A salsa recipe with flavour you can’t buy in a jar. No need to wait for your next visit to your favourite Mexican restaurant. Just make it at home!
Fat free, full of flavour, and utterly addictive, this is a restaurant style salsa that’s the perfect consistency for scooping up with corn chips. Or go super healthy and serve it with crudités!
Salsa recipe – restaurant style
You’ve seen the jars sold alongside corn chips at the grocery store. You’ve devoured inordinate amounts of it at your favourite Mexican restaurant.
And now it’s time to make it at home.
It’s healthier, it’s cheaper and it tastes SO GOOD! Flavour, flavour, flavour – homemade salsa has flavour you simply cannot buy in a jar!
What goes in salsa
Here are the ingredients in my salsa recipe. The key things that add great flavour to salsa are cumin, cilantro/coriander, garlic, onion and jalapeño. I also like to add canned green chiles which adds terrific smokiness and small touch of heat (not much).
Canned green chiles are a popular Tex-Mex ingredient in America that’s not (yet) available here in Australia. I bring back dozens every time I visit the US, that’s how much I love it! It’s easy to sub the flavour using chargrilled peppers – though they are red, not green, they add the same smokiness that the green chiles add.
Top Tip: Use good quality canned tomato
Given that tomato is the key ingredient in this recipe, your salsa will only be as good as the tomato you use.
Using crushed canned tomato in this recipe isn’t just about convenience. It’s also because we can’t always get really great quality fresh tomatoes, but we can always find great quality canned tomatoes.
If you’re keen to make a recipe using fresh tomatoes, try this one from Jo Cooks. I made it over Christmas and it is terrific!
Once you’ve gathered your ingredients, it’s as simple as plonk and blitz. Make it as chunky or smooth as you like. I like mine more smooth because I find you get better flavour when the onion etc are blitzed up quite finely.
Also, the chunkier the salsa, the more it separates when sitting around. So it holds up better the smoother it is.
How and what to serve with salsa
The obvious way to serve is as a dip for corn chips or anything suitable for dunking, but there’s a whole bunch of other really great ways to use salsa! Here’s a few ideas:
Topping / dipping for tacos, burritos, fajitas, nachos, quesadillas – basically everything and anything Mexican
Spoon over crispy pan fried fish, juicy baked chicken breast, plain or marinated pan fried pork chops
Dollop on this Mexican Chicken Salad
For the healthiest dip platter ever, serve salsa with crudités (that’s a fancy word for veggie sticks), like this one – a photo from my Hummus recipe.
I make this salsa recipe a lot because I’m a self confessed Snack Monster and this is my way of having something nibbly without the guilt. It’s one of those foods I call “incidentally healthy”. Meaning – it’s not a stripped back “diet” version of the way it’s supposed to be.
Snack Monsters unite! Think of all the guilt free snacking possibilities! (Just ignore all the photos of the corn chips all over this post. Think – carrot sticks. 😂) – Nagi x
Salsa recipe
Watch how to make it
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Restaurant Style Salsa
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup chopped onion (white, brown or yellow)
- 1 tbsp jalapeño pepper , seeds removed, roughly chopped (fresh best, canned ok)
- 400g / 14 oz canned crushed tomato , best quality
- 4 oz / 120g canned diced green chiles (Note 1)
- 1/4 cup (packed) cilantro/coriander , roughly chopped
- 1/2 tbsp+ lime juice
- 1 clove garlic , minced
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Instructions
- Place onion and jalapeno in the food processor first, then add remaining ingredients (start with 1/2 tbsp lime juice).
- Blitz to desired consistency – I like mine pretty smooth because you get better flavour out of the onion etc.
- Taste test with corn chip for salt and lime. Adjust if necessary.
- Refrigerate 1 hour before serving with corn chips, or other dippers (see in post for suggestions).
Recipe Notes:
Originally published May 2014, completely updated in January 2019 including a few minor flavour improvements to recipe.
Life of Dozer
The daily post-beach routine: refusing to get out of the car, knowing a good hose down awaits…
Who likes to be hose down? Good photo! Salsa looks DELISH! Won’t to try home made tomato. Now is time to do it before season is over. Thank you. We are having stinker TOMMOROW, hot wind. Enjoy your weekend.
Yes definitely! Get in while they are still good!!
That looks delicious! We could use some heat in the US this week!
Is Austalia still getting scorching hot record-breaking weather? Much of the US has been in an historic deep freeze this week, with the coldest recorded temp of -60F/-51.1C. ( The coldest right here of about -25F/-31.6 degrees or so.)
Rivals from each US coast will be meeting, this time around, for the American-style football championship on Sunday in Atlanta, Georgia in a spectacular state-of-the-art stadium. New England Patriots vs Los Angeles Rams. (The team with the oldest and most accomplished coach and quarterback in American football vs the youngest coach and youngest quarterback in American football, as the result of these two teams each having finished as the top team of their respective football leagues. It’s the biggest annually televised US sporting event, and a particularly interesting match-up this year, by virtue of teams of opposite coasts and of vast age differences meeting for the championship. Go Pats! 🏉
We are definitely having some stinking hot days here! I hope you had a great weekend watching the Super Bowl!
We certainly did, thank you! The Patriots accomplished a number of things never done before in the entire history of American football, and more than a million and a half fans had attended a victory parade in Boston on Tuesday to celebrate. And luckily, too, spring-like temps had replaced an extended spell of polar temps just in time for the game & the parade. It had been deadly cold, literally, so yay for that, also!
That Italian cheese log and guacamole are ideal for the Super Bowl, too!
I cannot stand cilantro! No offense. It reminds me of arm-pits. Any substitution ideas?
😂 Just substitute with parsley – N x
There’s actually a scientific reason that people who don’t like cilantro really DON’T LIKE IT! A chemical in the brain makes it literally taste like soap, so any time someone gives you crap about just being a picky eater, you have science to back you up for not liking it (seriously, who wants to eat soap?).
To answer your question though, flat leaf parsley is a good sub. I absolutely LOVE cilantro, but my sister is one that can’t stand it, so I sub in parsely and it brings that fresh herby note you’re looking for.
Nutritional info??
I can’t find a prompt to print the recipie
It’s in the recipe card ☺️
Which canned tomatoes do you use in Aus
The struggle I have at the moment is good quality canned tomatoes! They are all very sour however Villa Rossi seem to be ok ❤️
All of a sudden I seem to be collecting salsa recipes, most of them from Mexican sites. Yours sounds quite good, though I don’t know how I would ever be able to use a full batch within the time limits for storage. We don’t have parties, and don’t eat salsa and chips, either (except when we visit a Mexican restaurant). Would this salsa be freezable?
I imagine it should be fine, maybe hold back on the cilantro and top up with fresh after defrosting. ❤️
Thanks, Nagi!
USA Foods in Sydney has Ortega fire roasted diced green chilies – are they the same?
That’s the one! But honestly, our chargrilled peppers in jars you can get from any grocery store gives a 98% match in terms of flavour 🙂 N x
Anxious to try this! I don’t have a regular blender – just an immersion version. Will that do the trick?
That will be fine Kathryn! N x
you are SO good to that Dozer! His doggiepal from the Polar Vortex sez ‘wish I was there with you!’
What a great recipe! I have made it a couple of times already. And will again bu making it just in time for the big game on Sunday. I leave the sugar out on mine and use cilantro. Again thanks Nagi 🙂 great recipe.
Hi Nagi,
Loving the recipe. Super bowl or not, it’s a great dip … corn chips and all! 😂
Awww …look at Dozer’s face …priceless 😂😂
Have an enjoyable day! Hugs😊🌺
Ha ha!! The game is HERE in Atlanta!!! Mind you, I don’t even know what time it starts but whole city abuzz with excitement which is fun. City shut down Tuesday for a snow storm but not one snowflake arrived. Love your recipes. You’d be the food blogger I would pick if I could follow only one. Only because of Dozer though. Thanks for making so many people happy.
Yum! What a delicious combination of flavours! Will try over the weekend! Enjoy yours! 🙂
You changed the recipe? Or is this a new one?
I changed the recipe slightly to improve it 🙂 Previously the ingredients included Chipotle in Adobo which I never use anymore. I also tidied up the writing, and completely redid the post, photos and video! N x
Hi Nagi,
By coriander do you mean cilantro or coriander seeds?
Hi Grace, yes fresh Coriander/cilantro ☺️
Is this spicy
A bit, from the jalapeño. Feel free to reduce or skip!
The list of ingredients that I see doesn’t seem to include the size/type of canned (tinned) tomatoes.
Hi there! I’m so sorry about that, we recently migrated recipes to a new plugin and we skipped that! It’s 14 oz / 400g, now fixed!
Perfect thanks!
What a ripper! I made this last night to have with your burrito’s.
OMG OMG OMG, it’s ridiculously easy to make and absolutely delicious.
It’s nearly a crime to make something so delish that’s so easy to make but what the heck, I’ll take it. I definitely won’t be buying salsa from here on in.
It’s going to perfectly match the eye fillet tonight.
Thanks again Nagi.
It’s great, isn’t it?? I really should republish this with better photos and a video! N xx
Hey Nagi….I’ve made this a few times as I find it’s really quite versatile.
I throw in about 3 chillies and whammo, a great chilli sauce for steak and it works well with baked potatoes loaded with bacon & sour cream.
I love that Barb! I especially love the chilli sauce idea! N xx
Hi Nagi.
I usually don’t comment but had to thank you for this great recipe. I just made this salsa and it’s the best salsa I ever had.
My kids all love it ,too. I wanted to eat this with the Pork Carnitas Tacos , which is cooking in the slow cooker right now..but the kids finished it with the tortilla chips… gonna have to make a new batch thiss time twice the amount. 🙂
Ii can’t wait to try your recipes Pork Carnitas.. tonight.
Thank you!!!
Oooh! I hope you love the carnitas, it is honestly one of my all time favourite foods on my site! N x
And loved the carnitas.. Thanx;)
I used the canned Longobardi whole peeled tomatoes… will this effect the thickness??
Hi Ella! Any canned tomato should be fine once pureed 🙂 N x