Easy Homemade Salsa Fresca in the blender is ready in a flash! Just toss fresh, ripe tomatoes, jalapeños and cilantro in the blender with Southwest spices and voila, instant restaurant-style salsa.
Delicious Fresh Salsa recipes are perfect for tortilla chips or your favorite Mexican food recipes like tacos, even grilled steak or chicken.
What is Fresh Salsa or Salsa Fresca?
Salsa Fresca or Fresh Salsa is made with UN-cooked fresh tomatoes, fresh chiles and spices—no cooking or roasting of the vegetables is required.
Fresh tomatoes at the peak of their ripeness make a world of difference in the flavor of the salsa. Most other sauces and salsas roast the tomatoes and other vegetables in order to give them a sweeter taste and depth of flavor.
The fresh vegetables give the salsa a bright taste and texture. Be sure to use the ripest tomatoes you can find for the sweetest tomato flavor.
Fresh Salsa is delicious on tortilla chips and tacos, of course. It is ALSO the best choice for making dishes that require cooking the salsa in the recipe like Huevos El Diablo or Chilaquiles.
Which Tomatoes Make the Best Fresh Salsa?
I like to use Roma tomatoes for salsa, they have have a great tomato-y flavor and the most consistent texture.
If I can’t find Roma tomatoes, I choose the vine ripened tomatoes sold in the produce section with the vines still attached.
Beef steak tomatoes are good if they are at the height of their season. They should be ripe (not too acidic) with a nice, juicy texture. Beef steak tomatoes can be very “mealy” in texture and sometimes lack flavor.
If the tomatoes are mealy and not at their peak, it is best to use a recipe that roasts or cooks the tomato. Check out these salsa recipes to find the perfect one for your tomatoes.
Air Fryer Tomato Salsa and Lazy Salsa (also known as Roasted Salsa) are perfect recipes for enhancing the tomato’s flavor and texture.
How to Make a Salsa Recipe in the Blender
You don’t have to make this Fresh Tomato Salsa in the blender BUT, using the blender makes homemade salsa so simple, so easy—with almost no clean up. Your food processor will work just fine if you don’t have a blender.
- First, rinse and dry the vegetables for the salsa.
- Next, remove the stems and rough chop the ingredients. Remove the seeds and veins of the jalapeños if you would like a milder salsa.
- Layer the ingredients in the blender. Put half of the tomatoes in the bottom of the blender.
- Next, layer in the other ingredients- jalapeño, garlic, onion and cilantro.
- Top it off with the remaining tomatoes.
- Don’t forget to add the cumin and salt! After layering the ingredients, put the cumin and salt in the blender with the rest of the ingredients.
- Squeeze in the lime juice
- Puree! Oooops… the lid! Don’t forget the lid to the blender.
That’s it! Fast and easy Fresh Tomato Salsa in the Blender in 5 minutes.
Bonus: No tomato juice all over the counter. No jalapeño juice all over your hands.
If you start with chilled ingredients, you can serve right away. If you have extra time, chill the salsa and let the flavors blend together.
How long to store Fresh Salsa or Salsa Fresca
Fresh salsa needs to be stored in the refrigerator. Keep it in an air tight container.
The salsa will keep in the refrigerator for 1 week to 10 days.
Remember, there are no preservatives in the salsa.
Can I freeze Fresh Salsa?
Yes! You can freeze Fresh Salsa Recipes.
Frozen salsa will be a little “water-y” when you thaw it out. You might be tempted to pour the extra water down the sink but, you can find other uses for it.
- Use the thawed salsa when making dishes that cook salsa ( Huevos El Diablo, Chilaquiles, Salsa Chicken, etc… ) so that you can simmer the salsa for a few minutes to reduce the liquid.
- Thawed salsa liquid can be added to vegetable stock for making homemade soups or chili.
More delicious Fresh Salsa Recipes for you to try
- Fresh Strawberry Salsa it’s sweet AND spicy!
- Pineapple Salsa on Kalua Pork Tacos – 2 recipes in one!
- Award Winning Cranberry Clementine Salsa Fresca- tart, spicy and yes, I said “Award Winning!”
Homemade Salsa Fresca in the Blender
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- 4 large Roma tomatoes weight is 1.22 lbs or 19.5oz
- 1 red or green jalapeno pepper stem removed
- 2 cloves of garlic optional
- ½ a small white onion peeled
- 1 handful of cilantro leaves and little bit of the stems
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper optional
Instructions
- Roughly chop the tomatoes and place half of them into the blender. Roughly chop the onion and jalapeno and add to blender with the garlic. Then add the remaining chopped tomatoes, the cilantro, salt and black pepper if using. Begin by pulsing the ingredients until they blender gets going – if you’re tomatoes are not ripe enough you’ll need to add a couple of tablespoons of water to get the blades going. Once you have enough liquid at the bottom you can blend at low speed until the salsa is nice and smooth.
- Taste and if needed add more salt. Pour into a serving container or store in the fridge, covered, until ready to serve. Please notice this salsa won’t keep more than a day or max too in the fridge. It’s really best to enjoy within 30 minutes of blending. Also do note that the longer it sits the darker the red tone will become.
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