5 Minute Homemade Fresh Salsa

A tasty homemade salsa from fresh tomatoes you can make in your food processor in just five minutes! This is such an easy dip for your chips, or a great condiment to serve with a Mexican or Tex-Mex inspired dinner.

Some of my favorite things about summer are the sunny evenings, walking around barefoot and eating chips and salsa for dinner. And this super fresh salsa really couldn’t be any easier! You chop everything in your food processor for minimum fuss and maximum efficiency.

Since the tomatoes are really the star in this salsa they should be ripe and full of flavor. And then you can eat tortilla chips for the rest of your summer and call it “working out”. Well, at least that’s what I’ll be doing ?

Ingredients you’ll need

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!

Ingredient notes

• Tomatoes: I highly recommend using Roma tomatoes for their taste and texture. If you can’t get a hold of them, use regular tomatoes. I recommend using ripe, sweet tomatoes. If your tomatoes are under-ripe, you may need to add a teaspoon of sugar.
• Onion: I very much recommend sticking to white onions. I have made this salsa using the white parts of spring onions before and it worked just fine. Red onion is also good. I would not recommend yellow onions, they are just better suited for cooked dishes.
• Cilantro: If you’re not a fan of cilantro, feel free to use flat leaf parsley!
• Lime juice: I highly recommend using freshly squeezed lime juice for this recipe if you can, it yields a much fresher taste than bottled.
• Jalapeños: I actually leave these out when I make the salsa for my family, because I have three young children. Instead, I either use a mild green chile (fresh, not canned) or ¼ of a green bell pepper. I like the taste and color they add, but it’s completely optional and you can just leave out the Jalapeño if you want a mild salsa.

Note: If your skin is sensitive, please wear disposable rubber gloves when handling Jalapeños. Soaking hands in milk after can also help to eliminate any burns.

How to make fresh salsa

1. Start by pulsing the onion and garlic in your food processor 2-4 times, until chopped. Doing this helps to properly chop the onion without overprocessing the tomatoes later.

2. Next, add all remaining ingredients to the food processor.

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3. Pulse until your salsa has your preferred consistency – I usually pulse around 6 times.

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Note: My food processor is very strong, so keep that in mind and always pay close attention to the texture of your salsa when pulsing.

Recipe tips

• I highly recommend you stick to pulsing the onion and garlic separately first. While this is supposed to be a salsa fresca type of dip/condiment with a more chopped up texture vs a more chunky Pico de Gallo, you still do not want to over-process it and turn it into a soup.
• Even though it’s an extra step (and a bit of a chore…), I highly recommend you stick to removing the seeds from the tomatoes. How seedy/watery your tomatoes are is so individual and hard to control. Especially early season tomatoes can be quite watery, which may result in a salsa you need to strain (which is even more of a chore). Removing the seedy part from the tomatoes eliminates any guess work and yields more consistent results.
• If you like your salsa with more liquids, feel free to add some additional olive oil and/or lime juice at the end. Keep in mind that while we’re removing the seeds from the tomatoes, they still release juices when they are chopped and sitting with salt in the salsa – make sure you do not add too much additional liquid, or you could end up with a watery salsa.

Blender vs food processor

When I initially shared this recipe in 2015, I made it in a Vitamix blender because I didn’t own a food processor at the time. A powerful blender can technically be used for this recipe, but be careful with it. It is very easy to over-blend this salsa, which results in a texture that’s too smooth.

Storage tips

Store the salsa in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. If your tomatoes end up releasing a lot of juice, it helps to drain the salsa and then add fresh lime juice to add a refreshed taste and retain the correct texture.

Serving ideas

While salsa very obviously goes as a dip with corn chips, it’s also great as a condiment with chicken tacos, chicken fajitas (or sheet pan chicken fajitas for those busy nights!), steak fajitas, chicken quesadillas, enchiladas… So many meals to brighten up with a batch of fresh salsa!

PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.

Printable recipe

Recipe first published on 05/18/2015. Updated with new photos, improvements to recipe and better text on 04/20/2021.

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