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:
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Topping / dipping for tacos, burritos, fajitas, nachos, quesadillas – basically everything and anything Mexican
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Spoon over crispy pan fried fish, juicy baked chicken breast, plain or marinated pan fried pork chops
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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…
I made this tonight as part of a Mexican fiesta and it was a huge hit! I left out the onion (I don’t like the taste of raw onion) and used half a jar of grilled capsicum instead of the canned green chilies. It was absolutely delicious and I will definitely make again 🙂
Good flavor! Will make it spicier next time. Mine turned out more of a deep brown red though? How do I get more of a red color?
Delicious and so easy!!
I was sceptical since this uses tinned tomatoes, but it’s actually amazing.
Blender?
Could this salsa be frozen? I’m having a party and thinking of things to do in advance. Also how long do chillies last in the fridge?
This recipe is so good and 100% easy. I never make salsa any other way and always receive great comments about it. Gracias!
Make this all. the time. It is so quick and easy and uses ingredients I always have in the cupboard. It keeps well in the fridge.
Love your new cook book have bought multiple copies to give as gifts.
We’re in Australia so didn’t have the option of the canned green chillies so we oven roasted a red capsicum until charred, peeled skin and blitzed that in with the rest of the ingredients. Found it needed a little something and that seemed to solve it!
How in the heck is this so good?! Anytime I think of salsa, I immediately think of fresh tomatoes. But this salsa wins over the prep work of fresh salsa any day. I made this exactly as written and it’s perfect. Thought it was a lot of salsa for 4 and then I started eating it and now I may have had 2 full servings, yes half of it. It’s so delicious. Thank you Nagi!
I am happy that you enjoyed it Mallory! N x
Are the El Paso tinned chopped jalapenos sold in Woollies the same as the ones you buy in the States? Can they be used as a good substitute, if not?
Yes Angela – the Old El Paso brand here is the same as in the USA. N x
Hi Nagi! I’m from Australia too, so no green chilies. just wondering if I can use chipotle chillies in adobo in place of them? For the smoky flavour. Or is it best to go with the chargrilled red peppers? Thanks so much!
Kahsha, I buy the Sandhurst Mild Chilli Peppers in the 400g jar.
Oooh. Thanks!
You could put a bit of chipotle (I don’t think you’ll need as much) in if you like the smokiness and more chilli heat. The colour won’t be as bright but it will taste good! N x
Thank you so much, for the reply! I ended up putting both the chargrilled capsicum and the chipotles in adobo in and it was amazing. I also made your pico de galo, guacamole, pork carnitas, Mexican shredded beef and Mexican rice. Everybody loved it. Thank you so much, for all the amazing recipes.
I”ve just made this and prepared for your other recipes. I’m in UK and have lived both in the States and Mexico and just cannot get a good Mexican for love or money. My kitchen spells amazing. Need to know if the salsa freezes.
Hope you don’t mind me asking but did you manage to get green chillies in the UK or did you use char grilled peppers? I am in the UK but grew up in AZ and really struggle to find certain things here. Am loving these recipes though 😍
Thank you Nagi, this was a hit today. I made this salsa as part of your mexican feast. Very happy with how it turned out. Plenty of compliments from my guests. Thanks again, really love how you provide simple and easy to follow instructions. The videos provide a great visual.
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)!