Easy Homemade Salsa Recipe (Better than the Restaurant!)

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This Homemade Salsa recipe is even BETTER than the restaurant! Learn how to make your own fresh & tasty dip with only these easy steps and a food processor.

Fresh Salsa is one of those things where if you’ve had it once, you know you can’t go back to those stale-flavored glass jars. 

However, store-bought fresh salsa is usually way more expensive….and most of us don’t have the time or funds to go out to our favorite restaurant and enjoy some fresh salsa whenever we get the hankering.

Well guess what, friends – today is the day all of that changes. Because I’m going to show you how to make the best-est, easiest, and tastiest salsa ever…using only whole plant foods and a food processor!

close up photo of salsa in wood bowl

This recipe is actually courtesy of my boyfriend, Dylan (it’s his second shout-out on the blog!). He (and his father, and his father’s father) has/have been making this salsa since pretty much forever. I’m not saying that it earned him any extra dates with me, but I will say that we’ve shared many a bowl of it together.

ingredients for salsa arranged on dark gray background

Dylan uses a few “untraditional” ingredients in his salsa, like carrots and green onions. I totally questioned him at first, but once I had a bite of his dip, I chucked those judgments out the dang window. Once you make this for yourself, I think  you will too 😉

Now, enough with the stories! Let’s make some salsa.

Step One: Wash & Prep Your Veggies

chopped veggies for salsa on round white cutting board

Rinse all of your veggies and cut off any pesky ends that you don’t want in your salsa.

You don’t have to overly chop any of the vegetables here – the food processor is going to do all of the work for us! Just try to cut each veggie into uniform pieces so they will break down evenly when processed.

Step Two: Pulse Everything Together in a Food Processor

pulsed salsa in food processor with spatula and two limes

You heard me – this is essentially a one bowl recipe! We’ll add our salsa ingredients to our food processor in a specific order in order to get that perfectly chunky, restaurant-style salsa. If you don’t have a food processor you can chop everything by hand, but it’ll take you a lot longer.

You’ll need a food processor that can hold at least 8 cups for this recipe; otherwise, you can just work in batches! Unfortunately, this recipe won’t work in a blender – it’ll just turn everything to mush.

Step Three: Serve and Enjoy!

wood bowl of salsa with plate of chips and fresh lime wedges

It’s really that easy. All in all, this recipe takes about 10 minutes to make! And considering you get about 4 cups of salsa, it’s way more cost-effective too. And let’s not forget that you can customize your salsa to your own personal taste preferences! Want more or less heat? No worries. Want to add in some extra veggies or fresh summer fruit? Go for it, friend.

hand dipping tortilla chip into wooden bowl of salsa

Ways to Use Salsa:

  • As a dip for chips or fresh veggies (pro tip: mash it with some avocado for a fun treat!)
  • As a condiment in salads, grain bowls, breakfast foods, and pretty much everything with a tex-mex influence
  • As a seasoning in cooked beans, rice, or soups

As you can see, the possibilities are pretty much endless – in terms of savory food, at least. Is dessert salsa a thing? Now I’m curious…

This Homemade Salsa recipe is even BETTER than the restaurant! Learn how to make your own fresh & tasty dip with only these easy steps and a food processor. #salsa #homemadesalsa #foodprocessorsalsa #salsarecipe #carrotsalsa | frommybowl.com

If you’re looking for more fresh and tasty dip recipes, you’ll also love this Summer Mango Salsa, this Avocado Salsa and this (Best Ever) Hummus!

Finally, if you make this recipe and decide to share it on Facebook or Instagram, don’t forget to tag me @FromMyBowl + #FromMyBowl! I love seeing your delicious recreations 🙂 

Print

Easy Homemade Salsa

This Homemade Salsa recipe is even BETTER than the restaurant! Learn how to make your own fresh & tasty dip with only these easy steps and a food processor.

  • Author: Caitlin Shoemaker
  • Prep Time: 10 Minutes
  • Cook Time: 0 Minutes
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 4-5 cups 1x
  • Category: Appetizer
  • Method: Food Processor
  • Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale
  • 810 roma tomatoes, divided (about 2.5 pounds / 1130g)
  • 2 medium carrots, peeled 
  • 2 jalapeños, de-seeded* 
  • 35 cloves of garlic 
  • 3 green onions 
  • ¼ bunch cilantro 
  • 1 tsp cumin 
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
  • 1 tsp salt 
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • Juice of 1 lime

Instructions

  1. Wash all of the produce and roughly chop it into evenly sized pieces about 2-3” long.
  2. Add half of the tomatoes to a large food processor and process until completely broken down, reminiscent of a sauce. 
  3. Add the green onion, cilantro, and garlic to the food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the processor, if necessary. Add the carrots and jalapeños and repeat the same process, then add the spices, salt, lemon juice, and lime juice. Pulse briefly to incorporate, and adjust seasonings to taste
  4. Finally, add the remaining tomatoes and pulse a few times, until the tomatoes reach your desired consistency.
  5. Serve as desired and enjoy! This salsa is best enjoyed fresh, but leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Notes

  • You can opt to completely remove the seeds of the jalapeños for a mild salsa, or leave some of them in for a spicier version. I left the seeds of ½ of a pepper in mine for a medium heat.

Keywords: food processor salsa, carrot salsa, healthy salsa, easy salsa recipe, one bowl salsa, fresh salsa recipe

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About the Author

Hey there, I’m Caitlin! I make easy-to-follow, wholesome, and budget-friendly vegan recipes that are mostly gluten-free and refined sugar-free. I’m also an avid yogi, love the great outdoors, am chocolate-obsessed, and enjoy eating almond butter straight off of the spoon.

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Comments

  1. D-lish!!! This was super yummy and so easy to make. I followed the recipe except I shredded the carrots and added them to the blender with the 1st 1/2 of the tomatoes. I will be making this recipe again and again and again…Thank you!

  2. Awesome! I didn’t have green onion so I used yellow onion. Really fresh and delicious tasting. 🙂

  3. Sooo good! Literally the best salsa I think I’ve ever had. And a really impressive thing to make for friends! 🙂

  4. This is sooo delicious! We’ve made it twice this past week and throw it over everything, lol!

  5. I’ll be honest… this recipe scared me when I first read the title. But now that I realize I won’t have to chop every veggie into fine/perfect bits and can use a food processor? I’M MAKING THIS TONIGHT. Thanks Caitlin!

  6. Can this recipe also be made in a good blender? I only have a very small food processor but I have a high power blender

    1. I think that could work. We haven’t tested it but if you are able to achieve the same consistency as the picture then why not!

  7. This looks delicious! I would not have thought of adding the carrots either lol. I’ll give this a try this weekend 🙂