Restaurant Style Salsa is the answer to making the salsa you love served at your favourite Mexican restaurant at home. This easy restaurant‑style salsa comes together in five minutes using pantry staples and a food processor. It’s thick, chunky, and brimming with fresh tomato flavor. It's so good that you’ll never reach for the store‑bought kind again.
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Recipe at a Glance
- Ready In: 5 minutes
- Ingredients: Canned tomatoes, Rotel tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, parsley, spices, and lemon juice
- Serves: 8
- Difficulty: Easy
- Make-Ahead Friendly: Make the chicken in advance; assemble when ready to serve
Why You’ll Love This Homemade Salsa
There are literally thousands of recipes online for tomato-based salsa. The reasons that you should make this recipe include the following:
- Quick & Customisable: With canned tomatoes and a handful of fresh ingredients, this recipe takes just minutes to prepare and allows you to adjust the heat level to suit your taste.
- Fresh Flavor Without the Fuss: Canned whole tomatoes and Rotel diced tomatoes with green chiles deliver restaurant-quality flavor and are available year-round.
- Healthy & Affordable: This salsa is naturally vegan, gluten‑free and low in calories. It’s far superior to jarred salsa and a fraction of the cost of what you’d pay in a restaurant.
- Perfect for Any Occasion: Serve it as an appetizer with tortilla chips, spoon it over tacos or burritos, or use it as a condiment for eggs, grilled meats, and more.
Ingredients for Restaurant-Style Salsa
Note: Cilantro offers the classic Mexican flavour, but if you fall into the “cilantro tastes soapy” camp like I do, parsley is a great substitute.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- The Tomatoes: Drain the tomatoes. Pour the canned whole tomatoes and Rotel tomatoes into a colander and let them drain for a few minutes to remove excess liquid. This step ensures a thick, chunky salsa.
- The Remaining Ingredients: Add the chopped onion, jalapeño, parsley, garlic, sugar, salt, cumin, black pepper, and lime juice to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade.
- Pulse: Pulse the mixture about 5 times, scraping down the sides as needed, until the salsa reaches your preferred consistency. Be careful not to over‑process. Salsa should have texture, not resemble soup.
- Chill and Serve: Transfer the salsa to a covered container and refrigerate for at least one hour to allow the flavors to meld. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed, then serve with tortilla chips.
This restaurant‑style salsa takes just five minutes and a handful of pantry staples to prepare. It’s thick, chunky, and bursting with the flavors of tomato, jalapeño, and lime. It's so delicious you’ll never buy jarred salsa again. One scoop on a tortilla chip and you'll be convinced. Yum!
Frequently Asked Questions
A food processor makes quick work of this recipe, but you can also use a blender or finely chop all the ingredients by hand. Pulse gently in a blender to prevent the salsa from becoming a purée.
Properly stored in the refrigerator, this salsa will remain fresh for approximately one week.
You can, but canned tomatoes are available year‑round, produce consistent flavor and texture, and are the preferred choice for this recipe.
Yes. Transfer the salsa to a freezer‑safe container, leaving a little headroom for expansion, and freeze for up to four months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and stir before serving.
Serving Suggestions & More Salsa Recipes
Salsa isn’t just for chips! Spoon it over tacos, burritos, nachos, or quesadillas, or use it as a condiment for grilled chicken, fish, or scrambled eggs.
For a festive appetizer spread, pair this restaurant‑style salsa one or more of the following:
I first posted this recipe for homemade Restaurant Style Salsa on February 5, 2019. Since then, it's become a staple in our house.
This update contains the same delicious recipe with updated text, photos, and a video.
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Recipe
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Restaurant Style Salsa
Equipment
- Food Processor with Steel Blade
Ingredients
- 28 ounce can whole tomatoes, drained
- 10 ounce can Rotel Original Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies, drained
- ½ cup chopped onions (half of a small onion)
- 1 jalapeño pepper, seeds and membrane removed and chopped
- 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, minced (See Note 1)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Juice of ½ lime
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse 5 times, or until the desired consistency is reached.
- Transfer to covered container. Refrigerate at least one hour to allow the flavors to blend.
- Serve with tortilla chips.
- Yield: 2 ½ cups.
Video
Tips/Notes
- May use cilantro in place of the parsley.
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