more bitter than sweet, and they have a very subtle flavor. I’ve made mango, pineapple, watermelon, strawberry, and even an apple salsa in my life, so this sounded good. In door county, I believe they use maraschino cherries because their salsa come out much less purple. It’s very red. The color of this salsa is so sleek and dangerous. I love it.

Making fruits or vegetables into salsa is much easier than you think because it all stems from the same few staple ingredients: a spicy pepper, a juicy fruit, flavor enhancers like onion, garlic, and cilantro, then a sour citrus juice. Knowing this combination can help you make anything into salsa. Roasted the cherries until they were fairly dried out, then pulsed together in a food processor.

I don’t naturally prefer my salsa sweet, but when using fruits in salsa it’s good practice to amplify the fruit’s flavor by adding sugar. You can do that with honey or just plain sugar. This salsa has got a kick, then some sweet, then some savory. I promise you this is a keeper.