SALSA 101

At Gilly Loco, we love salsa. It stems from our pride in the New Mexican chile and our passion for making flavorful Mexican dishes at home. We started making our own salsa to share our spices and our delicious local chiles with the world and that also means educating consumers like you about just what salsa is and why it’s the perfect spicy condiment.

What Is It?

In Spanish, the word simply means “sauce,” so it can be used to describe any type of sauce or condiment that is used to enhance the flavor of a food. Nowadays, it has come to have a more specific meaning. A traditional recipe is usually tomato based and contains onions, chiles and spices. Other ingredients may also be used to make it, such as the tomatillo or fruit.

What is the History?

This modern sauce can be traced back to the Inca, Mayan and Aztec cultures of Central and South America. These indigenous peoples combined chiles, tomatoes and spices to add flavor to turkey, seafood and deer meat. In 1916, the first commercially produced recipe was marketed. The product was created in New Orleans and was called Red Hot Creole Peppersauce. It was during the late 1980s that salsa really took off with sales increasing by 79 percent by 1990.

Is It Good for You?

Many people wonder about nutrition facts, such as the number of calories. While the individual recipe will ultimately determine how nutritious it is, most can easily be added to a healthy diet. Our Gilly Loco Traditional Salsa has just 5 calories per serving with 0 grams of fat. Our recipe is also low in sodium and supplies vitamins C and A.

What’s the Best One That You Can Buy?

The best one that you can buy is one that is made with fresh natural ingredients in small batches. That’s how we make our Gilly Loco Traditional Salsa–using fresh non-genetically modified ingredients, that we source locally and make only small quantities to maintain high quality controls.

Gilly Loco Salsa is the best you can buy whether you want to make a recipe like salsa chicken or simply enjoy it with chips at home. You can find us in our online store and in grocery stores in New Mexico.