This quick and easy, homemade salsa is ready in 5 minutes and is super flavorful!

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The best part of this recipe is that you likely have the ingredients already in your kitchen. Win-win!

If you love salsa like we do you’ve come to the right place!

I know I’m not the only one who knowingly fills up on chips and salsa at my favorite Mexican restaurant.

It’s a part of the dining experience that I have come to expect and really look forward to. Without question, I will always have leftovers for lunch the next day due to eating too many chips and salsa. That is definitely not by any means a complaint!

Some Like it Hot

A great salsa should be fresh and balanced and have a slight kick to it. To clarify, there should be enough spice to taste it but not so much that you can’t take another bite without taking a big gulp of water in-between bites. For us, this means adding a jalapeno, for others the sharpness of the onion might be enough.

Homemade Equals Customizable

Arguably the best part about anything homemade is that whatever you’re making is completely customizable to your specific taste or preference.

One person’s idea of the perfect salsa can be completely different from someone else’s. You may like your salsa to be smooth and super spicy. Someone else may prefer super chunky and not too spicy, or any combination in the spectrum.

My preference is slightly chunky with a little kick.

One Batch with Multiple Levels of Spice

How I make my salsa also depends on what, or rather who, I am making it for. If it’s just for my husband and me, I’ll make it on the spicier side. If my family will be coming over for dinner, I will cut back on the spice a little bit.

Another easy option is to make a batch and then separate it into a couple of different bowls. This way you can have both mild and spicer versions. For example, after placing half of the base salsa into one bowl you can then punch up the other half by adding in jalapenos or chipotle peppers to bring in the heat.

Because this recipe is so easy and versatile once you make it, you’ll never go back to store-bought, preservative latent salsa again!

Go Ahead, Brag About It!

A bonus of this quick and easy homemade salsa recipe is major bragging rights. Once you’ve shared your delicious, bespoke recipe with family and friends, and then casually tell them that you’ve made it from scratch, you’re bound to not only get complements but also requests to make it for get-togethers.

This recipe is sure to be a hit, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Quick and Easy Homemade Salsa Recipe

Ingredients

• one 28 ounce can of whole, peeled tomatoes, drained
• one small onion, roughly chopped
• one to two cloves of garlic
• half of a cup of cilantro mostly leaves
• two tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• half a teaspoon of salt
• a quarter of a teaspoon of freshly ground pepper
• optional, one or two jalapeños
• or one or two chipotle peppers, canned

Instructions

If you have a food processor I would highly recommend using to make this recipe. The reason is a quick and easy five minute recipe is due to utilizing a tool such as this.

Quick and Easy Homemade Salsa

• open the can of whole, peeled tomatoes and drain off any excess liquid and add to the work bowl of the food processor.

Quick and Easy Homemade Salsa

• First, trim the ends of the onion, remove the onion skin. Second, roughly cut the onion into quarters and add to the work bowl of the food processor.

Quick and Easy Homemade Salsa

• rinse and clean the cilantro, remove the thicker parts of the stems, then add to the work bowl.

Typically, I trim the stems just under the last leaf and then leave the rest of the smaller stems. The stems will add a stronger cilantro flavor. If you prefer a more subtle cilantro flavor you can just use the cilantro leaves and none of the stems.

Quick and Easy Homemade Salsa

• remove the outer garlic clove skin and roughly chop one or two cloves of garlic and add to the work bowl.

A trick to getting the outer skin off of a clove of garlic easily is to use the flat side of your knife blade.

In other words, place the flat side of the knife blade on top of the piece of garlic and quickly hit the top of the flat side with the palm of your hand. This will slightly squish the clove and as a result, the skin will be very easily removed from the garlic clove.

Quick and Easy Homemade Salsa

• add salt and freshly cracked pepper to the work bowl.

In my opinion, the food I make is only as good as the ingredients I use. Therefore, I use the freshest ingredients I can and that includes freshly grinding pepper. However, if you only have ground pepper you can, of course, use it. But once it runs out I would recommend replacing it with a peppermill. You will definitely taste the difference between the two versions.

Quick and Easy Homemade Salsa

• squeeze one or two limes and add to the work bowl.

I have found a couple of tricks to getting the maximum amount of juice out of a lime. First, after washing the lime I gently but firmly roll the lime on the surface of my cutting board. This slightly softens the skin and makes it easier to squeeze. Second, rather than cutting the lime in half, or even in quarters, I cut the lime into smaller wedges. I have found this enables me to extract the maximum amount of juice out of each piece. That being said limes come in different sizes and depending on the time of year you may get more or less out of it.

Quick and Easy Homemade Salsa

• Now that all of your ingredients have been added to the work bowl, secure the lid and pulse until all of the ingredients are combined, and you’ve reached the desired salsa consistency.
• Using a clean spoon taste your finished salsa and adjust salt and pepper to taste if needed.

Enjoy your quick and easy homemade salsa with chips and family and friends!