With a Homemade Salsa Recipe Like This, You’ll Never Want Jarred Salsa Again

Jarred salsa is handy to have in the pantry for tacos in a pinch. But do you often dream of the tomato-juicy, tangy salsa that’s bursting with flavor, only found at Mexican restaurants? Well, fret no more. You can make Mexican-restaurant quality 5-ingredient salsa from the comfort of your own kitchen, on frugal shopper’s budget.

Homemade Salsa Has Just 5 Simple Ingredients

If you keep a well-stocked kitchen, you won’t even need to run out of the house to whip up some authentic salsa in a hurry. Here’s the basic ingredient list. It’s easy to do variations on this – adding different summer veggies, spicing it up, and such.

Here’s the short list of salsa ingredients:

Tomatoes
Onion
Cilantro
Lime
Spice

Let’s Cover the Essential Salsa Ingredients in a Bit More Detail

Tomatoes.

The tomato salsa they serve with chips at Mexican restaurants is made of canned tomatoes, or at least it could very easily be, and everyone would be very happy with the flavor and consistency. Salsa like this is typically rather juicy with some chunks interspersed… somewhere between a puree and a chopped salad. It sits on the chip and is dippable, but might dribble off the side.

You can make your homemade salsa entirely of fresh tomatoes, if you want. You could chop them up fresh from the garden, for a chunkier version. But since this recipe is for the one they serve at restaurants, tomatoes from the can, crushed up with other ingredients, creates the closest match of that.

Fun, healthy fact: canned tomatoes are cooked a bit which is actually healthier for you than raw tomatoes. Cooking releases a cancer-fighting compound in tomatoes called lycopene. So if you enjoy the freshness, tang, and juiciness of the canned-tomato salsa we’re talking about here, then you can feel happy that your body is also getting health bennies to boot.

Another doable option for your homemade salsa is to open a can of tomatoes, smooth them up, and then for good measure, chop up some fresh garden tomatoes into chunks and add those into the mix. Extra texture, extra tomatoey goodness. Not necessary, but if it’s summer and you’re feeling salsa-y, why not go for it?

Onion.

Some people don’t think they care for onions, but they mingle well in a fresh tomato salsa to give it that signature twang. If you’re wild for onion, you could chop up half of one and dice into bits, to add to the salsa bowl. Or, maybe you only want onion accents. In that case, trim off a little edge of the onion, and dice that up really nicely to incorporate.

What if your onion is too strong? To curb the strongness of a too-pungent onion, use this simple method. Give your onion a quick chop. Then plunge it into a little cup of cold water, to sit for a bit while you prep the other ingredients.

Another way to take the bite out of a surly onion is trim away the root of your onion and toss it. And finally, to prevent that powerful little aromatic from stinking up your kitchen garbage, get a little sandwich baggie, then contain and seal the onion waste in there before adding to the trash pail.

Cilantro.

Some people say that cilantro tastes like soap. I do agree with that statement, AND I LOVE the flavor! I actually think that most herbs taste like soap. There could be a scientific explanation as to why this is so… maybe some soap-like compounds in the plant oil? We’ll have to visit that another day. But the signature herbiness of cilantro is what MAKES this salsa into restaurant-worthy fare.

Cilantro is also known as coriander, or Chinese parsley. It’s about a dollar or two for a fresh bunch of it, found in the produce section of your grocery store, where they keep the parsley. It does look like parsley, but you’ll know it’s cilantro when you spot the flat, scalloped leaves with their rounded edges (and of course, that signature cilantro aroma!)

Don’t be shy about adding cilantro to your salsa. Just toss in a hearty handful, then use your trusty kitchen shears to mince it up along with the tomato and onion.

Lime.

Second to cilantro, fresh lime juice elevates your homemade salsa to that authentic Mexican restaurant status. Just know though, that if you don’t have lime on hand, it’s not a crisis. You may not be in the habit of keeping them. The tanginess of tomatoes alone will be enough to make your salsa taste really good, along with the other ingredients.

You could splash in a little vinegar to sub for the lime, but it’s not imperative.

Once you try making this homemade salsa, you might just love it so much, that you feel inspired to bring home a bag of fresh limes on your next trip out to the store. Citrus is so good for you, with its high vitamin C content, so why not expand your palate beyond lemons and oranges?

Seasoning.

This is your salsa, and you’re free to season it your way. Salt and pepper are the standards, but of course, add to your taste. If you love it hot, hot, hot, then shake in some spicy cayenne, or drop in some hot sauce such as Frank’s, or sriracha sauce from the Asian foods aisle.

Some like their salsa hot: enter the habanero

This is for another post… but it’s actually pretty easy to make hot sauce from scratch. If you grow spicy varieties of peppers in your garden such as cayenne and jalapeno, these can simmer up in a pot on your stove with water, salt and vinegar. If you love the burn, kick it up with some habanero or even ghost pepper if you and your dinner guests can hang for that.

How Long Does it Take to Make Fresh 5-Ingredient Salsa

Salsa doesn’t take long at all to go from counter to table. With the right ingredients and tools on hand, you can have some chips and a big bowl of your favorite tomato salsa ready in under 10 minutes. Here’s how to do it in a hurry.

The slapdash method for making salsa that works for me:

Add all ingredients to a big mixing bowl.
Wield your handy kitchen shears, and snip up all ingredients to a chunky consistency.
Season to your liking and give it a final stir.
Transfer to a serving bowl for the table, with crispy nachos for dipping.

Get the Salsa-Making Video Crib Notes:

Ideas for Cooking with Salsa (Beyond Dipping Nacho Chips)

We already know that fresh, homemade salsa elevates the corn chip snacking experience tenfold. But what about cooking with it, you ask. Salsa is a great refrigerator staple (you could also preserve it jars just like stores do). Use it in cooking, or serve as a side with your favorite meat and veggie meals.