Quick & Easy Blender Salsa — This easy salsa recipe will teach you how to make salsa at home in just a few minutes in the blender so you’ll never run out!
Table of Contents
Easy Homemade Salsa … in a Blender!
I’m a chips and salsa fiend. I almost don’t even need the chips and can just shovel in the salsa by the fork-full.
When I want salsa now, I turn to this restaurant-style salsa recipe made in a blender.
The best part of this salsa is how fast, easy, and goofproof it is. Add all the ingredients to your blender or food processor, blend, and you’re done in under 2 minutes. My favorite kind of recipe!
Over time, the flavors really marry and the rawness of the onion and garlic mellows.
We love this easy salsa recipe so much more than any restaurant or store-bought salsa. I love it when homemade, easy recipes trump all the others.
Blender Salsa Ingredients
I prefer making my blended salsa with canned tomatoes rather than fresh. Using canned tomatoes keeps this a dump-and-blend recipe and eliminates the need to dirty a knife and cutting board.
Gather the following ingredients to make the salsa in a blender:
- Canned tomatoes
- Yellow onions
- Jalapeño pepper
- Garlic
- Ground cumin
- Salt
- Granulated sugar
- Fresh cilantro
- Lime juice
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Salsa in a Blender
This blender salsa recipe is customizable and requires you to stop, taste-test, and tweak based on your own personal preferences. Everyone’s preference for salt, heat, and texture differs.
Here’s an overview of how blender salsa is made:
- Add all the ingredients to a blender.
- Pulse until the salsa reaches your desired consistency.
- If desired, stir in optional black beans or corn to the blended salsa to add extra flavor and texture (stir in by hand, don’t pulse in the blender).
Tip
You can enjoy the blended salsa right away, but I actually think it tastes best after it’s been allowed to sit in the fridge for a day. This gives the flavors time to come together.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, but try making a batch with a little sugar in it and see what you think! The sugar balances the heat from the pepper and the acidity in the tomatoes. Start with less and add more if necessary, and definitely be careful not to over-sweeten.
This salsa will last up to a week in the fridge and can be paired with chips, tacos, burritos, and more!
Also, I used canned whole tomatoes, but you can use diced if that’s all you have on hand.
Just make sure to buy a large enough can, and double check that your tomatoes don’t contain extra flavorings (sometimes they’re canned with basil or other herbs).
Yes! This restaurant-style salsa is extremely hard to resist right out of the blender, but if you can make it a day in advance and store it in the fridge, it’s much better the second and third day. I’ve never been able to get it to last past the third day.
Fairly spicy! Use fewer jalapeños and/or remove the seeds if you don’t like four-alarm fires as much as I do.
Yes, it probably would be fine to use fresh tomatoes instead of canned. It will result in a slightly different flavor perhaps, but if you have them to use up, I would go for it!
What to Serve with Restaurant-Style Salsa
Keep things simple by serving this blender salsa with homemade tortilla chips, or pair it with one or more of the following Mexican dishes:
- Tacos al pastor
- Beef taco salad bowls
- Sweet potato black bean enchiladas
- Veggie burrito bowls
- Smothered beef burritos
You can also use this salsa to make my favorite cheesy salsa chip dip or baked salsa chicken!
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Blender Salsa
Ingredients
- one 28-ounce can tomatoes, including juice (I used these whole, peeled plum tomatoes)
- 1 small yellow onion, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 or 2 jalepeno peppers, de-stemmed and roughly chopped*
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin, or to taste
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt, or to taste (remember some brands of tomatoes and chips are much saltier than others)
- ¼ to 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, optional and to taste**
- 1 or 2 handfuls cilantro leaves, discard stems (I prefer 2)
- about 3 tablespoons lime juice
- about 3/4 cup corn, optional
- about 3/4 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed, optional
- corn chips, for serving
Instructions
- Add all ingredients (except optional corn and beans) to the canister of a blender or food processor in the order listed. Pulse or blend on high power until texture is as smooth as desired. If you have a very strong blender, you probably don’t need to pre-chop the ingredients before adding them to the blender, but I do just to make sure I don’t get large random, accidentally unblended chunks of any one ingredient.
- Taste the salsa and based on personal preference tweak as necessary.
- Optionally stir in the corn and black beans.
- Transfer to airtight container and serve immediately with chips. However, I prefer to refrigerate salsa for 1 day prior to serving because I prefer chilled salsa and because the flavors marry, mellow, and the flavor improves on the second and third day. Salsa will likely keep up to 1 week airtight in the fridge; however, we’ve always eaten a batch within 3 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Homemade Salsa Recipes:
Chunky Tomatillo Avocado Salsa — If you like salsa verde, you’re going to LOVE this homemade version that includes creamy chunks of avocado! As FAST and EASY and tossing a handful of healthy ingredients into your food processor and the salsa is ready in seconds.
The Best Peach Mango Salsa — Fast, easy, and tastes a million times better than anything store-bought! So.darn.good!
Pineapple Salsa — Pineapple Chunks, yellow bell peppers, Roma tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper — a healthy, clean, and simple ingredient list that packs big time flavor and texture.
Blueberry Corn Salsa — The salsa is packed with fresh blueberries, corn, strawberries, jalapeno, cilantro, lime, and hot sauce. There’s texture galore in every bite, but you can blend it if you prefer a smooth texture.
Sweet and Spicy Chipotle Salsa — A sweet and spicy salsa with a lovely smokiness from pineapple, tomatillo, onion, and garlic that are blistered under broiler and then blended with chipotle peppers! PERFECT over tacos, with chips, or as a great addition to any Mexican-inspired meal!
Watermelon Mango Salsa — The EASY salsa is made with watermelon, mango, and mint adds so much fresh FLAVOR!! Healthy, FAST, EASY!
Can I use fresh tomatoes? If so about how many.
Yes I’m sure that will be fine and you’d use as many as it takes to reach approximately 28 ounces, which is how much of the canned tomatoes I called for.
Just wanted to let you know my family and I LOVE this salsa! I have pinned it and made it a few times, but I am including it in a post on my blog about my garden harvest this year! I especially love the convenience of it in the winter, (I live in Minnesota) because I don’t need to have fresh tomatoes, I just use my canned ones from the summer before!
Thanks
JJ
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it’s a favorite for you and your family! I grew up in MN and know exactly how winters are (even fresh storebought produce is quite pathetic) and amen for canned tomatoes, right!
Question please ;-) I’m going to use fresh tomatoes since they are finally in season!! Any idea how may I should use?? Do I need to cook them down or just chop them up?? PS… sorry I’m a terrible cook but I’m trying!!
I haven’t tried so I can’t say for sure what to do exactly but why don’t you just toss some in the blender with the other ingredients, blend, taste..and take it from there based on what you think the salsa needs. Pretty easy :) Enjoy!
Have you tried roasting the tomatoes and/or jalapeñoa first? It gives the salsa a great flavor!
I’ve also “fried” the salsa; meaning that I add a bit of oil to a sauce pan and add the salsa straight from the blender to cook it a bit. Also a different flavor!
Great ideas and tips! Thanks for sharing!
Just made this and we love it!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
Sound like the pioneer woman’s salsa recipe
Made it. Loved it. Hooked on it now. I adore getting a new salsa recipe, and while appearing simple, this one is wicked good. I go to a Mexican Restaurant (not a chain) 4 states away, twice a year just because their salsa is to die for. I drag back two big styrofoam “to go” soda cups full of the stuff, but it only lasts maybe 48 hours. LOL
Don’t take the comment to heart about pictures. Put as many of those beautiful things on your page as you want. Load time has almost nothing to do with anyone’s “slow computer.” It’s internet connection speed. And nowdays 95% of the country uses high speed wired, wifi or at least 4G. Photo loading is not an issue.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and you’re hooked. And now you have something to tide you over in between your twice annual Mexican restaurant that’s 4 states away!
And yeah, people will always gripe about something. My recipes are free, they’re dang good, and they work :) What else do people want? Wonders never cease :) Thanks for your support!
I enjoy and appreciate finding recipes on the internet. Please pardon me for bellyaching a bit. Is it necessary to have 6 pictures of the salsa? My computer is slow enough without waiting for the page to load. This happens all too often during my search for good stuff to eat! Thanks for listening.
Is there something I can substitute for the sugar in the recipe to help cut the sweetness? The wondering! Can’t wait to make it!
Not exactly sure what you’re asking but you don’t have to use sugar; sometimes tomatoes are a bit acidic and the tiny bit of sugar can cut that, but you can omit it if desired.
Just finished it and canned in in mason jars… One jar is already gone! Amazing!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Wonderful to hear you canned some…and that one jar is already gone! :)
My recipe is very similar but with every can of whole tomatoes I also add a can of rotel. And a can of green chiles as well. They add a different level of heat than the jalepenos. I also use about 1/3 the garlic and then garlic salt instead of plain salt & I’m heavy on the cumin. We love it!!! I have to triple the recipe. It’s a family favourite and there’s always a tub of it in our fridge! If it’s empty, the complaints start rolling in! Can’t wait to try the other recipes on this page-the baked cheesy salsa dip looks amazing!! :)
Rotel is great, can’t go wrong with that, nor with lots of cumin! Love that you make a triple batch at a time!
EVERYTHING ON THIS PAGE LOOKS AMAZING! I CAN’T WAIT TO TRY THEM ALL! THANK YOU!
i just made this. WOW! So good, Averie! It really is just like the good stuff in the restaurants. :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad you loved it and it tasted just like restaurant salsa for you! Awesome :) And thank you so much for always FB’ing, Tweeting, and spreading the linky love – you’re the BEST! :)
Omg this looks amazing and perfect timing! I was thinking of throwing a themed party soon and this surely will be a hit! Thank you for another awesome recipe Averie xo C
Thanks & enjoy!!
“I’m a chips and salsa fiend.I almost don’t even need the chips and can just shovel in the salsa by the fork-full.” <– 200% me. Whenever we have salsa in the fridge, I always get caught with a spoon in the jar… Every single time. No shame. And that sinus-clearing line? Totally true!
I always get caught with a spoon in the jar too :) And can wash it all down with lots of margaritas :)
This is almost the exact salsa recipe we do, except I do one can of tomatoes and one can of Rotel, and I use green onions instead of yellow (a Hispanic friend’s mom used green onions in her salsa and I LOVE the slightly different flavor they add). This salsa is the best! Especially with ridiculous amounts of cilantro!
I can see where Rotel would be great and yes ridic amounts of cilantro for me too :)