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…
Hi! My husband doesn’t eat raw tomatoes… Do you think I could blend everything and then warm it up and let it cook for a while?
Hi Lara, you could, it’s going to change the flavour a little but will be fine. N x
I just made this salsa this afternoon and not sure how I failed. but it was too sweet and too tomato-ey. The flavor of the tomatoes is just too potent. I added lots of lime juice and salt. It’s thick and paste like in consistency. The only change I made was to double the recipe.
What can I do to fix it?
Increase the other ingredients 20-30% to decrease overwhelming tomato flavor. I did this and it worked out great!
Hi Rebecca, it is a tomato based salsa so should definitely taste of tomatoes – can I ask what brand you used? Could it have possibly had added sugar to it? N x
I have made this salsa many times and everyone loves it- it’s perfectly balanced and delicious. The perfect salsa and soooo easy to make. thank you Nagi!
Just a word of warning … I think in Canada you will want to get DICED canned tomatoes, not crushed (which are essentially pureed). I made that mistake with another one of your recipes, the chili I think. Looking at the video, I can see chunks in the canned tomatoes. I will make this next time I need salsa!
Hi Jenn, you can use either in this recipe 🙂 N x
Safe to say I am never going to buy store salsa again! This was delicious and so easy 🙂 thanks Nagi!
Hi Nagi. Just wondering re the nutritional value for this one. Can you advise how many calories? Thanks in advance. Dani
Just tried this recipe, loved it! Came out really good! Thank you for this recipe, it was perfect(a family favorite now)!
It hurt my heart seeing green chile called ‘tex-mex’. It’s a particular cultivar called the ‘New Mexico Chile’. It’s been grown in NM since before it was even annexed by the US and is the central feature of NM cuisine (also our state vegetable). And we New Mexicans hate being lumped in with Texans! (and that rubbish they serve at Taco Bill’s) If you like the canned stuff, make sure to stop by NM next time you’re in the US to try the real thing 🙂
Interesting about green chili’s. I love NM has claimed it but they have been grown in CA and TX long before NM : )
I want to ask if you can can this salsa for later use?? Please inform me how to can or freeze.
Thank you Jeff
Hi Jeff, I make big batches of this and store it in the fridge. We’ve eaten it 3+ weeks on and its been fine. Not as fresh and it goes a little watery but its still delicious
Sensational!! We had it tonight in tacos with your Mexican shredded beef, amazing!
Excellent Leeanne! N x
Wow! Fantastic recipe. We don’t like anything too hot, so left out the chilies & added plenty of green pepper with the onion. Didn’t have any fresh coriander, only some that I had frozen previously, so added that. Didn’t have any lime juice either. Just whizzed it all up & then simmered it for 10mins to thicken it up. Really great & I froze the leftovers for next time
Thanks a lot Nagi, another great recipe!
So with respect allow me to clarify. I’m sure you made something you enjoyed eating. As an Arizonan I can assure you it wasn’t salsa. An unusual type of gaspatcho, perhaps. Jalapeño, green chili, cilantro, lime juice…..i honestly hope you enjoyed whatever you made. It wasn’t Nagi posted. It wasn’t Mexican nor southwestern. It was you own creation that doesn’t have a name. Please don’t post on others websites with your own recipes for whatever you posted here. I’m not trying to humiliate you, only trying to educate you. If any humiliation took place, welll that was all on you, Linda, for posting your recipe on someone else’s website for a dish that wasn’t being reviewed
Beth, please accept my virtual high five 🙂
Nagi, please keep doing what you do x
Tasted so good, had to add coriander powder 1/4 tsp and minced garlic from a can, but didn’t impact it at all. Finished the salsa and still had half my chips left, oops!
Nagi, all of your recipes are so damn amazing. I hope to try them all (I have your butter chicken in the fridge atm)
That’s great to hear Leslie! N x
Nagi, I’m going to try this one. I have followed you for quit some time and enjoy you post! Oh and I just love Dozer!!!!!
Thanks so much Eric, I hope you love it! N x
Utterly fantastic. Partner kept asking “where’s my dip” when he opened the fridge and had to remind him 2 batches had already been downed. Have to pace him on Nagi salsa at this point. 🙂
I LOVE this!! !It’s so modish isn’t it?!
Excellent recipe. Have made a few times and have been asked for the recipe. So easy to make and so delicious, certainly a winner. Thanks Nagi.
I’m so glad you love it Jackie, it’s hard to go back to store bought when you know it’s this easy!
This is a great recipe, but may I make a suggestion? Instead of adding the onion directly in the food processor chop it fine brunoise and stir it in later. I also do that with the jalapenos when I want a milder salsa. Pomi is a brand of tomatoes in a carton that works well for this style of salsa.
When I am rushed I buy cheap fresh salsa and doctor it with cumin, cilantro, lime or a little vegetable stock. Nine out of ten times it’s good. Just this morning I made your salsa, spicy and mild version and some pineapple salsa for grilled mahi.
This is the best food blog….ever! Thank you I have made many of your grilled recipes.
You could definitely do that if you prefer, I just like the ease of adding it to a food processor – N x
Hi! I’m from the U.S. and now live in Mexico my guilty pleasure when ever I’m in the states is the jar of queso doo that I cant get here! I love this recipe! I’ve made it multiple times! My only problem is that it seems to turn out grainy… It still taste amazing but do you know why it would be grainy?
Hi Marina, not sure why it would be grainy – possibly the tomatoes that you are using? – N x
I made this recipe for 40 people and it turned out absolutely amazing! I decide on a taco bar for the dinner and made everything ahead then reheated the hot items in the crock-pot. I included the following TinEats Recipe’s: Carnitas, Mexican Red Rice, Restaurant Style Salsa, and Queso Dip. It all was amazing! Thanks Nagi for a great meal!
Super easy and super tasty!
I’m so glad you loved it!
By chargrilled peppers in jars, do you mean chargrilled capsicum here in Australia or chilli peppers? Thanks 🙂
Yes – Capsicum as per the recipe notes 🙂