The key to the best homemade salsa recipe? Super fresh ingredients! We’re using fresh produce and a few special seasonings to make our salsa extra delicious. Here’s what you’ll need to make it:
- Produce: you’ll need fresh tomatoes, yellow and green onion, and jalapeño, plus lime juice, cilantro and garlic for flavor.
- Seasonings: we like to add a little cumin and plenty of salt to bring all the flavors together.
- Sweetener: because the tomatoes are acidic, you’ll also want to add a bit of sugar to balance everything.
What tomatoes are best for salsa?
Our resources think that Roma tomatoes give homemade salsa the best texture and flavor, but you can also use vine-ripe or heirloom tomatoes if you’d like.
Some people use a mix of canned tomatoes and fresh ones, but we find the salsa perfectly flavorful with ripe, fresh tomatoes.
One of the key steps for making incredible tomato salsa is to let it chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours or overnight so that the flavors come together. I know diving right in is tempting, but trust us on this one!
- 1 1/2 pounds tomatoes (vine-ripe, roma or heirloom), cored and quartered — Roma provides the best for texture
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 1 green onion, ends trimmed
- 2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 2 jalapeños (with seeds If you like heat!), diced
- 1 heaping handful of cilantro (about 1/2 cup)
- Half a lime, juiced
- Pinch of cumin
- Pinch of sugar
- Salt, to taste
Directions:
Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor and pulse until it gets to the desired consistency; you can make it chunky or smooth! I like a little bit of texture so I go with slightly chunky. Add salt to taste. Chill salsa for 1-2 hours or overnight to let flavors come together. Serve with chips, on nachos, on chili, or anything you like!
If you end up with slightly watery salsa from extra juicy tomatoes, feel free to strain some of the liquid out with a fine mesh strainer. Easy!
