Roasted Tomato Salsa

Name: Roasted Tomato Salsa
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 85 min
Ingredients: 1.5 pounds (680 gr.) Roma or plum tomatoes ((about 9 medium)); 2 jalapeño peppers; 1 medium onion (thinly sliced); 4 cloves of garlic (unpeeled); 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil; 0.5 oz (15 gr.) fresh cilantro ((leaves and stems)); Juice of 1 lime (or to taste); 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

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This roasted tomato salsa is super easy to make and totally adaptable to your taste. Thin or chunky, mild or hot, this better-than-store-bought salsa is sure to be a hit at every party!

A hand holding ups a chip that has been dipped in a white bowl of roasted tomato salsa.

What kind of tomatoes do you use for salsa?

The best kind of tomatoes to use for salsa are paste tomatoes. The most common type of paste tomato in your grocery store are Roma or plum tomatoes.

Paste tomatoes have more flesh and less juice, meaning that your salsa will be thick and not watery.

This recipe calls for roasting the tomatoes first to intensify their flavour, bring out their sweetness and evaporate a bit of their juice which helps to thicken the salsa.

How to roast tomatoes for salsa

First slice the tomatoes in half. I like to cut out the core at the same time.

Place the tomatoes on a baking pan and drizzle with a bit of olive oil.

A pan of sliced tomatoes, garlic and onion with oil being drizzled over it.

Use your hands to toss the tomatoes and coat them in oil then arrange them skin side up on the baking pan.

Place the baking pan in the oven under the broiler and roast until the skins have black spots on them. In my oven that took 15 minutes but your oven might work faster than mine so keep an eye on them.

When making roasted tomato salsa it’s not necessary to peel the tomatoes. The char on the skin add a bit of smokiness and the skins break down well in the food processor.

How do you make roasted salsa from scratch?

In addition to the tomatoes you can also roast the onion, garlic and hot peppers for more flavour and to mellow out the onion and garlic.

So add a sliced medium onion, 4 (or more) unpeeled cloves of garlic and as many hot peppers as you like to your baking pan along with the tomatoes.

I usually add 1 – 2 jalapeños, depending on how spicy the peppers are. You can also choose to remove the seeds of the peppers if you want a bit of a milder heat.

Drizzle over the olive oil and toss it all up. As mentioned before, arrange the tomatoes and jalapeños skin side up.

Broil until the tomatoes have black spots, the garlic is soft and the onion is golden brown and lightly charred.

The roasted vegetables and cilantro inside the food processor with a hand squeezing a lime over it.

Once they’re out of the oven I like to give them a few minutes to cool down a bit before transferring to a food processor along with a handful of cilantro, lime juice and salt.

Pulse until you reach the consistency you like. For me, I like my salsa a bit chunky so I just give it a few pulses. If you like your salsa thinner, you can puree it.

You could also do a combination of textures by working in batches and totally pureeing half of the salsa while leaving the other half chunky and then combining both batches in a bowl.

The pulsed salsa inside the food processor.

Now you’re going to let the roasted tomato salsa chill to develop the flavours. I like to give it at least an hour in the fridge.

After chilling it’s important to taste it again before serving. You might find that it needs a bit more salt or lime juice. Simply stir it in to taste then serve!

An overhead shot of the roasted tomato salsa in a blue bowl with nachos and cilantro surrounding the bowl.

Serve your fresh roasted tomato salsa with nachos, in a vegan burrito, dolloped on tacos, a vegan breakfast sandwich or tofu scramble.

How to store roasted tomato salsa

This recipe is not intended for canning.

You can store your salsa in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week (but you’ll probably eat it all before that).