7-Minute DIY Salsa
One of my favorite things to make in the kitchen is homemade restaurant style salsa. It is so quick, ultra simple and crazy good. Just a few ingredients & a whirl in the blender stand between you and one of the best things about Mexican food! No more under seasoned, overly spicy, too chunky, salt overloaded, gaggy garlic or onion extreme. When you DIY it, you make it just the way YOU like it.
I start with a mix of canned crushed tomatoes & fresh tomatoes. Depending on what is available, you can stick with one or the other. In order to keep the salsa from being too watery, I always scoop out the tomato seeds.
One more tip with the tomatoes: I add them in batches, saving at least one to be added right before the last few pulses. This added a little texture to my salsa.
A quarter of a sweet onion is all of the “onion” I can stand – feel free to increase according to your taste.
I love a of punch heat but I try to keep my salsa on the tame side for the boys in the house. So I make sure and remove all seeds and veins of the jalapeños before adding to the food processor. If you like heat, leave the seeds and veins in the jalapeño. Usually one or two jalapeños is plenty. I add the jalapeño in small batches & taste before adding more to make sure the heat level is perfect.
Tasting throughout the process is an important part in getting it to taste just the way you like it, so have a few chips handy.
I used to be stingy in adding cilantro and one day I realized salsa can handle a few big handfuls.
I always add half a teaspoon ((or so)) of sugar, it really offsets the acid in the tomatoes. Be careful though, once it gets too sweet, it is almost impossible to repair!
Salt and pepper to taste round out my recipe. I start off by adding half a teaspoon of each, pulse taste and repeat until the flavors are close. Tasting with chips also helps prevent over-salting because you are taking the salt of the chip into consideration as you adjust flavors.
Notice I didn’t say perfect?? I do a final salting after the salsa has been refrigerated for an hour or so. This “rest” gives all of the ingredients a chance to get comfortable with each other. Once the flavors have fully combined it is easier to decide if more salt is needed. Read my notes in the recipe below for salsa variations.
- 1-28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
- 4 medium tomatoes, quartered and seeded
- 1 to 2 jalapeños, quartered, deveined and deseeded
- 1/4 sweet yellow onion, roughly chopped ((more or less to taste))
- 1/2 t sugar
- 1 t salt ((more or less to taste))
- 1/2 t freshly ground black pepper ((more or less to taste))
- Tortilla chips
- In a food processor, combine crushed tomatoes, half of the fresh tomatoes, one jalapeño and onion. Pulse to combine, 30 secs to one minute. Add sugar, salt and pepper and pulse for 10 sec. Use a tortilla chip to taste, add remaining tomatoes, jalapeños ((if more heat is desired)) and add additional s & p if necessary.
- Refrigerate 1 hour to over night before serving.
- Keep refrigerated, lasts 7 days.
- Add some black beans, corn, diced mango, fresh pineapple, watermelon or chopped fresh cranberries to your salsa.
- Oven roast your onions, tomatoes and peppers before making your salsa.
- Use green tomatoes and tomatillos to make a salsa verde.