In just 5 minutes, and with a few ingredients, including canned tomatoes, you can make your own Restaurant Style Salsa! Just add some warm tortilla chips and you'll feel like you've just walked into your very own Taqueria!
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I am all about a good fresh tomato salsa, also called pico de gallo, salsa cruda, or salsa fresca, but other times, I want something smooth, easy to spoon into a bean burrito, scoop with a tortilla chip, or drizzle over eggs. I want a Restaurant Style Salsa.
You know the one. You go into one of your favorite Mexican restaurants, and they bring you a basket of warm tortilla chips and a bowl of tangy, dip-your-chip salsa. Y'know? That one.
This restaurant salsa has all the usual suspects, tomatoes, jalapeños, onion, cilantro, and lime, blended up into a smooth salsa, perfectly paired with just about anything!
Ingredients
Good salsa is something you want all year round, but not all the fresh ingredients are in season all year round. Enter canned tomatoes! You can just toss them straight into your food processor along with a few more easy to find items. Let's go over them and see where we can make changes, if you need to:
- Fire roasted tomatoes - Why use regular canned tomatoes when you can use tomatoes that have been charred just a bit, giving them a delightful smoky edge? Why indeed. If you can't find them, you can use regular canned, diced tomatoes for a still deee-licious salsa.
- Jalapeno I like to use 2 jalapeños, with all the seeds and the inner membranes, but I was raised on spicy food. If you are sensitive to spice, you can scrape out the seeds and the white ribs (membranes) on the inside of your peppers. You also can use canned green chilies, if that's what you can find.
- Onion - Traditional salsas use white onion, but feel free to use red onion if that's what you have.
- Fresh cilantro - Some people have a natural aversion to cilantro. Science Corner🔬: some people's noses can really sniff out the aldehyde compounds in cilantro, making the herb taste like a mouthful of Ivory Soap. (I'm a nerd.) If that sounds like you, you can substitute parsley for the cilantro. If you love cilantro, let your herb flag fly! Add 1 to 2 handfuls, or ½ to 1 cup.
- Sugar - Half a teaspoon of sugar doesn't sound like much, but tomatoes can be very acidic, and this small amount is enough to counteract that bitter acidity without bringing any sweetness to your salsa
- Fresh lime juice - Yes, we just (barely) neutralized the acidity in the tomatoes, and now we are adding more acidity with lime. It's a different brightly acidic note that really makes your salsa sing! Cha cha cha.
More tomato time If you love tomatoes, try my 10-Minute Marinated Tomatoes. Fresh tomatoes sliced and served with fresh herbs and a bright lemon marinade, it goes with everything!
Quick Recipe Video
How to make this salsa recipe
Try to keep up:
- Step 1: Add all ingredients to the bowl of your food processor or blender. (I prefer a food processor, but if you don't have one, feel free to use your blender, but be careful! We're making a textured salsa, we don't want a smoothie consistency. Don't let your blender run wild!)
- Step 2: Pulse until you have the desired consistency.
- Step 3: Transfer your restaurant salsa to an airtight food storage container, place in the fridge, and let the flavors hang out together for at least one hour. Eat the salsa. Whew! I'm exhausted. How 'bout you?
Love salsa? Try my Roasted Tomatillo Salsa. Made in less than 20 minutes, you char all the vegetables under the broiler and then blend it up into an addictive sauce in your food processor.
What does this salsa go with?
Besides tortilla chips? A shorter list might be what doesn't it go with, but here are a few ideas:
- Absolutely stuffed Breakfast Tacos.
- Finally, I love dunking my Baked Breakfast Taquitos in this homemade salsa. Try it and let me know what you think!
Looking for more Latin inspired flavors?
Did you try this recipe?
Please consider leaving a comment with a ⭐️ rating below and tell me all about it! It helps me to continue to improve my content and lets others know what you think!
I appreciate it so much!
-Cynthia
📖 Recipe
Restaurant Style Salsa
Ingredients
- 2 - 14 oz cans fire roasted tomatoes including juice
- 1 small white onion peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 - 2 fresh jalapeño peppers seeded and chopped
- 3 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 - 2 handfuls cilantro ½-1 cup
- Juice of a lime
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to food processor or blender. Pulse a few times to break up the large pieces, then process until texture is as smooth as desired.
- Taste the salsa and adjust salt and/or sugar as needed.
- Transfer to airtight food storage container and let sit in the refrigerator for at least one hour for best flavor.
- Serve with tortilla chips or anything your mouth desires, and enjoy!
Save This Recipe! 💌
I'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later, plus you'll get great new recipes from me every week!
Sherry says
I make this salsa recipe at least twice a week and put into mason jars, it is perfect and better than any restaurant style salsa homemade or even in restaurants here in Texas or many that I have tried, suits many palate preferences.
Cynthia Christensen says
That's amazing! I loe it too!