Homemade Salsa with fresh ingredients and full of flavor, just like the one you’re served at your favorite restaurant! This restaurant style salsa is made with roasted tomatoes and onions which enhances all the flavors. Delicious and simple!
You know that salsa you get at Mexican restaurants the minute you walk in with lots of chips? Well, that’s my favorite part and I’ve never been able to get flavor that out of a jar! But this recipe is simple enough that you can make yourself at home with a handful of fresh ingredients.
I really believe that salsa is best when only a few key ingredients are involved. While there are so many recipes for this dip, literally millions and some with dozens of ingredients, I still believe in my mantra: simple is always best. This recipe is the perfect accompaniment for quesadillas, fajitas, taquitos, or served beside some homemade guac. You name it!
How to Make Salsa
The first step for this recipe is to halve the tomatoes, quarter the onions, and throw them all on a sheet pan with the garlic. Toss the pan in a nice and hot oven, and let everything roast. I believe that roasting your tomatoes and onions gives the salsa so much complexity of flavor. I prefer to roast my own tomatoes rather than buy canned roasted tomatoes. It literally only takes minutes! I like to roast the tomatoes just until they start to slightly char.
Now the hard part is done! Phew. All that’s left to do is dump the rest of your ingredients into a food processor or blender, and pulse until you have the perfect consistency.
What Ingredients Are in This Salsa Recipe?
For my salsa recipe I like to stick with the key ingredients. In my books those would be tomatoes, garlic, onions, cilantro, chiles or jalapeños and a little bit of lime juice. The beautiful thing about salsa is that you can really get creative with it and make any changes you want to create your perfect version.
I did choose canned diced chilies in this recipe only because I wanted a milder salsa with a hint of smokiness, but if you want a spicier salsa, leave out the diced chiles and roast a couple of jalapeños along with the tomatoes. Or you can even use both. Totally up to you! Want to give it a nice kick? Use a habanero, scotch bonnet, or ghost pepper to really crank up the heat.
I added a bit of lime juice, which is totally optional if you don’t like a tangy salsa. Last but not least, don’t forget to season well with plenty of salt and pepper.
Looking for More Great Dip Recipes? Try These:
- Easy Hummus
- Crockpot Bacon Queso Blanco Dip
- Red Lentil Hummus
- Spicy Cheesy Corn and Tomato Dip
- Baba Ganoush
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Homemade Salsa
Ingredients
- 8 medium tomatoes halved, (I used Roma tomatoes)
- 2 medium onions quartered
- 6 cloves garlic peeled
- 4.5 ounce mild diced green chiles (1 can)
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
- 2 tablespoon lime juice freshly squeezed
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper or to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees.
- Place the tomatoes, onions and garlic on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes or just until the onions and tomatoes start to get a little char on them. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the tomatoes cool for about 5 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, onions, garlic, green chiles, cilantro, lime juice and salt and pepper to a food processor and pulse a few times until you get the desired consistency.
- Pour in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap (or an airtight container) and refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours before serving.
I made this, but added a 1/2 tsp of cumin and it tasted like restaurant style. Yummy!
Just made this and could spoon it all into my mouth immediately while it’s still a bit warm, but will restrain myself and serve later with chicken fajitas.
This is really good! I don’t like anything too hot but this was perfect.. just enough heat. The honey doesn’t make it overly sweet. I think I put more cilantro then was called for but I love cilantro. Really can’t go wrong with this recipe!
Should the oven temperature rather be 450 ?
At 350, my tray is just drying out and breaking down, not getting any char whatsoever.
I just looked at other recipes for roasting tomatoes and they have 450 listed.
You can definitely increase the heat! We were just looking for a very slight char on the onion but even more will still be great. You can use your grill as well, if you have one.
Can you can this recipe?
For sure! Make sure to search up proper canning techniques to make sure it’s done properly and safely.
Do you peel the tomatoes first before putting them in the food processor?
I did not, you can see in the video, they’ve got their skin on. Let me know how it turns out if you make it!
I’m not seeing a video link.
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What is the serving size? Looks delicious 😋
About 1/2 cup. It’s so delicious!
Thank you! Looks DELISH! Love home made tomatoes and now is the time to make it hem and enjoy before season is over.
Thanks for the roasting tip! I looked up a lot of salsa recipes and yours won me over! Turned out great!
Glad you liked it!