I don’t know how I’ve managed to have a recipe blog this long without doing a recipe for homemade salsa!
It’s kind of a staple recipe! I have done a more pico de gallo style salsa recipe as part of our veggie fajitas recipe, but this salsa is restaurant-style which means it’s more of a dip.
Now if you’re confused, like….what? Salsa is salsa, what are you talking about? Well, I was a bit confused too. In fact I have just been educating myself on the different types of salsa. Pico de gallo is also known as salsa fresco and is made by just chopping up the raw ingredients and mixing them together. That’s what we did with the salsa for our veggie fajitas. (Update: we now have a pico de gallo recipe up as well).
Restaurant style salsa is where the ingredients are blitzed up in a food processor for more of a saucy style salsa and the ingredients can be cooked or fresh whereas pico de gallo is always fresh.
If you want to know more about the differences between types of salsa, I got my info from The Kitchn.
You can use this restaurant-style homemade salsa as a dip or a sauce and this vegan salsa is as good as any store-bought variety. In fact I’d say it’s better, because it’s so deliciously fresh and the flavors really pop.
So, like I mentioned above, a restaurant-style salsa can incorporate cooked items, and a lot of salsa recipes use roasted tomatoes, but for this salsa we decided to keep everything fresh and raw and add sundried tomatoes for that intensified tomato flavor.
So it’s super quick and just a case of adding all your ingredients to a food processor and processing them into a deliciously saucy homemade salsa dip.
This style of salsa is supposed to be saucy! But you can also get too much of a good thing and you don’t want it to be overly watery.
The way to avoid this is to stand your salsa in a sieve/strainer for a minute after you make it and let the excess water drip off. You don’t want it all to drip off, it’s okay to be pretty saucy, but you can let some of the excess drip off and still have a lovely saucy salsa.
This homemade salsa is divine served with tacos, on vegan nachos, on top of baked potatoes or just as a dip for tortilla chips.
Some guacamole and some vegan nacho cheese would go fabulously with this as the perfect complementary dips to serve with your corn chips!
I hope you’ll love this easy homemade salsa recipe! It is:
- Simple
- Fast
- Fresh
- Saucy
- A delicious dip
It’s best served fresh, but leftovers can also be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
So what do you think of this delicious vegan salsa? Let us know in the comments and please rate the recipe!
For more delicious vegan dips, check out these great recipes:
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Homemade Salsa (Restaurant Style)
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: ~4 cups
Description
Ultra fresh restaurant-style homemade salsa. This saucy salsa is super fast and simple to prepare and makes a fabulous dip for your corn chips!
Ingredients
- 4 Large Tomatoes (~21 oz/600g)
- 1/2 cup Chopped Onion
- 8 Sundried Tomatoes (Chopped)
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1/2 cup Cilantro (roughly chopped)
- 1 Tbsp Fresh Lime Juice
- 1 tsp Crushed Garlic
- 1/ 2 tsp Sea Salt
- 1 Tbsp Jalapeño Slices
- 1 tsp Coconut Sugar*
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until well combined but still leaving a bit of chunkiness to the ingredients.
- Place the salsa in a strainer to let some of the excess liquid strain off. It is supposed to be saucy but without straining it a bit it can be too saucy.
- Serve with tortilla chips for a fabulous dip!
Notes
*You can substitute brown sugar for coconut sugar, the purpose is to cut the tartness of the raw tomatoes and to create flavor balance. You may also want to add more sugar, up to 1 Tbsp coconut sugar, just taste test and see how it goes.
- Category: Dip, Savory, Gluten-Free
- Method: Food Processor
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 of the Recipe
- Calories: 89
- Sugar: 5.8g
- Sodium: 345mg
- Fat: 4.2g
- Saturated Fat: 0.5g
- Carbohydrates: 11.5g
- Fiber: 2.5g
- Protein: 2.1g
Keywords: homemade salsa, salsa, vegan salsa
I’ve been searching and trying salsa recipes for years. This recipe is so fresh and has such phenomenal flavor! My husband and I are eating it out of the strainer! My search is over! This is the best salsa recipe.
★★★★★
Yay! Thanks so much Lisa!
Do you use dried Sundried Tomatoes or packed in oil? Whichever you use, do you think you could substitute the other? (Sometimes I have one on hand, sometimes the other.)
We used the one in oil but either/or will be fine. 🙂
I make this all the time, absolutely love this!!!
★★★★★
Tastes better than the bought one!
★★★★★
Yes! It absolutely does. 🙂
Could this work with canned diced tomatoes instead of fresh? If so would you drain the diced tomatoes first?
Probably, I wouldn’t drain them first though, just use them as is, and then let the whole salsa stand in a strainer like the recipe suggests. 🙂