Restaurant Salsa
This restaurant style salsa recipe is so fresh and easy to make with canned or garden tomatoes. You’ll love the authentic Mexican flavors and simple ingredients.
Be sure to serve this with my easy Salsa Chicken recipe!
Restaurant Salsa
Making this salsa recipe takes nothing more then blending the ingredients together and letting it chill. It’s also so easy to add in extra ingredients like corn and black beans!
I’ve been making this recipe for several years and just love what little effort it takes.
Plus, you can totally freeze leftovers. (How you ask?)- Read on!
Ingredients
- Tomatoes– Canned plum tomatoes or your own canned tomatoes from the garden.
- Garlic- Use fresh garlic whenever possible.
- Lime Juice
- Jalapenos
- Sugar
- White Onion
- Cilantro
- Cumin
- Salt
How to Make it
Blend the Ingredients
- Add everything to a food processor or a blender and pulse it until it’s reached your desired consistency.
Let it Chill
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to allow it to chill and for the flavors to blend. The longer you chill, the more flavorful it will be.
Serve
Pro Tip: I love this mini food processor because it takes up such a small amount of space. (Although I have to blend this salsa in 2 batches with it.)
Using Leftover Salsa
- Be sure to try this with my Chicken Salsa Recipe!
- You can also add salsa to tomato-based sauces, serve it with eggs, over salads, on burgers and hot dogs, and more.
- Check out this collection from Serious eats for 30 things to do with leftover salsa.
Storage
Refrigerating
- This salsa should be stored in an airtight container in the fridge. It’s best if used within 5 days. Or, you can also freeze it!
Freezing
- Freezing leftover salsa is an excellent alternative to letting it go bad in your refrigerator. There are just a few tricks you need to know:
- Thicken it up: Otherwise it will be too watery after being frozen. You can do this one of two ways:
- Mix in tomato paste.
- Simmer it on the stove to let excess liquid evaporate. Let it cool completely before freezing.
- Store in portion sized containers with a little excess room at the top for expansion when it freezes.
- Thicken it up: Otherwise it will be too watery after being frozen. You can do this one of two ways:
☝️ This is the bowl pictured in this recipe and I love it, I bought it specifically for serving up this salsa. It fits a ton and is great for a crowd. The quality is fantastic and it looks like a bowl from an authentic Mexican Restaurant.
More Mexican Recipes
- Guacamole
- Cowboy Queso
- Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Copycat Taco Bell Mexican Pizza
- Taco Casserole
- Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps
Get my Free Meal Plan
I’ve got a Free Meal Plan with 7 of my super popular recipes (complete with grocery list)! Sign up for my email list and I’ll send it over now along with weekly dinner recipes!
And follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
👉Note: If you’re big into homemade salsas and hot sauces, you absolutely want to check out my friends at Chili Pepper Madness. They have enough mouth-watering, spicy, and delicious recipes to last you a lifetime!
Restaurant Salsa
Ingredients
- 28 oz. whole plum tomatoes, with the juice, 1 large can
- 1 small white onion, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1-2 jalapeño peppers, diced, with seeds removed
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 Tablespoons lime juice
- 1-2 handfuls fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
- 1½ teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, (optional)
Instructions
- Pulse all ingredients thoroughly in a food processor until it’s reached your preferred texture. (You can also use a blender)
- Refrigerate for a minimum of 30-60 minutes, the longer the flavors can blend together, the better!
- Serve with your favorite Mexican foods and enjoy!
Notes
- Leftovers should be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Be sure to try this with my Salsa Chicken recipe.
- This salsa is also great with Cowboy Queso, Cajun Chicken Tacos, Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps, Southwest Chicken Salad, and Mexican Scrambled Eggs!
Nutrition
Could this be made with fresh tomatoes? Always looking for ways to use our garden tomatoes. Would anything need to be different if fresh tomatoes were used?
Hi Makenzie, yes, you could use fresh tomatoes for sure! You MIGHT want to remove the skins for texture purposes, I show you how to do that on my post for canning garden tomatoes. Enjoy!!
Thanks! How many do you think I’d need?
You’ll need 28 ounces, not sure what size or what kind of tomatoes you have. If you have a kitchen scale that would be handy!
Can I preserve this in a hot water bath or pressure canner?itlooks just like what I want to make!
Hi Linda! You sure can! You can prepare my recipe for the salsa and then follow this tutorial on how to can the salsa from there. I hope this helps! 🙂
My family LOVES all things Mexican. This is the BEST salsa recipe. Simple * Quick * Fresh.
Hi Christine! I’m so happy that you and your family enjoy it, what a perfect time of year for some homemade salsa! Thank you so much for taking the time to come back and leave a review, I really appreciate it! -Stephanie
Is it spicy, we both like ours pretty spicy and I can never get it that way?
Hey Wendy! I would KEEP the jalapeno seeds in the salsa then, definitely!! ENJOY! I love it spicy too! -Stephanie
Can you can this salsa for later instead of putting it in the refrigerator
Hi Drake! I’ve never canned my own salsa but I do believe you need to cook it in order to can it. I don’t know any additional details though, although it would be a nice thing to learn!
I did a little research and yes you can can it for up to five months but you have to add vinegar to do that to add acidity so it doesn’t go bad or get bacteria
I used stewed tomatoes and used almost 2 tsp of cumin. My salsa tastes great but is more of a greenish brown color. Has this happened to anyone else? Could it be that extra Cumin? I left out the sugar because we prefer salsa that it less sweet too.
Hi Carol, my guess would be that maybe your stewed tomatoes were a little darker in color vs. a brighter red? I’m not quite sure but I hope you liked the way it tasted! 🙂 Happy New Year! -Stephanie
The one pot pizza pasta was delicious
Hi Deb! I’m so happy you enjoyed the one pot pizza pasta! That’s definitely a fun one that we love to make in our house! 🙂
My husband eats salsa on everything and is very picky about how I make it. I followed the recipe exactly as written even adding the sugar and was surprised that he said this was Great salsa. This is a good recipe to keep on hand during the winter months when you don’t have fresh garden tomatoes.
Hi Colette! I’m so happy your husband loves the salsa! I have to say, I was surprised when I tried it, it really is good! Thanks so much for letting me know how you did! 🙂
Hi- this was great!
I know, right!
Holy cow, this looks like the best restaurant salsa ever and I don’t have to travel to the states to get it. 🙂 I can’t wait to try this at home.
YAY I hope you do get to try it, it’s so easy to just blend everything together- I eat it every day when I get home from work, it’s almost gone already… oops! 🙂
Ahhhhh, thank you SO MUCH for the shout out and sweet words 😀 😀 Your salsa looks ah-mazing! I’m soooooo glad that you love the salsa… we pretty much always have a big container of it in the fridge, it’s too addicting 😉
I’m SO happy to have this recipe now, I’ve been dying for this exact taste in homemade salsa for evaaaaaaaaa!!!