This is such an EASY homemade salsa recipe! All you have to do is throw all the ingredients into your blender, and blend!
No Mexican entree is complete without a complimentary salsa or dip! This is the most easy and versatile salsa (it goes with EVERYTHING!), but we of course love to serve it with fresh Homemade Tortilla Chips.
Restaurant style salsa at home
Who doesn’t love Salsa?
We love them all – red, green, strawberry, peach, etc.!
I grew up on the stuff (remember – I’m half Mexican!) I’ve always loved a great Homemade Salsa recipe and have tried so many different kinds growing up.
I’ve also tried many recipes myself and have enjoyed them all, but think I finally found the easiest and yummiest way to make homemade salsa.
This delicious homemade salsa recipe takes just a few minutes to make and tastes like it came straight from the restaurant. All I need is a big bowl of homemade Tortilla Chips and I’m set. 😉
How to make salsa
I’m not joking around when I say you literally throw everything into your blender or food processor, blend it up, and that’s it.
There’s no chopping, no dicing, no nothing! Even the Roma tomatoes and cilantro can be tossed in whole. How nice is that?!
Using all fresh tomatoes: I use canned tomatoes for the convenience of this recipe. I also like that the rotel is already mixed with the green chilies and all I have to do is add all the ingredients to my bullet. However, you can skip the canned tomatoes and use fresh ones. There are 5-6 whole, peeled tomatoes in one 14 oz can.
Here are a few variations you can make of this salsa recipe:
- Don’t have fresh tomatoes? Just add another can of Rotel (drained)!
- If you like onion in your salsa, add ½ small onion, roughly chopped.
- You can seed the jalapeños if you want it less spicy, or leave the seeds in for a spicy kick.
- Add 1 tsp of honey for a hint of sweetness.
- If you don’t have Ro-Tel (canned diced tomatoes with green chilies) at your local grocery store, you can substitute half a can of diced tomatoes, plus a 4 oz. can of green chiles.
how to thicken your salsa
If your pureed salsa is too thin or watery for your liking, try adding a cornstarch slurry.
For each cup of salsa you want to thicken add 1 tbsp of cornstarch to a separate bowl. Then add and equal amount of water to the separate bowl (ex. if you use 3 tbsp cornstarch then add 3 tbsp water). Stir until it forms a paste.
This won’t work if your salsa is cold, so put your salsa in a saucepan and heat over medium heat. Once it is simmering, add the cornstarch slurry to the salsa and stir.
How to store salsa + freeze
STORING. If stored in an air-tight container in the fridge, fresh salsa can last for a week. If the color starts to darken, a smell starts to omit or fungus forms, then the salsa is no longer good. This is also determined based off of the fresh ingredients you used to make the salsa.
**Note**: Even though I have this in a glass jar it still needs to be refrigerated. Do not put it on the pantry shelf. Be sure to convey this message if you give it as gifts.
Can you freeze fresh salsa? The short answer is Yes, you can freeze salsa. However there are a few tip to keep in mind.
- The salsa may discolor a bit. To help prevent this add a bit of lemon or lime juice to the salsa.
- When salsa is thawed it tends to be more watery. You can either drain the excess water from the thawed salsa or pretreat the tomatoes before making the salsa. You can pretreat the tomatoes by first, quarter your tomatoes and place in a colander. Second, allow the water to drain out for several hours.
- Make sure to store in an airtight container in smaller serving sizes.
- Do not freeze chunky salsa. Pureed salsa freezes best.
Frozen salsa lasts for 2-4 months.
What to serve with salsa?
Homemade Salsa isn’t just good for tortilla chips. We have so many recipes we love to serve this salsa with, including:
- Chicken Tacos
- Bean Chimichangas
- Chicken Quesadillas
- Fry Bread
- Chicken Chimichangas
- Cream Cheese and Chicken Taquitos
- Beef Empanadas
For more Mexican dips and salsas, check out:
- 7 Layer Bean Dip
- Mango Salsa
- Nacho Cheese
- Simple Guacamole
- Pico de Gallo
- Black Bean and Corn Salsa
- Red Enchilada Sauce
- Green Enchilada Sauce
Homemade Salsa Recipe
Ingredients
- 14 oz can diced tomatoes drained
- 10 oz can original Rotel drained
- 2 – 3 Roma tomatoes
- ½ onion (or 1 tbsp onion powder)
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 – 2 tbsp diced jalapenos
- 1 tsp garlic salt (with parsley flakes)
- ¼ tsp ground cumin
- medium size handful of cilantro washed
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp lime juice
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to blender and mix until well blended.
- Add any more salt or lime juice if needed.
Video
Recipe adapted from Mountain Mama Cooks.
Homemade Salsa Gift
In case you want to give a jar of Homemade Salsa as a gift, I decided to make some free printable tags. You can make it a gift to give anytime of the year, or it would be a great Christmas gift as well. There are tags for either occasion:
All you have to do is download the tag you want.
SAVE & pRINT SALSA TAGS:
To Save, CLICK on the link below of the tag you like. Then, RIGHT-CLICK and SAVE. Open it in a program like WORD, RE-SIZE, PRINT, cut out and attach.
Homemade Salsa Tag OR Warm Wishes Salsa Tag
Nothing like a delicious and simple recipe as well as how to turn it into a quick and inexpensive gift too!
We also made tags for our Salsa Verde so be sure to check that out too!
Love it
I’ve made this several times for dinner parties and it woes the crowd every time! Simple and quick!
I’ve made this recipe for dinner parties several times and it never disappoints! Everyone is so impressed it’s homemade! Simple and quick!
We love this salsa recipe! we make it almost weekly. So easy with stuff I usually have on hand. It’s extra easy when swapping onion powder for onion. Love it. Yum. Now… I need to go eat some salsa… but I need to make it first, since I probably drank the end of the last batch! (Who needs chips?)
This is our go to salsa. It’s SO good!
So good! My family loves it!
Super easy and ooh so yummy!!
Love this salsa it’s the best
Best salsa I made. My favorite Mexican rest made this salsa I could not find their secret. You just saved me money and made my salsa dream come up. TKs
Great Job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much!! So glad you love the salsa recipe!
Great recipe restaurant quality and very easy
Delicious! I have made this for 40 years. I used to bring some to work and share with my coworkers. When they knew I was bringing it, they would bring containers! Lol
Tip: I drain the tomatoes, and or Rotel first. When the salsa is just about finished, I add the tomato juice until I reach the thickness desired.
That’s so awesome! And thanks for sharing the tip!
This salsa was perfect! we loved it and the flavor was so good!
So good and so easy! I love the idea of giving this recipe as gifts. Thanks for that idea!
This is such a yummy homemade salsa recipe! I will be honest, I leave the jalapenos out, haha, or just use a little bit, I am a bit of wimp when it comes to spicy food.
The best I have ever had. My family loves it.
Oh yay!! I’m so so happy to hear that you all enjoy the salsa! Thanks for sharing!
What type of jalapeños did you use? Fresh? Canned? Pickled?
I like to use fresh!! You can leave the seeds in for more kick or deseed them for less heat.
Do you have a recipe for canning this?
Where does the outrageous, killer amount of sodium come from??
You can certainly adjust the amount of sodium by using no salt added canned tomatoes and no salt added Rotel. You can also use garlic powder, rather than garlic salt. Then add as much salt as you prefer… that way you can control the amount of salt in the salsa. We love it as is, but there are options if you want lower sodium. 🙂
Delicious! Always a hit!
Thank you! So glad to hear that!
I pulse a little for chunky. Thank you for this recipe