The Best Homemade Fresh Salsa

Posted onJuly 14, 2019February 12, 2023 Updated onFebruary 12, 2023

This Easy Homemade Salsa Recipe comes together in a flash and tastes AMAZING. It's a truly simple salsa recipe, but it's quite possibly the best salsa recipe you will ever have.

fresh salsa in white bowl with tortilla chips, lime, and cilantro on white table

Are you a salsa lover?

Our family just LOVES salsa. If you're like us, you just can't get enough of this

What is Salsa?

Traditionally, Salsa fresca is what those in the United States typically mean when they use the the word salsa, with the main ingredients of this dish being tomatoes, chiles and onions.

Salsa rojo literally means "red sauce." Of course the red color comes from a base of tomatoes, but I'm sure you've noticed that other types of "salsa rojos" are becoming popular these days. Think about strawberry salsa, cherry salsa, cranberry salsa--I've even seen beet salsa! Regardless of what you use to make salsa, the word generally refers to raw or near-raw sauces used as dips.

Salsa verde (VAIR-day)-literally means "green sauce." The sauce is typically made with tomatillos instead of tomatoes.

The Origin of this Recipe

So now that we've established what salsa is, let's get on with how the recipe for the best salsa came to be.

Do you remember my post about our weekend of processing and storing tomatoes?

Well one year, being the vegetable freaks that we have become, we planted a large garden and also bought into a local CSA as a "back up." I guess that not many people have a CSA membership as a back up to a large garden, but we did. Probably was a little too much as you will see, but hey.

Veggie goals.

Well, one day our CSA farmer offered us ~~a TON~~ about 120 pounds of tomatoes including heritage tomatoes with all kinds of colors---reds, yellows and oranges--and me, being the glutton for bulk kitchen anything, accepted his offer.

What happened next was a lot of the following:

Washing. Chopping. Slicing. Dehydrating. Freezing.

And eating.

Now, we LOVE (and I do mean LOVE) sun dried tomatoes, so that was my big goal--to make a TON of homemade sun-dried tomatoes.

If you've ever priced sun-dried tomatoes, you know that they are NOT cheap. And ORGANIC sun-dried tomatoes?

Might as well forget about it.

Anyhow, I couldn't dehydrate the tomatoes fast enough to prevent them all from spoiling, so we had to chop up quite a few and get them right into the freezer. If you haven't heard about freezing tomatoes, you may wish to check out my post on The Easiest Way to Preserve Tomatoes.

When you're talking 120 pounds of tomatoes, easy is important! Make that CRUCIAL. But even if it's easy, 120 pounds of any kind of produce makes for quite a bit of work.

So we worked and worked. And nibbled, of course.

We ended up with quite a few tomatoes in the freezer for future pasta sauce and other hot dishes (like our favorite Ground Beef Curry), and we ended up with a very decent stash of the "Easiest Homemade Sun-Dried Tomatoes" as well. Yum :-)!

And with the rest of the tomatoes?

Well, we ended up making 3 4 5 batches of what I think just might be the Best Salsa Recipe ever.

And now I get to share that recipe with you as well.

Possibly The Best Salsa Recipe Ever

Now, I've had quite a few salsas that are wonderful. Some are sweet and some are spicy and some are more eclectic (the mango/pineapple salsas, tomatillo, green tomato, etc.). I just love salsa, and well, dips of all kinds.

Unless it was really spicy or full of chemical additives or sugar (we're on a pretty close to sugar-free diet), there pretty much isn't a salsa that I would pass up.

But I must say that this recipe is one of the cleanest, most satisfying salsas that I have ever had. I tasted it for the first time about 5 years ago at a baptism and quickly ~~begged~~ asked for the recipe.

In fact, this salsa was so popular, that the hosts of the party emailed the recipe out to everyone who had attended--since practically everyone had asked for it!

Over the years, I had completely forgotten about this recipe, but it resurfaced again this past week as I was going through my recipe file. And boy was I excited!

I made up a quick batch and wow, is it fresh and wonderful tasting.

Of course, this salsa tastes great with the standard tortilla chip, but we tend to dip all kinds of other things in it as well or even use it as a condiment if we happen to make a lot.

In fact, we love dipping popcorn in it. Here's one of our favorite popcorn recipes. And this one is great as well. Enjoy!

Low-Carb Dipper Ideas

For those of you who are eating low carb, this Flax Bread makes a great salsa dipper too, and you could also dip the following:

- celery sticks
- carrot sticks
- cucumber rounds
- zucchini rounds
- bell pepper strips
- jicama sticks

and more.

Dipping is just about THE perfect way to get more veggies into your and your family's diet.

Oh and if you love dips as much as we do, here are some of our favorite dips to add to the Dip Section of your recipe box:

Other Favorite Dip Recipes

Simple Savory Hummus
Olive Hummus
Vegan Ranch Dip / Dressing
Pizza Hummus (dairy-free)
Zesty Avocado Dressing / Dip
Almond Butter Fruit Dip
Healthy Chocolate Dip

And now you'll want to add this one as well.

I know, it's a simple recipe.

But it's shockingly good. And I hope you do agree.

Before we get to the recipe, here are some tips you should know:

Recipe Tips:

Cilantro Tips: See my post on 6 Super Tips for Cilantro so you can save money and time with this great herb. You could easily increase the cilantro amount. The more the better, in my opinion. Boy, I used to think that the stuff tasted like soap, but I really love it now :-)!
Green Pepper: This salsa tastes great both with and without the green pepper. I used frozen pre-diced peppers and it was great!
Lime Juice: The original recipe recommended quite a bit more lime juice so you can be adventurous if you like. I thought it tasted great with this amount.

hand dipping tortilla chip into fresh salsa in white bowl

And now on with the recipe.

Ingredients

3 medium tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped green onion (I included the white portion)
1/2 cup peppers (chopped; optional)
1/4 cup cilantro
2 tablespoons lime juice (or the juice of 1 lime)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Chop tomatoes.
Add other ingredients and mix gently.
Adjust seasonings to taste.

Nutrition

Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.

I hope to offer up some other salsa recipes soon, including some adventurous ones. Beet salsa, anyone :)?

Recipe Update Notes:

This post was updated with new information and photos. The original photo was as follows and I used heirloom tomatoes in addition to yellow and orange tomatoes. Following is the original photo for reference:

Close up shot of salsa made from sliced tomatoes, green onion, pepper, and cilantro

How about you?
Do you have a fabulous salsa recipe to share! Please do :-)!

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