The Best Easy Recipe for Restaurant Style Salsa

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!

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.

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.

Restaurant Style Salsa Ingredients

• Canned Whole Tomatoes With Juice
• Rotel Original
• Rotel Mexican
• Yellow Onion
• Garlic
• Jalapeno
• Sugar
• Salt
• Ground Cumin
• Fresh Cilantro
• Lime Juice

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

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 free printable card at the bottom of this post for all the detailed instructions.

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.

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, 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.

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!

Next time you have a hankering for easy restaurant style salsa, give this recipe a try!

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:

In need of an easy potluck dish? Try this Avocado Peach Salsa — it pairs nicely with grilled fish, chicken, and steak!

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

I need to remember to 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.

My go-to Deconstructed Guacamole Salsa is overflowing with grape tomatoes, corn, and fresh avocado. It comes together in minutes and is so refreshing!

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

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