Restaurant Style Salsa is inexpensive and a cinch to make at home. Learn the ingredient I use to make it taste just like a restaurant's!
“This salsa is AMAZING!! It is so simple to make and is so much better than store bought. Everyone that has tried it requests the recipe!”
I’m about to share with you one of the greatest restaurant hacks of all time: making homemade, restaurant-style salsa is not only easy and inexpensive, but it’s BEST made with canned tomatoes.
While fresh tomatoes make great pico de gallo, you gotta go with canned tomatoes if you want that true restaurant salsa flavor.
You heard it here first, folks!
Watch How to Make It
Homemade Restaurant-Style Salsa
I’ve been making this homemade salsa recipe since college, which is when I found out that canned tomatoes are the secret to the addictive-deliciousness of restaurant style salsa (ie, I begged the waiter at Carlos O’Kelly’s to tell me how they make their salsa. SO GOOD!)
Of course I occasionally slack and buy salsa at the store, but this recipe gives you the restaurant experience at home, and takes just a few minutes to make.
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- Inexpensive: the recipe for Restaurant Style Salsa makes 4 cups of salsa for under $5. That said, its very economical and great for serving at parties and get togethers.
- Long-lasting: homemade salsa will last up to 2 weeks in the fridge. While I don’t have experience canning, I know enough to confidently say this recipe would can well.
- Quick & easy: I use my 14 cup food processor to whip this salsa up in just a few minutes, though a blender would most likely work well too.
- Customize the spice: as written, my recipe is mild on the spice scale, but feel free to leave the seeds in the jalapeno to increase the spice level, and/or experiment with adding different kinds of chili peppers.
How to Make Restaurant Style Salsa
There’s just one step involved in this recipe – throw a bunch of ingredients into the bowl of a food processor then pulse – woo!
We’ve got canned whole peeled tomatoes, red onion (white onion works great too), fresh cilantro, fresh garlic, jalapeno, salt, sugar, and fresh lime juice.
NOTE: if your canned tomatoes contain sugar in the ingredient list then omit the sugar in the recipe.
Pulse the ingredients until you reach your desired consistency then taste and add more salt and/or lime juice if necessary.
That said, this salsa is best eaten 24 hours or more after making, so the flavors have time to meld, and so I like to adjust the seasonings just before serving the day after making.
Scoop the salsa into a 4 cup mason jar or bowl with a tight fitting lid then refrigerate for 24 hours to let the flavors really meld before digging in. The salsa will stay fresh in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks, though mine never ever sticks around that long.
I hope you love this EASY restaurant style salsa at home! Enjoy!
Serve Restaurant Style Salsa with these Recipes:
- Beef Enchiladas
- Cheese Enchiladas with Red Sauce
- Homemade Crunchy Taco Hamburger Helper
- Easy Chicken Enchiladas
- Chicken Fajitas
- Creamy Pinto Beans
- Cheesy Chicken Burrito Skillet
- Restaurant-Style Ground Beef
Equipment
Ingredients
- 28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained
- 1/2 red or white onion, roughly chopped
- 1 handful cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and roughly chopped (leave in seeds for a spicier salsa)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 lime
- 1 teaspoon sugar*
Directions
- Add ingredients — whole tomatoes through salt — to a food processor. Add the juice of half a lime, plus the sugar if your canned tomatoes do not contain sugar. If sugar is listed as an ingredient on your canned tomatoes, omit the sugar.
- Pulse ingredients until desired consistency is reached then taste and add more lime juice and/or salt if necessary. Refrigerate overnight for best results then serve.
Notes
- This salsa is mild as written with 1 seeded jalapeno.
- This recipe makes ~4 cups of salsa.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are estimates only. Please read our full nutrition information disclaimer.
This was delicious! I cannot wait to taste it once it has sat around awhile for the flavors. This will be a new staple at my house. I don’t think I will buy salsa again. Thank you! I may try parsley sometime instead of cilantro for my Mom who can’t do cilantro. I have heard that parsley can be swapped for cilantro. (And I may try the basil too!)
Made this salsa today (without the sugar as I don’t like mine sweet at all). Perfect, delicious & so easy! This will be a regular at our house!
YUMMMM Canned tomatoes, I actually don’t use those much but I will now! That tweet was my life in vegas over the weekend – they just keep bring you boos and chips, that is a terrible and wonderful combo!
This sounds great. Only one suggestion that I learned years ago. Do not put your onions in the blender with every thing else. Mince and stir them in by hand or your salsa will overwhelmingly taste like onions instead of the different flavors of the rest of the ingredients.
Love this tip! Good to know, thank you!
Great tip! The onions were overpowering and now the salsa disappears in a day.
Maybe we just like onions, but I’ve made this recipe several times and the flavors have blended fine to us. I put everything in the blender and just pulse it a few times. Tastes fantastic!
If you can find them Dei Fratelli Seasoned diced tomatoes make a great salsa. This recipe is very similar to what we make and it is marvelous!
Leave the sugar out it serves no good at least in new mexico it doesnt
In my experience, adding just a bit of sugar to tomato dishes cuts the acidity. Unless you’re using canned tomatoes that already have sugar added, or San Marzano tomatoes which are naturally sweeter, I always add a bit of sugar to my tomato recipes, like spaghetti sauce. But if you’re a person that prefers without, you definitely wouldn’t have to add it. :)
“Which is good news if you’re reading this in the season that shall not be named, when tomatoes at the grocery store taste like the literal absence of flavor.” >>> hahahaha! When you can’t get fresh – at least be smart enough to go for canned fresh instead of flavorless fresh! This salsa looks delicious (and that tweet is hilarious!).
AMEN! I knew you would understand. ;) Hope you’re doing well and having a great summer, Melissa!
So what is the secret ingredient?
Canned tomatoes vs fresh :)
Do you think I could make this in a blender? I don’t have a food processor!
I think that could definitely work!
That looks soooo good and easy enough to make. Allergic to cilantro so what might I be able to use in place of?
I might leave it out – but that said sometimes I swap cilantro and lime juice for basil and lemon juice for an Italian twist. Super good!
I actually can’t remember the last time I had chips and salsa and that clearly needs to be remedied STAT! Thanks for the recipe!
Giiiiirl – you need to get on that PRONTO!! ??
Yum! This looks seriously delicious. I never would have thought that canned tomatoes would be the secret ingredient.
Right?! The taste difference is night and day.
Looks delicious!! Should the canned tomatoes be drained or not?
They should not be drained – I updated the recipe, thanks for pointing that out!