This blended, restaurant-style roasted tomato salsa with sweet peppers and spicy jalapeños is better than anything you can get at the store. It’s loaded with herby cilantro and garlic for a chip-worthy appetizer that needs to be a staple in your house.
Why You’ll Love This Roasted Tomato Salsa Recipe
Say goodbye to store-bought salsas for a while after you see how easy this garlicky roasted tomato salsa is.
- Quick. It’s a 25-minute, blended recipe you can prepare while the rest of dinner comes together.
- Better than store-bought. There’s no excess sodium, salt, or any funny ingredients— only fresh veggies.
- Great for leftovers. Use different kinds of onions, peppers, or tomatoes depending on what you have laying around in the fridge.
- Freezer-friendly. Prep a couple batches in advance and you’ll have salsa that you can thaw whenever you feel like it.
What You’ll Need
Roasting the veggies brings out the tomato and peppers’ natural sweetness. Scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of the post for exact ingredient amounts.
- Tomatoes – Roma tomatoes are best for this, but Heirloom tomatoes work too.
- Jalapeño – If you don’t want the salsa to be too spicy, remove the seeds. Fresh serranos are good swaps.
- Onion – Go for white or red onion.
- Red pepper – Orange peppers can be used instead. Avoid yellow and green ones because the salsa will have a strange color once blended.
- Garlic – You need to use fresh garlic. Don’t add garlic powder because it can make the salsa grainy.
- Cilantro – Remove any yellow, brown, or wilting stems to prevent bitterness.
- Olive oil – Feel free to use vegetable, corn, canola, or avocado oil.
- Salt – I prefer kosher or Himalayan salt.
How To Make Roasted Tomato Salsa
Setting a timer on your phone (or the oven) can make this easy salsa recipe completely fail-proof. Scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe card.
- Arrange the tray. Preheat the oven to 400F. Add the tomatoes, jalapeño, onion, red pepper, and garlic to a baking sheet. Spread them out in a single layer. Drizzle them with olive oil. Season with salt.
- Roast the veggies. Pop the baking sheet into the oven for 25 minutes, or until roasted and slightly charred. Remove it from the oven. Carefully peel the garlic.
- Process it. Add the roasted veggies, cilantro, and more salt to taste, to the food processor. Process it until smooth or chunky to taste. Serve and enjoy!
Tips & Variations
Pico de gallo and a pinch of sugar are my secret ingredients for taking this traditional roasted tomato salsa to the next level.
- Use the stove. If you don’t feel like turning on the oven for the salsa, use the stove. Place the veggies in a large griddle over medium-high heat. Cook them for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly charred.
- Add crunch. Pour the salsa into a serving bowl and stir in 1/4 cup pico de gallo for a fresh, crunchy texture from the veggies.
- Spice it up. Add 1/4-1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin before blending the ingredients for more depth.
- Make green salsa. Swap half (or all) of the tomatoes in the recipe for Mexican tomatillos. This will give you an authentic salsa verde-style sauce that’s slightly tangier than red salsa.
- Add more heat. Add an extra 1/4 jalapeño or serrano at a time and process the salsa again until spicy to taste. You can also use cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, or a rehydrated chile de arbol pepper.
- Use sugar. Some tomatoes are tangier than others, which means your salsa could be slightly on the sour side. If that’s the case, round out the flavors by mixing in 1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar at a time until well balanced.
Ways To Serve Roasted Tomato Salsa
This spicy roasted tomato salsa is the perfect appetizer with tortilla chips, Wonton Chips, or Baked Pita Chips. You can also add it to my Skirt Steak Tacos and Steak Street Tacos. For cookouts, serve some on the side for your Grilled Ribeye Steak. If you prefer bowl-style dinners, add it to my Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bowls or Sweet Potato Black Bean Quinoa Bowl.
Proper Storage
Enjoy it straight out of the fridge or at room temperature.
- Fridge: Place it in an airtight container or mason jar for up to 4 days. Discard it immediately if it’s frothy or bubbly.
- Freezer: Transfer it to freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw it overnight in the fridge.
More Salsa & Dip Recipes To Try
Print
Roasted Tomato Salsa
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 3 cups 1x
- Category: Sauces
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Mexican
Description
This garlicky roasted tomato salsa recipe is an easy, 25-minute appetizer that’s perfect with crunchy tortilla chips.
Ingredients
- 8 tomatoes, halved
- 1 large jalapeño, halved
- 1 onion, quartered
- 1 red pepper, cubed
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF.
- Chop up onion, jalapeño (do not deseed), tomatoes on the vine, and red pepper.
- Add all of these ingredients to a baking sheet.
- Then add 4 garlic cloves with the shell on.
- Sprinkle olive oil over all vegetables and season with salt.
- Roast for 25 minutes.
- Remove from oven, take off the shells from the garlic.
- Place all ingredients in blender, add salt to taste, and 1/4 cup of fresh cilantro.
- Blend until your desired consistency.
29 comments on “Roasted Tomato Salsa”
On today’s Celebration Sundays I’ve collected an amazing group of 20 Cinco de Mayo recipes. This is one of them!! Don’t miss it!! Thanks, Nichi – The Mandatory Mooch http://mandatorymooch.blogspot.com/2013/04/celebration-sundays-cinco-de-mayo.html
Yah! Thanks Nichi, super excited to be featured and to see the yummy Cinco de Mayo recipes. 🙂
Simple yet amazing!
This came out fabulous using the freshest ingredients! Thanks for your visit and for your lovey comment too….
Awesome! 🙂 So glad to hear! Your welcome for the comments, you make it easy with the awesome posts! 🙂
Yum! I’m going to try growing my own tomatoes, onions, garlic, and jalapeño peppers this year…this will definitely be a recipe to try with all those things! Thanks!
Denise
Oh.. yum! Good luck. I tried tomatoes last year but had a hard time here in Texas… the bugs are killers. 🙁 Let me know how the garden AND the salsa turns out. 🙂
oh YUM. I’ve made my own salsa before but I’ve never tried roasting the tomatoes first, that looks sooooo good!
I tried it was and wont go back. I love the flavor it adds to the salsa! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by Jaymi.
Great salsa, Krista! Thanks for sharing at Marvelous Mondays this week. Pinned to my MM board!
Thanks Julie, and thanks for pinning and sharing the love! 🙂
WOW! Roasted. Great idea!!
🙂 Thanks Diana!
This looks fantastic. I cannot wait to scoop this up with some chips! Delicious.
Once you start you can’t stop! Believe me… i know from experience. haha 🙂
Perfect combination of flavors. I am huge on making my own salsa’s. cant wait to try this recipe
Thanks Kathy! Would love to know what you put in yours.. I love trying new recipes. 🙂
OOOH SNAP!! might be the best photography class name ever! Seems like something I would love to attend! I love roasted veggies! I’m sure that salsa was just amazing. I need to make that. We eat a jar of salsa a week in my house.
hahah.. I know!!! The name was my favorite part, we had a blast! 🙂 I can’t believe you go through a jar of salsa a week, my kinda girl! 🙂 If you try it let me know, I would love to know what your “culinary tongue” thinks! 🙂
Fresh salsa is the best! Great recipe..pinning to try!
It so is.. I need to make it more often! Thanks for pinning and stopping by Erin.
Oh Krista, thanks for sharing this! We love salsa at our house and I really should make my own! Pinning!
Us too! In fact my brother and I have competitions sometimes. Its so much better homemade… let me know how it turns out! 🙂
This looks really delicious! A great way to use up all the tomatoes I’m gonna start buying soon at the Farmer’s Market. 🙂
Yes! Great idea… love farmers market tomatoes. YUM! 🙂
Thank you so much for coming back by Home | Styled today and linking up! I love this recipe and I might be making this very soon! I love trying new salsa recipes…it’s one of my favorite snacks! If I end up making this recipe, I will put a link back to you so everyone can see where it came from! Have a wonderful week!
Absolutely girl! You have a great site! I hope you do make it soon, more so so you can experience deliciousness. haha. It is becoming one of my favorite snacks, I actually have to go out and buy more chips to finish the salsa off. 🙂 Hope you have a great week! 🙂
Yummy! I love making my own salsa, this sounds like a fantastic recipe!
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
Me too! You will have to share your recipe soon. 🙂 Would love to see it!