Homemade salsa has never been easier or more delicious! Toss all the ingredients in a blender to achieve restaurant quality salsa in less than five minutes.

Restaurant salsa. You know what I’m talking about. The smooth stuff, where all the flavors are blended perfectly together.

I’ve never been a big fan of chunky salsa, something about biting into raw onion bits and jalepeno that is not my cup of tea. And while the store-bought stuff is good, there is nothing fresh tasting about it. Even the ‘fresh’ ones. It also costs about $5 a container, for that price I might as well make my own. So I do, and boy is it good!

Salsa is a staple around this house, mostly to snack on with chips or have with fajitas or carne asada. And it’s incredibly easy to make, with little chopping and a couple seconds of blending. After experimenting to find my favorite salsa, I found that using canned plum tomatoes, fresh cilantro, fresh lime juice (not vinegar, never vinegar!), and just a touch of chipotle powder with a de-seeded jalapeno pepper makes a refreshing, yet mildly spicy, salsa. I’d give this recipe a 4/10 on the spicy scale, but you can make it to your preference with more or less chipotle and jalapeno.

While we snack on salsa all year round, I suppose this is a great recipe for Cinco de Mayo, if you celebrate it. It’s also fantastic during a BBQ it’s so good it’ll be gone before everything else! If you can it, use the lime juice in a container, not fresh. The pH of lime juice changes over time and can affect your canning.

After making your salsa, the longer you let it sit, the better the flavors become as they all intermingle. Yummy!

Stay tuned for my recipe for skirt steak fajitas coming on Friday. It’s amazing.

Fresh Salsa- Restaurant Style

Yield: 4 cups

Prep Time: 2 minutes

Cook Time: 1 minute

Total Time: 3 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
• Zest of 1 lime
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 small red onion, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 1/4 tsp raw sugar
• 1/4 tsp chipotle powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1 jalapeno, membrane and seeds removed
• 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, stems removed
• Salt and Pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Dump everything in a blender, pulse to desired consistency.
2. Serve with tortilla chips!