Fresh homemade salsa takes minutes to make. It’s made with roma tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, green onions, spices and a little optional kick of heat from a jalapeno.
It’s my go-to salsa recipe because it reminds of the kind you find in the refrigerator section of the grocery store. But, it tastes better and is half the price compared to store bought salsa.
Price Comparison of Store Bought Salsa to Fresh Homemade Salsa
It’s easy to assume making something homemade is more economical. But that isn’t always the case. I compared this salsa recipe to the El Sol Foods fresh salsa from the refrigerated section at Costco. If it beats Costco, it’s definitely a deal!
Costco’s salsa comes in at approximately $9.30 US for a 50 ounce container. This recipe costs approximately $4.60 US and makes roughly 60 ounces, depending on the size of your roma tomatoes. That’s more than half the cost! Plus I like the way it tastes better.
How to make Fresh Homemade Salsa
I start this recipe by putting 4 dried chili pods into a cup of hot water to re-hydrate them. It’s just like making teal. I remove the stems and then steep the pods in the hot water to re-hydrate them.
As far as different varieties of chili pods, I go for the Guajillo, California or Colorado pods. These are generally mild and don’t have much of any heat to them. As a general rule, the smaller the peppers, the hotter the flavor. Keep that in mind when you’re considering spice levels for this recipe.
Once the peppers have steeped for 5 minutes, I put them into my blender along with 1/2 cup of the water that the pods were steeped in. I blend on high until I get a smooth, bright red sauce like you see here.
Next, I add the blended chili pods to a food processor along with the can of diced tomatoes, roma tomatoes, red onion, green onion, garlic, jalapeno (optional), cilantro, vinegar, cumin, oil, salt and pepper. Then I pulse it all together in the food processor until the consistency looks smooth but still has some nice texture. Feel free to blend to as smooth or chunky as you like.
Serve it with chips, guacamole and enjoy! It will keep in the fridge up to 7 days.
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Fresh Homemade Salsa
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 45 servings 1x
- Category: sauce
- Method: blender
- Cuisine: Mexican
Description
An easy-to-make fresh homemade salsa with roma tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, green onions, spices and a little optional kick of heat from a jalapeno.
Ingredients
- 4 dried chili pods (guajillio, California or Colorado)
- 1 cup hot water (reserve 1/2 cup after chili pods are steeped)
- 1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes
- 5 fresh roma tomatoes
- ½ red onion, roughly chopped
- 2 green onions
- 1 clove garlic, diced
- 1 cup fresh cilantro
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tbs avocado or vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed *optional
Instructions
- Remove the stems from the chili pods and place the pods into 8 – 12 oz of hot water (165 – 200F) to rehydrate them. Allow to steep for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, put the hydrated chili pods into a blender along with 1/2 cup of leftover steeping liquid and blend until very smooth.
- Combine the blended chili pod sauce with the remaining ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until desired level of smoothness or chunkiness.
- Serve with chips and enjoy!
Notes
- If your salsa has extra water pooling on top due to watery tomatoes, you can drain it off or run it through a fine mesh strainer
- Fresh salsa can be kept in the refrigerator up to 7 days in an airtight container
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