What’s not to love about a delicious and healthful version of chips and salsa? Today’s recipe for Roasted Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips provides a slightly sweet appetizer that delivers a new way to increase your intake of fruit and vegetables.
Salsa can be an easy addition to your meals because it tends to be low in calories, full of flavor and rich in nutrients like Vitamin C and potassium. The downside of store-bought salsa is the high salt content, which can exceed 40 mg of sodium per two-teaspoon portion. Instead of using lots of salt in our recipe, we’re making a tangy and savory salsa with complex flavors created by the combination of pineapple, mango, red bell pepper, onion, cilantro, lime and paprika.
Compared with flour tortillas, corn tortillas have more nutrients and fiber. By making your own corn tortilla chips, you can minimize the salt, fat and calories typically found in ready-made chips.
Naturally gluten-free corn tortillas are made with whole-grain dried corn that undergoes a process called nixtamalization. Developed thousands of years ago in Mexico and Central America, this process involves heating and soaking dried corn in water mixed with limestone to soften the corn kernels. Today, food-grade limestone is used. The process makes the corn easy to digest, and it helps release the corn’s nutrients: niacin, calcium and iron.
To enhance the flavors of our chips, we’ve sweetened them with a little sugar and cinnamon, a perfect match for our Roasted Fruit Salsa. We’re confident you’ll love this healthful version of chips and salsa. It makes a mouthwatering appetizer.
Bethany Thayer is a registered dietitian nutritionist with Henry Ford Health. For more recipes and health information, visit henryford.com/blog. For questions about today’s recipe, email HenryFordLiveWell@hfhs.org.
Roasted Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Chips
Makes: 6 servings / Prep time: 20 minutes / Total time: 1 hour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
8 corn tortillas, 6-inch size
Butter flavored cooking spray
1 mango
3 rings canned pineapple
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and cut in half
½ cup red onion, cut in large chunks
½ tablespoon canola oil
Juice of 1 lime
¼ cup minced fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon ground paprika
¼ teaspoon salt
To make the chips: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a small bowl, mix together sugar and cinnamon. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut tortillas into quarters. Place tortilla slices on prepared baking sheet and coat lightly with cooking spray. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over each slice. Bake for 7-8 minutes. Remove pan from oven and turn slices over. Spray uncoated side of tortilla slices with cooking spray and coat with cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for an additional 7-8 minutes or until edges of chips are crispy. Remove from oven and sprinkle with any remaining cinnamon sugar.
To make the salsa: Preheat broiler with rack in top position. Carefully cut the mango into two halves along the side of the pit that typically runs the length of the mango.
Score the flesh of each mango half in a cross-hatch pattern, leaving the skin intact. Arrange pineapple slices, mango (flesh side up), pepper (with skin facing up) and onion on a baking pan.
Lightly brush all with oil.
Broil until slightly charred, about 10 minutes. Remove mango, pineapple and onion from baking sheet and set aside. Return pepper to oven and broil until completely charred, an additional 5-10 minutes.
Place pepper in a small bowl and cover with plastic wrap, to allow the skin to loosen. Remove the skin from the mango and dice the mango, pineapple, and onion and place all in a medium-size bowl.
Once pepper is cool enough to handle, remove skin, dice, and add to the mango mixture.
Add lime juice, cilantro, paprika and salt; stir to combine. Serve at room temperature or chill until cold.
From Henry Ford Health
141 calories (16% from fat), 2.5 grams fat (0 grams sat. fat), 29 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams protein, 89 mg sodium, 0 mg cholesterol, 10 mg calcium, 3.5 grams fiber. Food exchanges: ½ fruit, 1 ½ carbohydrate, ½ fat.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: This lower-salt version of chips and salsa calls for cinnamon, sugar and roasted fruit
Reporting by Bethany Thayer / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
