Easy Red Tomato Salsa Recipe. How to Make Homemade Spicy Tomato Salsa. Copyright © 2018 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Easy Red Tomato Salsa Recipe – How to Make Homemade Spicy Tomato Salsa

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This easy red tomato salsa recipe makes a spicy Mexican salsa that I’ve been perfecting since we returned from our first big trip to Mexico and the USA way back when we first began travelling. It’s kicking off a series of our favourite Tex-Mex, Mexican-American and Mexican comfort food recipes.

We may live in Asia, but we don’t eat Asian every night of the week. Alongside Italian, Spanish and French, it tends to be Mexican cuisine and Mexican American food that we tend to turn to when we’re in need of some comfort food or we have a busy week and I want make something versatile to get us through a few meals.

My easy red tomato salsa recipe is the first in a series of very unpretentious home-style Mexican recipes that we have been making for more years than we care to remember that do just that. Next up: my chili con carne recipe.

If you’re planning a Mexican food feast, also see our recipes for a tortilla soup from San Miguel de Allendetacos al pastor inspired by the tacos at Mexico City’s Salón Corona, char-grilled corn on the cob street food snack and grilled corn salad, quesadillas and Lara’s ultimate nachos, along with recipes for classic margaritas and micheladas.

Easy Red Tomato Salsa Recipe – How to Make Homemade Spicy Tomato Salsa

This easy red tomato salsa recipe is so versatile that we serve it with a big old bowl of chilli, with quesadillas and huevos rancheros, with Lara’s over-the-top nachos, and just as a dip with corn chips, perhaps alongside some guacamole too.

Given how easy this red tomato salsa is to make, I just can’t justify buying brands like Old El Paso, which I find too sweet, anyway. As well as costing a few times more than what a home-made salsa costs, store-bought jars of salsa lack the freshness of flavour that comes with using fresh coriander (cilantro), onion and lime juice.

My easy red tomato salsa recipe comes with a little twist, however… while most recipes will have you putting all the ingredients into a blender while you munch on a corn chip or three, if you do that the result will be a watery and weak salsa that will make your corn chips soggy before you even get them in your mouth.

What you don’t want is a ‘fresh’ salsa that tastes like a tomato salad. If we want a fresh salad with a big old bowl of chilli to cut through the heat, I’ll chop up some fresh tomatoes and lettuce to serve on the side.

So to get a salsa with a robust body, you need to drain your whole tinned tomatoes in a colander first to collect the juice. You should then only use the ‘meaty’ parts of the tomatoes in the salsa. One of the reasons the salsa can become so watery and lack flavour is because of the liquid that comes out of the fresh ingredients when you blend the salsa.

To get a more concentrated flavour and to reduce the moisture content of the tomatoes, put the tomatoes in a pan over low heat for around 15 minutes before adding the tomatoes to the blender.

The great thing about this method of making tomato salsa is that if you find that the salsa is too firm, you can add some of the tomato juice you collected when straining the tinned tomatoes.

While this red tomato salsa can keep for a few days, we usually finish it within a couple. A great way to freshen it up is to add a squeeze of lime and a little more fresh coriander.

Notes On My Easy Red Tomato Salsa Recipe

Firstly, a note on seasoning: if you finish making this red tomato salsa and you think it doesn’t have the ‘oomph’ you want, a sprinkle of Maldon Sea Salt (every good chef’s favourite) will really bring out the flavour.

And on the corn chips, if you want to eat Doritos Dinamita Chile Limón Rolled Flavored Tortilla Chips, that’s fine, but please don’t eat them with this beautiful fresh tomato salsa. Plain freshly-made corn chips are the best for scooping up fresh tomato salsa if you can find them. And if you can’t? You can always make your own…

Easy Red Tomato Salsa Recipe

Easy Red Tomato Salsa Recipe. How to Make Homemade Spicy Tomato Salsa. Copyright © 2018 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Easy Red Tomato Salsa Recipe

AuthorTerence Carter
This easy red tomato salsa recipe is fast and simple. However there’s a couple of tricks to elevate this salsa to a richer, less watery version than most.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Dip
Cuisine Mexican
Servings made with recipe1 Bowl
Calories 162 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 400 g 14oz tin tomatoes, strained
  • 90 g 3.1oz cup chopped green bell pepper
  • 115 g 4oz cup onion diced
  • 20 g 0.7oz cup minced fresh cilantro (no big stems)
  • 30 g 1oz chopped fresh jalapeño peppers (including seeds)
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ½ teaspoon salt - add more to taste
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions
 

  • Strain the tinned tomatoes, keeping the tomato juice.
  • To make a firmer, more concentrated salsa, put the tomatoes in a pan over low heat for around 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool before adding to the ingredients in the blender.
  • Blend all ingredients until just combined. Taste and add extra salt from a salt grinder as needed.
  • Sprinkle a dash of coriander leaves or spring onions on top.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 162kcalCarbohydrates: 33.8gProtein: 6.2gFat: 1.3gSaturated Fat: 0.2gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 1970mgFiber: 9.9gSugar: 22.1g

Do let us know if you make our easy red tomato salsa recipe as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.

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Terence Carter is an editorial food and travel photographer and infrequent travel writer with a love of photographing people, places and plates of food. After living in the Middle East for a dozen years, he settled in South-East Asia a dozen years ago with his wife, travel and food writer and sometime magazine editor Lara Dunston.

2 thoughts on “Easy Red Tomato Salsa Recipe – How to Make Homemade Spicy Tomato Salsa”

  1. I will never go back to shop bought salsa after this – perfecto! Love the pics for these Mex recipes too, mate.5 stars

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