Best Easy Recipe for Restaurant Style Salsa | Good Life Eats

This Restaurant Style Salsa Recipe is a mix of tomatoes, jalapenos, onion, fresh garlic, cilantro, lime, and a few other seasonings. This recipe for salsa is so easy to make, you can prepare it in a matter of minutes!

overhead photo of a bowl of salsa restaurant style surrounded by tortilla chips, cilantro, and garlic with two glasses of beer

Making this Restaurant Style Salsa Recipe

I gave you a little teaser of this recipe for restaurant style salsa last week on my Week in Review post. Ready for me to share the recipe? You’ll never believe how easy it is to make this restaurant style salsa.

First, can I just tell you how addicting this recipe is?

So addicting that I, completely by myself (except the 5 of so chips Madeline ate) polished off an entire bag of tortilla chips in a mere 4 days.

True, it was not the extra large or even large sized bag of chips, but still. Entire bag. By my self.

But, I’ll just pretend that it doesn’t really matter.

I’ll keep telling myself that it’s okay because the salsa was full of tomatoes (vegetable!). And, I know that I don’t do this sort of thing every week. But, maybe next time I’ll make homemade tortilla chips to go with the salsa so it’ll be just that much “healthier.”

What I Love About this Salsa Recipe

I am so impressed with how much this tastes like fresh salsa. If someone made the recipe for me, I never would have guessed that the secrets to the recipe are canned whole tomatoes and Rotel.

reminds me of the salsa from my favorite Mexican restaurant
this is the best salsa recipe that’s easy to make
easy to make a large batch or a small batch depending on your needs

The restaurant style salsa recipe makes a lot and I was almost tempted to half it, but you know what? I’m so glad I didn’t because it’s already gone and I just made it a week ago. And I’m definitely going to make it again.

photo of ingredients to make salsa for this restaurant style salsa recipe

Restaurant Style Salsa Ingredients

This easy blender salsa uses simple ingredients. It can be prepared as a mild salsa or a spicy salsa and is so easy to adjust the recipe according to your heat preferences!

Canned Whole Tomatoes With Juice
Rotel Original
Rotel Mexican
White Onion or Yellow Onion
Garlic
Jalapeño Peppers
Sugar
Salt
Ground Cumin
Fresh Cilantro
Fresh Lime Juice

For the complete ingredient list and detailed instructions, scroll to the bottom of this post for the FREE printable recipe card.

photo showing how to make restaurant style salsa

How to Make Restaurant Style Salsa

The Cuisinart Elite 12 Cup Food Processor worked great for this salsa recipe – definitely enough room for the whole recipe and it couldn’t have been easier – there was no chopping, slicing, or dicing involved.

I just tossed all of the ingredients for the salsa in to the food processor and pulse. That’s it!

TIP: If you’re having a hard time squeezing the limes for this salsa recipe, check out my tips for how to squeeze the most juice from limes. It makes a huge difference!

The above is simply a quick summary of this recipe. Check out the full recipe in the free printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for all the detailed instructions.

Adapting the Spice Level of this Restaurant Salsa

Here are some ways you can adapt the heat level and flavor of the salsa to your personal preferences.

Note that any adaptations have not been tested for water bath canning, so this recipe should either be pressure canned or stored in the refrigerator or freezer.

How Can I Make Restaurant Style Salsa Less Spicy?

To make this salsa recipe less spicy, scrape the seeds and the white ribs inside of the jalapeño out and discard them prior to blending the salsa together. Another option is to use canned roasted green chiles as they are usually less spicy.

How Can I Make Restaurant Style Salsa More Spicy?

For a hotter restaurant style salsa, definitely leave the seeds from the peppers in when blending the salsa. However, you can also try adding extra jalapeno for even more spice.

For extra extra hot restaurant style salsa, you might try adding a serrano pepper to the recipe – serrano peppers are said to be up to 5 times hotter than jalapeños.

Making a Chunky Restaurant Salsa Salsa

If you prefer a chunky salsa rather than a smooth salsa, here are my recommendations:

After blending the tomatoes, spices, etc you can hand chop the remaining ingredients by hand. That way if you prefer big chunks of onion and jalapeno, you have more control over the size.

woman scooping a tortilla chip in a bowl of salsa restaurant style

Tips for Making Restaurant Style Salsa

To remove the harsh bite from the onion, run it under cold tap water before tossing it in the food processor.
If you want to try your hand at canning this recipe, check out this canned version: Canning Restaurant Style Salsa
For a roasted flavor, try tossing the onion in the oven and roasting them first. If you want more char flavor in your salsa, you can roast your peppers according to this method – how to roast peppers.
You can serve this salsa with chips, or treat it as a condiment and use it as a topping on all of your favorite tacos and nachos.

Making this Restaurant Style Salsa with Fresh Tomatoes

I have gotten a lot of questions wondering if you can use fresh tomatoes in this restaurant-style salsa. Yes, you can; great if you’re gardening and your tomato plants produced a high yield!

Here’s what you need to do to adapt this recipe:

Blanch and Peel the tomatoes first. Follow these instructions to learn how to blanch and peel fresh tomatoes
Proceed with the recipe instructions as written.

You may also use home canned whole tomatoes in place of store bought canned tomatoes.

Tips for Using Fresh Tomatoes

Roma tomatoes are best if you wish to use fresh tomatoes in this restaurant salsa recipe.
Make sure you use the same amount of tomatoes (after blanching and peeling) as would be contained in the listed jar amounts.
I have not tested canning this using fresh tomatoes. Here is a tested fresh tomato canned salsa recipe.

a jar of restaurant style salsa

How to Store Homemade Restaurant Style Salsa

This recipe for restaurant style salsa contains no preservatives, so I recommend using it or freezing it within a couple of days of preparing it, but you probably won’t have a problem finding a good use for it!

Try this Homemade Restaurant Style Salsa!

Next time you’re looking for a flavorful salsa recipe that is easy to make, give this Restaurant Style Salsa a try! Did you think it was an amazing salsa recipe? Leave a comment below and give it a review for others to see what you thought of it!

On Instagram? Share your photo and tag me with @goodlifeeats and #goodlifeeatsrecipes. I’d love to see your photo of this restaurant style salsa!

woman scooping salsa with a tortilla chip out of a jar of restaurant style salsa

More Salsa Recipes:

Looking for some other tasty salsa recipes to try in addition to this Restaurant Style Salsa? Check out some of these favorite recipes, or browse the recipe index archives for even more great recipe ideas:

Avocado Peach Salsa — pairs nicely with grilled fish, chicken, and steak!

Fresh salsa in the winter? You bet! Make this Pomegranate Salsa once the weather cools down.

Make this Fresh Zucchini Corn Salsa this coming summer when zucchini and corn are abundant and inexpensive.

Roasted Cranberry Salsa combines roasted fresh cranberries pair perfectly with the traditional elements of salsa – jalapeño, cilantro, onion, and lime for a spicy, fruity salsa.

This Easy Black Bean Salsa can be used to top your favorite tacos, or mix it with rice to create a simple side dish.

Roasted Salsa Verde is a mix of roasted tomatillos, roasted poblano pepper, roasted jalapeño pepper, fresh garlic, cilantro, and shallot.

Deconstructed Guacamole Salsa is overflowing with grape tomatoes, corn, and fresh avocado.

Do you have a favorite recipe for making salsa from scratch?

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Continue to Content
overhead photo of a bowl of salsa restaurant style with chips

Restaurant Style Salsa

Yield:

serves 12

Prep Time:

5 minutes

Chill Time:

1 hour

Total Time:

1 hour

5 minutes

Ingredients

28 ounce can Whole Tomatoes With Juice
10 ounce can Rotel Original (diced Tomatoes And Green Chilies)
10 ounce cans Rotel Mexican (diced Tomatoes with Lime and Cilantro)
1/2 of a Yellow Onion
1 clove Garlic
1 whole Jalapeno, halved (seeds removed for milder salsa)
1/4 teaspoon Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoons Ground Cumin
1/2 cup Cilantro
1/2 lime, juiced

Instructions

Combine whole tomatoes, Rotel, onion, jalapeno, garlic, sugar, salt, cumin, lime juice, and cilantro in a blender or food processor.
Pulse until you get the salsa to the consistency you’d like—about 10 to 15 pulses.
Test seasonings with a tortilla chip and adjust as needed.
Refrigerate salsa for at least an hour.

Notes

How Can I Make Restaurant Style Salsa Less Spicy?

To make this salsa recipe less spicy, scrape the seeds and the white ribs inside of the jalapeno out and discard them prior to blending the salsa together.

How Can I Make Restaurant Style Salsa More Spicy?

For a hotter restaurant style salsa, definitely leave the seeds from the peppers in when blending the salsa. However, you can also try adding extra jalapenos for even more spice.

For extra extra hot restaurant style salsa, you might try adding a serrano pepper to the recipe – serrano peppers are said to be up to 5 times hotter than jalapeños.