Best Homemade Chunky or Restaurant Style Salsa Recipe
Salsa is the BEST invention ever…. hands down! This is the Best Homemade Restaurant-Style Salsa Recipe that’s low in calories, made with healthy tomatoes and it can be mild or spicy to your preference. Just 4 g net carbs per serving of 4 ounces!
Homemade Salsa versus Store Bought
Buying store-bought salsas is so convenient I know, I’ve done it! I love the stuff and so does my family! BUT I was sick of buying a jar a week.
I always get inspired when we head to our favorite Mexican restaurant and they make the homemade guacamole right at the table for you and then give you that fresh salsa! Just simple ingredients but they pack a flavor punch! I finally decided to make my own great recipe for the best salsa.
I scoured the internet looking over fresh salsa recipes from Giada, Paula Dean and Ree Drummond. I mixed up what I liked and what I knew my family liked, then changed some of the fresh ingredients and added some other things to make it my own easy blender salsa recipe that pleased everyone.
My recipe gives you instructions to make it either a chunky salsa or a smooth salsa that is typical of what you would enjoy at a restaurant.
Homemade Chunky Salsa Recipe
These pictures are using some fresh plum tomatoes and it was super tasty. You could also use Roma tomatoes. In fact my husband prefers using only fresh tomatoes.
Whole tomatoes can be a hit or miss at the grocery store in the winter as far as ripeness and taste so I convinced him it would still be just as good using canned. He was skeptical, but actually loves it just as much, if not a little more!
I love it for the simple fact that canned tomatoes last forever in your pantry which means you can make this easy salsa any time. 😉 Perfect for Super Bowl Sunday or any night you decide to enjoy some Keto Mexican Recipes!!
To keep the texture chunky just process it only a few times.
Homemade Restaurant Style Salsa
This is our favorite salsa recipe but it is only mildly spicy because my family can’t handle too much heat.
If you want spicy salsa, you can keep the seeds and membrane in the fresh jalapenos and then you get a lot more heat and spice from it. You could also add some chipotle pepper or green chiles as well.
I love me some chunks of tomato in my chunky fresh salsa, but the kids prefer smooth salsa, so the next time I made it I processed it about 10 times to get it to their liking. Restaurant salsa is more pureed not chunky.
Do what you like is what I say!
It makes a lot but we want a lot because we eat this easy recipe up pretty quickly in my house.
I top this flavorful salsa on many things, like our favorite tacos, breakfast burrito and sometimes even in a regular salad!
My kids of course eat it up with crunchy tortilla chips. I buy the Siete brand as they are made with Cassava flour and use avocado oil instead of canola or soybean oil.
Zero Carb Tortilla Chips
If you want very low carb keto homemade tortilla chips, I recommend purchasing egg white wraps and simply toasting them.
Here’s how to make zero carb tortilla chips:
I cut the egg white wraps into triangles, then spray with avocado oil cooking spray on both sides and add a sprinkle of Redmond Real Salt on both sides.
I air fry at 400 degrees F for 3-5 minutes and flip over once. Not exactly the same as corn chips but pretty darn good enough when you’re following a keto diet and definitely delicious with the fresh flavors of my chunky homemade salsa recipe!
Can I make less of this Whole Recipe?
My salsa recipe makes about 5 and half cup of salsa. You can certainly reduce this amount if it’s too much for your household.
If you want to make a smaller batch of this amazingly good salsa, skip the whole peeled tomatoes and just stick with the diced tomatoes in the salsa ingredients for this recipe and reduce the remaining ingredients by half.
If using fresh tomatoes, you could also just use about 3 large ripe tomatoes instead of either of the cans of tomatoes.
Keto Mexican Food
It’s not too difficult to order keto friendly food at a Mexican restaurant. While tacos and burritos aren’t a great option since they include a flour tortilla, asking for fajitas is easy to customize for keto since the tortillas come on the side.
Just skip the soft tortillas and enjoy the chicken, steak or shrimp with the peppers and onions and toppings like sour cream, cheese, guacamole. Skip the rice and refried beans and you’ll be good to go! Skip the corn tortillas and bring your own pork rinds or ask for fresh bell peppers to dip into your salsa or guacamole!
Here’s a picture of the salsa more pureed and typical of restaurant style salsa, YUM either way!
Football Games Day -Super Bowl- Keto Food & Snacks:
Stuffed Burgers with Cheese & Bacon
Can I freeze this salsa?
I haven’t tried freezing my salsa recipe only because it’s gone so fast in my house. But I do think it would be fine to freeze in an airtight container in the freezer for at least a month.
Best Homemade Salsa Recipe
Homemade Chunky or Restaurant Style Salsa
Ingredients
- 28 ounces canned whole peeled tomatoes drained
- 20 ounces canned tomatoes diced
- 1 cup chopped red onion or white sweet onion, Vidalia is the one prefer
- 1 cup chopped red pepper
- 1 jalapeno membrane and seeds removed, chopped or serrano peppers
- 2 cloves chopped fresh garlic
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- optional: chili powder
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse 5 times for chunkier salsa or up to 10 times for restaurant style salsa.
- Makes about 5 1/2 cups. I serve my salsa room temperature after blending it but refrigerate if you are making it ahead of time or ahead of game day.
- Store leftover salsa in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 7 days.
Notes
Nutrition
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
The recipe looks awesome, but I have one question — in the nutritional info sheet, it indicates that 1 gram has 318 mg of sodium. I don’t see how that’s possible. Since 1 gram = 1000 mg, that would mean this salsa is almost 32% salt by weight. Can you please clarify this, as that is more salt than I would use to de-ice my driveway. 😉
There was a glitch in my recipe plug in, all fixed now.
Can this be canned safely?
This recipe sounds fantastic. My husband has been cooking with me more often since we planted a straw bale garden and use our own veggies. The last recipe I tried was awful and am now looking forward to making this with my husband. Thank you for sharing and keep the recipes coming. Yay!!
Hi, I’m from Australia and the cans of diced tomatoes with chile’s is not available here. Just wondering what was in this, eg chilli type, spices etc so i could possibly substitute with something else? Thanks.
Looks good! How long can you store it?
Mine lasts in my fridge for about a week. You can freeze it and you could also use a traditional canning method and then it won;t need to be refrigerated but I haven’t done that as we eat it pretty quickly.
personally I would skip the OO and the stevia, not needed. I make salsa practically every other day. I also can my own. Also if you want more heat you might be better off with 2 jalapenos and still leaving out the seeds and membrane.
also if you use fresh tomatoes you will drop that sodium way down.
The stevia is optional if some people are used to a sweeter salsa. I like it without. I did try the fresh tomatoes but prefer the canned here. Thanks for the idea with 2 jalapeno’s If my kids weren’t eating it I certainly would do that.
I made some your recipe without the tinned tomatoes as suggested, but toasted the vegetables on my gas stove to blacken up the skins before chopping. Fantastic flavor! Thanks
Love cilantro!
It l@@ks delicious! It could also be a great low calorie base for a soup.
Thanks!
Thanks!
The first line of this post is exactly how I feel about salsa!!! It’s one of my favorite things–especially chunky style. Whoever decided to try this first was a genius!!
🙂