Fresh Garden Salsa

A chip with homemade salsa on it above a bowl of salsa and a pile of tortilla chips.

5 from 3 votes

Making your own Homemade Salsa could not be easier. Made with fresh ingredients, this easy homemade salsa recipe is one of the best ways to use summer tomatoes and is the perfect salsa for any occasion.

Prep Time3

Blending Time2

Total Time5

Servings:

Calories: 122kcal

Author: Kari

Equipment

Ingredients

2 cups fresh tomatoes , diced. Campari, Roma, or Plum tomatoes. Or canned tomatoes without their juice.
½ onion ,diced. Use between ¼ and ½ of a cup. If you like a lot of onion, use more.
1 jalapeño , diced
1 cup cilantro You can use a mix of leaves and stems.
⅛ teaspoon cumin
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
½ lime , juiced

Instructions

First, roughly chop up the onion, tomatoes, jalapeño (remove the seeds and membrane if you don't want it to be too spicy), and cilantro.
2 cups fresh tomatoes, ½ onion, 1 jalapeño, 1 cup cilantro
If your tomatoes seem pretty watery, you can cut them up, lightly salt them, and let them sit on a towel for 15 - 30 minutes. Pat them dry, then use for your salsa. The salt will draw out the excess water in the tomatoes and will keep your salsa from getting too watered down. (If you use this method, use less salt in your salsa!)
Next, add your tomatoes, jalapeño, most of your cilantro, and your onion to your blender or food processor. Give it a good, rough blend.
Stir everything together and scrape down the sides of the blender, then add the rest of the cilantro, the salt, the lime, and the cumin. (If you salted the tomatoes, use less salt now.)
⅛ teaspoon cumin, ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, ½ lime
Blend to your desired consistency and serve immediately with tortillas chips.

Notes

Tips

If your tomatoes are watery, you can cut them up, lightly salt them, and set them on a towel for 15 - 30 minutes. Pat them dry, then you can use them for your salsa. The salt will draw out excess water from the tomatoes and will keep your salsa from being watery. (If you use this method, use less salt in your salsa!)
You can use canned tomatoes in your salsa but drain off the juice before using the tomatoes.
If you don't have a lime, you can replace it with a small amount of lemon juice.
If you don't like spicy salsa, remove the seeds and membrane from your jalapeño before dicing.
You can add a minced clove of garlic to your salsa - it adds a little bit of bite.
To make this salsa spicier, add some of the membrane and seeds from your jalapeño. Do this gradually - once it is too spicy, it is very hard to cool back down.
If your salsa is too spicy, you need to balance the heat with salt, acid, and sweet. To cool it down, you can add more salt, more lime juice, and a little bit of sugar. If that doesn't help, add more tomatoes, onion, and cilantro.

Serving

Serve with your favorite tortilla chips, quesadillas, or tacos!

Storage

Serve your salsa immediately or let it sit for flavors to develop more. (We just ate it right away - almost the entire bowl - and it was delicious!) Store your salsa in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Nutrition