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Home Dips

Restaurant Style Salsa recipe

By:Nagi
Published:1 Feb '19Updated:6 May '20
130 Comments
Recipe v Video v Dozer v

A salsa recipe with flavour you can’t buy in a jar. No need to wait for your next visit to your favourite Mexican restaurant. Just make it at home! 

Fat free, full of flavour, and utterly addictive, this is a restaurant style salsa that’s the perfect consistency for scooping up with corn chips. Or go super healthy and serve it with crudités!

Salsa recipe for restaurant style salsa. Salsa in a ceramic bowl with corn chips.

Salsa recipe – restaurant style

You’ve seen the jars sold alongside corn chips at the grocery store. You’ve devoured inordinate amounts of it at your favourite Mexican restaurant.

And now it’s time to make it at home.

It’s healthier, it’s cheaper and it tastes SO GOOD! Flavour, flavour, flavour – homemade salsa has flavour you simply cannot buy in a jar!

Close up of ceramic bowl with salsa with corn chips

What goes in salsa

Here are the ingredients in my salsa recipe. The key things that add great flavour to salsa are cumin, cilantro/coriander, garlic, onion and jalapeño. I also like to add canned green chiles which adds terrific smokiness and small touch of heat (not much).

Canned green chiles are a popular Tex-Mex ingredient in America that’s not (yet) available here in Australia. I bring back dozens every time I visit the US, that’s how much I love it! It’s easy to sub the flavour using chargrilled peppers – though they are red, not green, they add the same smokiness that the green chiles add.

Ingredients in salsa

Top Tip: Use good quality canned tomato

Given that tomato is the key ingredient in this recipe, your salsa will only be as good as the tomato you use.

Using crushed canned tomato in this recipe isn’t just about convenience. It’s also because we can’t always get really great quality fresh tomatoes, but we can always find great quality canned tomatoes.

If you’re keen to make a recipe using fresh tomatoes, try this one from Jo Cooks. I made it over Christmas and it is terrific!

Once you’ve gathered your ingredients, it’s as simple as plonk and blitz. Make it as chunky or smooth as you like. I like mine more smooth because I find you get better flavour when the onion etc are blitzed up quite finely.

Also, the chunkier the salsa, the more it separates when sitting around. So it holds up better the smoother it is.

How to make salsa - restaurant style

How and what to serve with salsa

The obvious way to serve is as a dip for corn chips or anything suitable for dunking, but there’s a whole bunch of other really great ways to use salsa! Here’s a few ideas:

  • Topping / dipping for tacos, burritos, fajitas, nachos, quesadillas – basically everything and anything Mexican
  • Spoon over crispy pan fried fish, juicy baked chicken breast, plain or marinated pan fried pork chops
  • Dollop on this Mexican Chicken Salad

For the healthiest dip platter ever, serve salsa with crudités (that’s a fancy word for veggie sticks), like this one – a photo from my Hummus recipe.

Crudités Vegetables Platter with Hummus recipetineats.com

I make this salsa recipe a lot because I’m a self confessed Snack Monster and this is my way of having something nibbly without the guilt. It’s one of those foods I call “incidentally healthy”. Meaning – it’s not a stripped back “diet” version of the way it’s supposed to be.

Snack Monsters unite! Think of all the guilt free snacking possibilities! (Just ignore all the photos of the corn chips all over this post. Think – carrot sticks. 😂) – Nagi x

Close up of corn chip scooping up homemade salsa (Salsa recipe - restaurant style)

Salsa recipe
Watch how to make it

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Close up of corn chip scooping up homemade salsa (Salsa recipe - restaurant style)

Restaurant Style Salsa

Author: Nagi
Prep: 5 mins
Total: 5 mins
Dip
Mexican
5 from 32 votes
Servings4
Tap or hover to scale
Print
Recipe video above. Just like what you get at your favourite restaurant and those jars sold alongside corn chips at the grocery store.... but it's better, healthier and cheaper! The fresh flavour is so, so good. Make it chunkier or smoother, to your taste.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup chopped onion (white, brown or yellow)
  • 1 tbsp jalapeño pepper , seeds removed, roughly chopped (fresh best, canned ok)
  • 400g / 14 oz canned crushed tomato , best quality
  • 4 oz / 120g canned diced green chiles (Note 1)
  • 1/4 cup (packed) cilantro/coriander , roughly chopped
  • 1/2 tbsp+ lime juice
  • 1 clove garlic , minced
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

Instructions

  • Place onion and jalapeno in the food processor first, then add remaining ingredients (start with 1/2 tbsp lime juice).
  • Blitz to desired consistency - I like mine pretty smooth because you get better flavour out of the onion etc.
  • Taste test with corn chip for salt and lime. Adjust if necessary.
  • Refrigerate 1 hour before serving with corn chips, or other dippers (see in post for suggestions).

Recipe Notes:

1. Canned Green Chiles - a popular Tex Mex ingredient sold in America not yet available in Australia. I bring back dozens every time I go to the US! Not spicy, more for smokey flavour. Tastes like chargrilled peppers (capsicum) which is a near perfect sun (except it's red instead of green). Use the same quantity (about 1/3 cup). Or leave it out - still so so tasty.
2. Serve on the day, or refrigerate in a sealed container for up to 3 days. May need freshening up with freshly chopped coriander/cilantro and lime juice.
Keywords: Salsa recipe
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @RecipeTinEats.

Originally published May 2014, completely updated in January 2019 including a few minor flavour improvements to recipe.

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130 Comments

  1. Leeanne says

    July 29, 2020 at 9:53 pm

    5 stars
    Sensational!! We had it tonight in tacos with your Mexican shredded beef, amazing!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      July 30, 2020 at 9:14 am

      Excellent Leeanne! N x

      Reply
  2. Linda, Kefalonia says

    June 23, 2020 at 2:01 am

    5 stars
    Wow! Fantastic recipe. We don’t like anything too hot, so left out the chilies & added plenty of green pepper with the onion. Didn’t have any fresh coriander, only some that I had frozen previously, so added that. Didn’t have any lime juice either. Just whizzed it all up & then simmered it for 10mins to thicken it up. Really great & I froze the leftovers for next time
    Thanks a lot Nagi, another great recipe!

    Reply
    • Beth says

      July 3, 2020 at 1:25 am

      So with respect allow me to clarify. I’m sure you made something you enjoyed eating. As an Arizonan I can assure you it wasn’t salsa. An unusual type of gaspatcho, perhaps. Jalapeño, green chili, cilantro, lime juice…..i honestly hope you enjoyed whatever you made. It wasn’t Nagi posted. It wasn’t Mexican nor southwestern. It was you own creation that doesn’t have a name. Please don’t post on others websites with your own recipes for whatever you posted here. I’m not trying to humiliate you, only trying to educate you. If any humiliation took place, welll that was all on you, Linda, for posting your recipe on someone else’s website for a dish that wasn’t being reviewed

      Reply
      • Willie says

        September 2, 2020 at 9:54 am

        Beth, please accept my virtual high five 🙂

        Nagi, please keep doing what you do x

        Reply
  3. Leslie Alldridge says

    May 18, 2020 at 10:54 am

    5 stars
    Tasted so good, had to add coriander powder 1/4 tsp and minced garlic from a can, but didn’t impact it at all. Finished the salsa and still had half my chips left, oops!

    Nagi, all of your recipes are so damn amazing. I hope to try them all (I have your butter chicken in the fridge atm)

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      May 18, 2020 at 11:53 am

      That’s great to hear Leslie! N x

      Reply
  4. Eric LeMay says

    May 4, 2020 at 8:01 am

    Nagi, I’m going to try this one. I have followed you for quit some time and enjoy you post! Oh and I just love Dozer!!!!!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      May 4, 2020 at 11:33 am

      Thanks so much Eric, I hope you love it! N x

      Reply
  5. adh says

    April 23, 2020 at 5:53 am

    5 stars
    Utterly fantastic. Partner kept asking “where’s my dip” when he opened the fridge and had to remind him 2 batches had already been downed. Have to pace him on Nagi salsa at this point. 🙂

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      April 23, 2020 at 9:07 am

      I LOVE this!! !It’s so modish isn’t it?!

      Reply
  6. jackie says

    November 25, 2019 at 3:35 pm

    5 stars
    Excellent recipe. Have made a few times and have been asked for the recipe. So easy to make and so delicious, certainly a winner. Thanks Nagi.

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      November 25, 2019 at 7:08 pm

      I’m so glad you love it Jackie, it’s hard to go back to store bought when you know it’s this easy!

      Reply
  7. Mel Burns says

    October 6, 2019 at 8:48 pm

    5 stars
    This is a great recipe, but may I make a suggestion? Instead of adding the onion directly in the food processor chop it fine brunoise and stir it in later. I also do that with the jalapenos when I want a milder salsa. Pomi is a brand of tomatoes in a carton that works well for this style of salsa.
    When I am rushed I buy cheap fresh salsa and doctor it with cumin, cilantro, lime or a little vegetable stock. Nine out of ten times it’s good. Just this morning I made your salsa, spicy and mild version and some pineapple salsa for grilled mahi.
    This is the best food blog….ever! Thank you I have made many of your grilled recipes.

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      October 8, 2019 at 1:24 pm

      You could definitely do that if you prefer, I just like the ease of adding it to a food processor – N x

      Reply
  8. Marina C. says

    September 28, 2019 at 4:10 am

    5 stars
    Hi! I’m from the U.S. and now live in Mexico my guilty pleasure when ever I’m in the states is the jar of queso doo that I cant get here! I love this recipe! I’ve made it multiple times! My only problem is that it seems to turn out grainy… It still taste amazing but do you know why it would be grainy?

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      September 28, 2019 at 1:08 pm

      Hi Marina, not sure why it would be grainy – possibly the tomatoes that you are using? – N x

      Reply
  9. Ginger D says

    July 30, 2019 at 10:34 am

    I made this recipe for 40 people and it turned out absolutely amazing! I decide on a taco bar for the dinner and made everything ahead then reheated the hot items in the crock-pot. I included the following TinEats Recipe’s: Carnitas, Mexican Red Rice, Restaurant Style Salsa, and Queso Dip. It all was amazing! Thanks Nagi for a great meal!

    Reply
  10. KAREN J. says

    July 25, 2019 at 6:36 am

    5 stars
    Super easy and super tasty!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      July 25, 2019 at 1:49 pm

      I’m so glad you loved it!

      Reply
  11. Sabrina says

    July 7, 2019 at 8:03 am

    By chargrilled peppers in jars, do you mean chargrilled capsicum here in Australia or chilli peppers? Thanks 🙂

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      July 7, 2019 at 6:07 pm

      Yes – Capsicum as per the recipe notes 🙂

      Reply
  12. Trish says

    July 2, 2019 at 9:02 am

    5 stars
    Delicious and addictive!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      July 2, 2019 at 5:44 pm

      Yes totally Trish, but at least it’s healthy!

      Reply
  13. Sara says

    May 16, 2019 at 6:37 am

    5 stars
    Omg..Nagi..u really r a genius…just made this salsa..its just like the one I have trying years to replicate..OTB in America..yum..yum..yum..who knew by adding those hatch ch..it wld b sooo good..thanx..my dear. Another winner..

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      May 16, 2019 at 7:45 pm

      Wahoo, that’s so great to hear Sara!

      Reply
  14. Jenny says

    April 20, 2019 at 7:00 am

    5 stars
    So good! I came across this recipe when I forgot to buy salsa at the store with my husband’s heart set on tacos that night for dinner. I had everything to make in my pantry so I figured I would give it a try. I am never buying store bought salsa again!!!!!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      April 20, 2019 at 4:39 pm

      You won’t look back now!!

      Reply
  15. Anne Weber-Falk says

    April 14, 2019 at 5:40 am

    5 stars
    This is so good. Just the right amount of heat. I wanted more chunks so I used diced tomatoes in there. Everything else the same though. This is my go to salsa.

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      April 15, 2019 at 1:37 pm

      Great Anne!

      Reply
  16. Tony says

    March 23, 2019 at 12:49 pm

    Hey Nagi, noticed that you mentioned about canned green chile not here in OZ, I’ve come across an online Aussie store “Chile Mojo” that sells em and just about every thing else for authentic Mexican cooking. I’m in far north Queensland and they get my orders to me within 2 days…. as always love your recipes keep em coming.

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      March 25, 2019 at 8:37 am

      Yes, I’ve heard of them before, they are awesome – N x

      Reply
  17. steve pryor says

    March 18, 2019 at 2:17 am

    I just read your salsa recipe, I like it but you should try placing it in a frying pan after blending it and cook it for a bit, it evaporates some of the water and blends everything together for an amazing taste and intensifies the color, Mexican restaurants in my area do this.

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      March 18, 2019 at 3:27 pm

      Sounds amazing Steve, I’ll give it a go!

      Reply
  18. Amanda Müller says

    March 15, 2019 at 6:09 am

    5 stars
    This was absolutely delicious!! I’m an American living in Germany and good, restaurant style salsa is impossible to find here. I’m so glad I can make it at home now!! Thanks so much!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      March 15, 2019 at 7:45 pm

      You’re welcome Amanda! — Nx

      Reply
  19. Michelle Hogan says

    March 13, 2019 at 12:04 am

    im doing your mexican shredded chicken for tonight dinner its in the oven now on low the smell is amazing just having a quick cuppa and then ill be onto a couple of your sides caint wait

    Reply
  20. K-Dish says

    March 9, 2019 at 9:58 pm

    5 stars
    Great recipe. I had to use diced tomatoes as i couldn’t find crushed ones. It was fine. Would this have made much difference? Thank you.

    Reply
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