Homemade Salsa Recipe
by Sommer Collier — last updated on May 20, 2025 How To Make Salsa – We’re sharing our secrets for making The Best Homemade Salsa Recipe we have ever tried. It’s healthy, fresh, and easy to adjust! Serve for game day or as a healthy snack!
Why We Love This Best Homemade Salsa Recipe
There is a tomato overload in my backyard right now. Every year I plant way more tomato seeds than any family needs, in the hope that a few plants will survive and thrive. I am not known for being the best gardener, yet I do get lucky now and again.
This year, my tomato plants took off, providing us with a seemingly endless supply of seven varieties of garden tomatoes. I have been eating them in salads and sauces for the last month. Yet I always say, when life gives you tomatoes… Make salsa!
There are hundreds thousands of tomato salsa recipes online. Why should you make this one?
Well, we think this is The Best Homemade Salsa Recipe around because it is healthy, quick to make, offers a fine chunky texture, and is brimming with absurd amounts of flavor.
Want to know the secret to perfectly delicious salsa?
Ingredients You Need
Sometimes fresh tomato salsa recipes, made with just fresh ingredients, can come off with a shallow acidic flavor… Lacking depth. Whereas, salsa made with canned ingredients alone can taste store-bought.
I believe you need both fresh and canned ingredients to make the best homemade salsa recipe.
Here is everything you need to make the most delicious homemade salsa:
- Ripe tomatoes – cored and quartered, no peeling necessary! (romas or plum tomatoes are a good choice)
- Red onion – peeled and quartered (or yellow onion)
- Garlic cloves – peeled
- Jalapeños – stemmed and seeded
- Cilantro
- Fresh lime juice
- Ground cumin
- Sugar – optional. Sometimes the tomatoes need a little boost to balance the acidity.
- Salt
- Canned crushed San Marzano tomatoes – or fire-roasted tomatoes
- Diced green chiles – your choice of mild, medium, or hot
You will taste bright tangy notes from garden-fresh tomatoes, sharp notes from the onion and garlic, herbs and spice, and complexity from the “secret ingredient” canned items, all in one!
Get the Complete (Printable) Best Homemade Salsa Recipe + Video at the End of this Post!
How To Make Salsa
Prepare the veggies and add them to your food processor (or blender) along with lime juice and seasonings. Chop to a fine grade, or blend.
Next, add the canned crushed San Marzano tomatoes and green chiles. Puree again until almost smooth to create an even yet chunky consistency. The canned tomatoes provide a rustic essence and sweetness that accentuates the fresh produce, while the canned green chiles deliver a smoky quality that fresh peppers lack.
Add more cumin and salt to taste, and refrigerate until chilled and ready to enjoy.
Tips & Tricks
- If you don’t own a food processor, you can use a blender instead! Just be careful not to over blend, since you want some texture here. Or, finely chop all of the ingredients and mix them up in a bowl for a chunky salsa.
- For the best flavor, use the freshest ingredients!
- Chill the salsa before serving. It will bring the flavors together beautifully!
Serving Suggestions
Spoon this flavorful salsa over eggs, on your favorite Mexican dishes like quesadillas, chicken enchiladas, tacos al pastor, chicken tacos, breakfast tostadas, and burrito bowls. Use it in 5 Layer Bean Dip, Slow Cooker Taco Tater Tots, or our Baked Tacos Recipe. Or scoop it up with tortilla chips or fresh veggies!
You are going to love this recipe for game day, potlucks, parties, or just keeping it in the fridge for any time you need a zesty snack!
Frequently Asked Questions
Selecting a favorite tomato for salsa is tricky because there are so many wonderful varieties! However, we recommend Roma tomatoes or Plum tomatoes in this recipe because they are easy to find and offer a tangy-sweet flavor. If you have an abundance of tomatoes available to you, look for tomatoes that fit this criteria…
Still a little firm when ripe
Bright red in color
Strong sweet tomato flavor
Yes, this recipe has zing, but if you are sensitive to spicy heat, you can adjust our Best Homemade Salsa Recipe by adding fewer jalapeño chilis and being sure to purchase the mild canned green chiles.
Or if you prefer to take the heat up a notch, try throwing in a habanero, serrano chiles, or chipotle peppers in adobo sauce!
This salsa will keep well for 10-12 days if kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Be sure not to let it sit for too long (over a couple of hours) at room temperature.
You can also freeze this homemade salsa for up to 4 months by putting it in a freezer-safe container and then wrapping it with foil. This will change the texture a bit after thawing.
Looking for More Delicious Salsa Recipes? Be Sure to Try:
Best Salsa Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 4 ripe tomatoes, cored and quartered
- 1 red onion, peeled and quartered
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled
- 3 jalapenos, stemmed and seeded (you can substitute 1-2 habanero or serrano peppers.)
- 1/3 cup fresh cilantro
- 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2-3 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2-3 teaspoons sugar (optional)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 15 ounces crushed San Marzano tomatoes (1 can)
- 4.5 ounces diced green chiles, mild, medium, or hot (1 can)
Instructions
- Place the fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic, peppers, cilantro, lime juice, 2 teaspoons cumin, 2 teaspoons sugar (if using), and salt in a food processor. Pulse until the contents are fine and well blended.
- Pour in the crushed tomatoes and green chiles. Puree until mostly smooth. Taste, then add more cumin and sugar if desired. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
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I love your stuff and make so many of your recipes. I usually don’t tweak recipes because I’m not very goid at this. I had some “not so ripe” tasteless tomatoes that found there way into this recipe so initially it seemed pretty bland. Added 2 top mexican oregano and BOOM! Perfect!
Please don’t take that as a slight to your fantastic recipe!!
WOW! I’ve tried so many salsa recipes but this one really delivered! I left out the cilantro and didn’t add the additional spices at the end. I used two pickled jalapenos with the seeds. It was a little too spicy for my husband when we first taste-tested it, but it seemed to mellow out a bit after it sat for a while. This one really satisfies my salsa addiction. No more store-bought salsa for me!
horrible salsa never making again none of the whanau liked it not a good waste of my money and time I hate it so much ew it made me very unhappy grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Great recipe. Are you a 12 yr old? I have never seen a comment as childish as this. Ever heard the saying if you don’t have anything nice to say, say nothing. My guess is you did not follow directions and use correct ingredients or you are a bored teen.
Best salsa to date! For an added kick I all add the jalapeños with seeds and hot green chiles. AMAZING!!
Amazing salsa! The whole family loved it…including our teen kids. I can’t wait to make it at our next party.
Really love this salsa recipe
So great! To my surprise, the canned tomatoes and green chiles tone it down just enough!
The recipe was amazing, I tried it at home. Thank you so much!
I just made this for my daily nachos. It was better than store bought salsa with the freshness, and ability to adjust ingredients. I tried to make it like one of the best restaurant salsa I had, but it wasn’t quite as good. However, I will continue to make this and try optimizing to my personal taste. It beats store bought salsa. Thank you.
This salsa recipe is a flavor explosion! It’s incredibly easy to make and tastes absolutely amazing. A definite crowd-pleaser!
The flavor was very strong, too strong. I think maybe half the onion next time. Otherwise, it is a good recipe. Be careful with all the spicy ingredients, it could ruin it if you can’t handle past medium heat. I skipped the jalapeños but used the green can chiles and it turned out medium heat, perfect for me.
Good salsa that needed a bit of tweaking… more lime juice, more cilantro, less onion next time. The red onion I chose was either too powerful or too big. I’d start with half an onion and try it and if you need more add another quarter onion and so on. I added more canned tomato to try to help fade the strong onion. Overall good and it makes a nice amount!
Soak the onions for about 5 minutes and that eill mellow them.