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    Home » Sides

    Homemade Salsa (Restaurant Style)

    Published: Oct 25, 2018 Updated: Jun 28, 2021 by Alison Andrews This post may contain affiliate links

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    Homemade salsa

    Homemade salsa in a yellow and white glass dish.

    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.

    Ingredients to make a homemade salsa in the food processor ready to process. Homemade salsa in a food processor.

    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.

    Homemade salsa in a yellow and white glass dish. Homemade salsa in a yellow and white glass dish.

    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.

    Homemade salsa in a yellow and white glass dish.

    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!

    Homemade salsa in a yellow and white glass dish with a tortilla chip dipping in.

    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.

    A tortilla chip with homemade salsa on top.

    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:

    1. Vegan Onion Dip
    2. Creamy Eggplant Dip
    3. Vegan Queso
    4. Creamy Avocado Hummus
    5. The Easiest Baba Ganoush

    Sign up to our email list while you’re here! You’ll get an awesome (and awesomely free!) recipe ebook containing 10 delicious vegan dinner recipes and you’ll be the first to know when new recipes are posted to the blog.

    A tortilla chip with homemade salsa on top.

    Homemade salsa in a yellow and white dish.

    Homemade Salsa (Restaurant Style)

    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!
    5 from 4 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Dip, Gluten-Free, Savory, Side
    Cuisine: Vegan
    Diet: Vegan
    Prep Time: 10 minutes
    Total Time: 10 minutes
    Servings: 4
    Calories: 89kcal
    Author: Alison Andrews

    Ingredients

    • 4 Large Tomatoes (600g)
    • ½ cup Onion Chopped
    • 8 Sun Dried Tomatoes Chopped
    • 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
    • ½ cup Cilantro Roughly chopped
    • 1 Tbsp Lime Juice Freshly squeezed
    • 1 tsp Crushed Garlic
    • ½ tsp Sea Salt
    • 1 Tbsp Jalapeño Slices
    • 1 tsp Coconut Sugar
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    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

    1. You can substitute light brown sugar for the coconut sugar, the purpose is to cut the tartness of the raw tomatoes and to create flavor balance. You may even want to add a little more sugar, up to 1 Tbsp, just taste test and see how it goes.
    2. This recipe makes about 4 cups of salsa. 

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1Serve | Calories: 89kcal | Carbohydrates: 11.5g | Protein: 2.1g | Fat: 4.2g | Saturated Fat: 0.5g | Sodium: 345mg | Fiber: 2.5g | Sugar: 5.8g
    DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE? Rate it & leave your feedback in the comments section below, or tag @lovingitvegan on Instagram and hashtag #lovingitvegan
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    About the Author

    Hi I'm Alison Andrews, I'm the voice and cook behind Loving It Vegan. I love making delicious vegan food and creating vegan versions of all your old favorites, so that you’ll never feel like you’re missing out. Find out more about me here.

    Loving It Vegan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This site may contain some of these links to Amazon.com. If you make a purchase through one of those links, Loving It Vegan will receive a small commission from the purchase at no additional cost to you.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Lisa says

      January 24, 2021 at 10:27 pm

      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.5 stars

      Reply
      • Alison Andrews says

        January 25, 2021 at 11:42 am

        Yay! Thanks so much Lisa!

        Reply
    2. snoCook says

      May 03, 2019 at 4:16 am

      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.)

      Reply
      • Alison Andrews says

        May 03, 2019 at 6:13 am

        We used the one in oil but either/or will be fine. 🙂

        Reply
    3. Debbie says

      May 02, 2019 at 7:44 am

      I make this all the time, absolutely love this!!!5 stars

      Reply
    4. Anna Andrews says

      October 31, 2018 at 3:08 pm

      Tastes better than the bought one!5 stars

      Reply
      • Alison Andrews says

        November 01, 2018 at 11:34 am

        Yes! It absolutely does. 🙂

        Reply
    5. snoCook says

      October 28, 2018 at 3:34 am

      Could this work with canned diced tomatoes instead of fresh? If so would you drain the diced tomatoes first?

      Reply
      • Alison Andrews says

        October 28, 2018 at 8:26 am

        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. 🙂

        Reply

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