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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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).
Roasted Tomato Salsa
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 ½ 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
Instructions
- Slice the tomatoes in half from top to bottom and cut out the cores. Cut the stem off the jalapeños and slice them open from top to bottom. You can remove the seeds if you want a milder heat.
- Place the tomatoes, jalapeños, sliced onion and garlic cloves on a baking pan and drizzle over the oil. Use your hands to toss the veggies in the oil until they are well covered. Arrange the tomatoes and jalapeños skin side up on the pan.
- Place the pan in the oven under the broiler on high and roast until the tomatoes have black spots on their skin and the garlic and onion is tender. In my oven it takes 15 minutes, yours may be faster so keep an eye on it.
- Remove the pan from the oven and allow the veggies to cool for at least 10 minutes. Remove the peel from the garlic and transfer the contents of the pan to a food processor along with the cilantro, lime juice and salt. If you’re not sure about the spiciness, start with just 1 jalapeño, you can always add the other after if desired.
- Pulse until you reach the desired consistency. I like mine a bit chunky so that’s just a few pulses. If you like it thinner and more homogeneous you can puree it.
- Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour or until cool. Taste and make any adjustments if you think it needs more salt or lime juice.
Notes
Mahima Rana says
Tried this today and it come out exactly like this. So authentic!
Melissa says
Great! Glad you enjoyed it!
ANA LONDONO says
Excellent recipe! it came out as I wanted it. what I liked about it is that I uses natural ingredients, nothing from cans. the pictures and explanation where very handy. specially the pictures because it helped me to know how much to leave the vegetables in the oven.
Because I don’t like to eat spicy, I changed the jalapeño for a little bit of red pepper (roasted in the oven with the rest of the ingredients).
I also did a variation of the salsa adding a little bit of white vinegar with little bit of sugar (to help with the acidity of the vinegar) and it came out really good too!
it’s really yummy!!