This homemade restaurant style Salsa recipe is one of my favorite most frequently made recipes! It’s perfect served with tortilla chips or as a topping over your favorite Mexican like tacos, burritos, taquitos and so forth. The best party food around and a must have snack!
The Best Salsa Recipe
Fact, the best salsa is made with fresh tomatoes. Okay that’s just my opinion but in the past I thought I could go the route of using all canned tomatoes but using fresh tomatoes makes a world of difference! Fresh tomatoes make the best salsa, especially when you use nicely ripened in season tomatoes.
This is hands down my favorite salsa recipe and I don’t know that I’ll ever need another one. It just has the perfect ratio and blend of everything.
It’s not too oniony or garlicy, nor too spicy for my kids, it doesn’t tasting like it came from a can and it has the perfect brightness with the fresh lime. Then it has a classic Mexican flavor with the cilantro and hint of chili powder and cumin.
The sugar I’d say is only needed if you are using store-bought tomatoes. If you grow your own or buy them at the farmers market the quality is a bit better and they’re a bit sweeter so the sugar isn’t needed.
Ingredients for Salsa
(Scroll below for full recipe)
- Fresh Roma tomatoes
- Fresh cilantro
- Jalapeno (if you don’t like heat you can replace it with 1/4 cup chopped bell pepper, or omit)
- Red onion
- Green onion
- Garlic
- Lime
- Chili powder and cumin
- Sugar
- Salt and pepper
How to Make Salsa
Making salsa at home couldn’t be easier! You just roughly chop the ingredients, toss them in a food processor and pulse it in quick bursts until it’s finely chopped up.
Tips for the Best Salsa
- Use best quality ingredients.
- Look for ripe tomatoes that aren’t hard as rocks, they should be semi-soft (not squishy) and should have a nice red color.
- Adjust the jalapeno to suite your taste. If you love heat leave the seeds, if you don’t like any heat omit it and if desired replace with some chopped bell pepper.
- Use fresh garlic, skip the bottled stuff.
- Regarding the onions, if you don’t want to buy both kinds of onions just use about 1/2 cup red onion. Yellow onion can also be used in place of red onion, I just like how the red is a little more mild.
- Let it chill first for an even tastier, more refreshing salsa. I just always seem to like it better the second day.
- Then as I listed in the recipe I love this salsa with canned plain tomatoes, canned tomatoes with green chilies, or canned fire roasted tomatoes. All work great just use what you have.
Homemade Tortilla Chips
What to go all out? Try this with homemade tortilla chips, fried or baked. Everyone will be totally impressed! I don’t make them often but when I do makes the salsa that much better.
More Salsa Recipes to Try
Salsa
Did you make this recipe? Leave a review.
A super easy, super fresh, super delicious salsa. You'll never need another salsa recipe again! This has been my go-to recipe for years, it's definitely a family favorite. We make it almost every week. It's a staple recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 lbs ripe Roma tomatoes (about 5 - 6)
- 1 (14.5 oz) can petite diced tomatoes*
- 2 green onions, ends trimmed, chopped into thirds
- 1/3 cup chopped red onion (about 1/4 of a medium)
- 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
- 1/3 cup fresh cilantro (about a handful)
- 1 large clove garlic, roughly chopped
- 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
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Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse in 1 second bursts until all ingredients are finely chopped.
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Serve with tortilla chips. Store in refrigerator up to 1 week.
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Recipe source: Cooking Classy
Recipe Notes
*Canned diced tomatoes with mild green chilis, or canned fire roasted tomatoes also work great as well.
For a thinner salsa you can add in a bit of tomato juice or tomato sauce if desired.
Jen: Question: do you think I could make this in a large batch and can it? July 2, 2014 at 7:45pm
Jaclyn: I’m not very familiar with canning so I can’t say for sure. I know there are a few rules like with the acidity and boiling time but I have no idea what they are, sorry! July 2, 2014 at 8:01pm
Jennifer: I bet you could – I would love to try it – is it the water bath or pressure canning method for tomatoes? I can’t recall – I have a ginormous pressure canner that can be used without the lid for water bath (that I have NEVER used!) so I’d definitely try it! July 3, 2014 at 3:38am
Delilah: Great salsa. I used more jalapeños because we like our salsa HOT! If you are going to can the salsa, use RealLime instead of fresh lime juice. The reason I say this is because they tell you to use RealLemon instead of fresh lemon juice when canning tomatoes. July 25, 2018 at 10:51am
Jennifer: This is amazing salsa :) Dummy me made a double batch – one would have been plenty as it makes a TON :) I might not add the sugar next time and maybe I will drain my canned tomatoes but overall – FANTASTIC :) Thank you for sharing! June 18, 2014 at 12:25pm
Jaclyn: I’m so glad you liked it Jennifer! Thanks for your review! June 19, 2014 at 11:15pm
Karen: You didn’t reply to Jennifer’s comment about draining. Don’t you drain the canned tomatoes? I have another salsa recipe that calls for DRAINED canned tomatoes. July 20, 2018 at 10:46pm
Jaclyn: Don’t drain the tomatoes, the juices give the salsa a better consistency. Sorry for the late reply! July 21, 2018 at 9:50pm
alana: thanks this salsa is 5 star!!! delish! Can you post your version of chicken quesidillas?!! THANK U SOOOO MUCH!:) February 11, 2014 at 1:32pm
Jaclyn: I’m so glad you liked this salsa Alana :)!! February 18, 2014 at 10:37pm
Alison: Did u use a mini food processor or reg. size? January 14, 2014 at 4:10pm
Jaclyn: I use a regular size – I think mine is 7 cups. A mini would probably work but you’d have to do it in batches then mix it all together in a bowl. January 14, 2014 at 7:34pm
Kylie: Have just found your website, and living Down U,nder and missing good Mexican food…I can’t wait to see what this turns out like…the chicken is in the slow cooker as we speak and i am about to go raid the veggie patch for fresh tomatoes. Thanks for sharing…ps love your photos, they look fab. March 6, 2013 at 5:23pm
Jaclyn: Thanks Kylie! I hope you enjoyed! March 7, 2013 at 9:39am
Gina Porter: Hands down best salsa ever!!! February 3, 2013 at 4:13pm
Jaclyn: Gina – I was so excited to see a comment from you!! Thanks so much, I’m so glad you liked the salsa! February 4, 2013 at 8:04pm
Joe and Breana: Just made this to go along with the slow cooked beef tacos on your site. The salsa was so easy, and it tastes fabulous! I can’t wait to try the tacos tonight! Thank you for sharing! January 11, 2012 at 10:47am
Sarah @ The Feed: Hi got to you via foodgawker! We are a new community driven food blog – we would love to see some posts by you! Check up out at feedintothefeed.com and consider submitting your work! November 17, 2011 at 1:32pm