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Get your tortilla chips ready! Fresh tomatoes, cilantro & lime create an easy, bright, restaurant-style salsa that you can enjoy any time.  This simple homemade salsa recipe also makes a perfect topping for your favorite enchiladas, tacos or Tex Mex casseroles!

 

Best homemade fresh salsa in a bowl.

Fresh Salsa scripture- Romans 12:9

 

What You Need To Make The Best Fresh Salsa

  • Roma tomatoes
  • yellow onion
  • jalapenos
  • cilantro
  • lime
  • vinegar
  • garlic
  • salt
  • sugar
  • chili powder

 

Ingredients to make fresh salsa with cilantro and lime

The Engineer and I first fell in love with fresh salsa at a little dive we happened upon in Taos, New Mexico.  If you’ve been following long, you know that he loves to drag me into every hole in the wall place he can find.  For him, the more hole in the wall the better.  And he’s not often wrong.  His love for local flavor has been the source for most of our favorite recipes/dishes!

 

This little tomato salsa recipe with cilantro and lime is the result of one those delicious local discoveries.  There’s no canned tomatoes here.  Only gorgeously bright and fresh fruit and veggies.  There have been years that we’ve planted a garden just so that we can make this salsa.  It’s just that good!

 

How to serve fresh homemade salsa

 

How to Make the Best Salsa:

  • Roma tomatoes, those funny, oval shaped tomatoes at your local grocery store or farmer’s market,  make the best salsa.  The reason is that Romas have more meat and fewer seed cavities than other types of tomatoes.  Meatier tomatoes create a better textured, less watery salsa.
  • Because this recipe uses only fresh tomatoes and not canned ones, I don’t use a food processor or blender.  A food processor tends to over work a fresh tomato and create a watery salsa.  
  • Instead of a food processor, I might use my pastry cutter to blend up my diced tomatoes, onions and peppers after adding them to my salsa if I think the salsa is too chunky.  Using a pastry cutter gives me more control of the texture.
  • The sugar in this recipe cuts the bright acidity of the tomatoes (especially store bought tomatoes), vinegar and lime.  And though that acidity is my favorite part, it does need a bit of balancing.  However, as summer heats up and the tomatoes get sweeter, you might find that you need less sugar.
  • The ease and success of this recipe depends 100% on a nicely sharp knife.

 

 

dipping fresh salsa with tortilla chips

 

How To Make Your Salsa Hotter (or Milder)

  • The membrane that holds the seeds of a jalapeno or other hot pepper is where the heat of the pepper comes from.  How much membrane you leave in the pepper will determine the heat of your salsa.
  • Usually, shorter peppers are hotter than longer ones.
  • Canned diced green chiles can be substituted for fresh jalapenos to make a 100% mild salsa.  Just drain the chiles before adding them to your salsa.

You may want to wear gloves while you work with the jalapenos. If not, wash your hands thoroughly with dish liquid afterwards to cut the oils and do not touch your face!

 

 

What To Serve With Fresh Salsa

 

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Best homemade fresh salsa in a bowl.

Fresh Salsa with Cilantro & Lime

Fresh tomatoes, cilantro & lime create a bright, quick, restaurant salsa without a food processor!
3.4 from 60 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: American, Mexican
Keyword: dip, TexMex, tomatoes
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 4 people
Author: Stacey | SouthernDiscourse.com

Ingredients

  • 6 Roma tomatoes
  • 1/2 medium yellow or sweet onion
  • 1/4 C finely chopped cilantro
  • 2 jalapenos
  • 1/4 C vinegar, skinny
  • 2-3 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • 1/4 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4-1/2 lime

Instructions

  • Finely dice tomatoes & onion and place in medium glass mixing bowl. Add chopped cilantro.
  • Slice jalapenos in half to remove the seeds and the membrane than that holds them. Finely dice peppers and add to tomatoes and onion. (Note: The membrane is where the heat of the pepper comes from. How much of the membrane you leave in the pepper will determine the heat of your salsa. You may want to wear gloves while you work with the jalapenos. If not, wash hands thoroughly with dish washing liquid afterwards and do not touch face.)
  • Add vinegar, garlic, chili powder and 2 tsp of salt and sugar. Toss well. Taste to determine if another tsp of salt and/or sugar is needed.
  • Squeeze lime over salsa. Toss once more. Cover and refrigerate or serve immediately with tortilla chips or with any Tex Mex dish.

Notes

As summer gets hotter and the tomatoes get sweeter, less sugar is required.
Store in the refrigerator, covered, for 3-4 days.

 

 

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***Pin & Save this Fresh Salsa Recipe***

Best homemade fresh salsa recipe. No blender needed! Fresh tomatoes, cilantro & lime create a bright, quick salsa! #salsarecipe #freshsalsarecipe #salsawithcilantro

Best homemade fresh salsa recipe. No blender needed! Fresh tomatoes, cilantro & lime create a bright, quick salsa! #salsarecipe #freshsalsarecipe #salsawithcilantro
Best homemade fresh salsa recipe. No blender needed! Fresh tomatoes, cilantro & lime create a bright, quick salsa! #salsarecipe #freshsalsarecipe #salsawithcilantro