Restaurant-style Tomato-Jalapeño Blender Salsa Recipe

Restaurant-style blender salsa in a white bowl with a tortilla chip being dipped.

Restaurant-style Tomato-Jalapeño Blender Salsa Recipe

This easy tomato-jalapeño blender salsa uses canned tomatoes with roasted onion, jalapeño, and garlic to make a restaurant-style salsa that’s so much more than the sum of its parts!

Course Appetizer, Sauce

Cuisine Mexican

Diet Vegan, Vegetarian

Prep Time 10

Total Time 10

Calories 307kcal

Author Caroline Lindsey

Equipment

Blender

Ingredients

½ medium onion white or yellow
4 cloves garlic unpeeled, tops sliced off
2-3 jalapeño peppers
1 tablespoon olive oil
28 oz canned whole tomatoes
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

Prepare and roast veggies

Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut onion in half, peel, and remove core. Julienne or cut into 4-8 wedges.
Slice the tops off unpeeled garlic cloves. Leave them together in a clump if you can.
Cut the stem off the jalapeño peppers and slice in half lengthwise.
Arrange veggies on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, making sure some gets on the cut ends of the garlic. Toss slightly to coat. Roast for 20 minutes and remove to cool.

Blend the salsa.

Drain the tomatoes, reserving the liquid.
Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their peels. Add garlic, onion, tomatoes, and salt to a blender.
Start by adding ½ a jalapeño pepper to the blender, removing the seeds and pith if you like a more mild salsa. Blend until it reaches your desired consistency, scraping down the sides as necessary. If it has a hard time blending you can add a tablespoon of the reserved tomato liquid, but be sparing or your salsa will be watery.
Taste the salsa and add more jalapeño or salt if desired. I usually add 1-2 jalapeños for a medium to hot salsa, depending on how hot my specific peppers are. Sometimes they're super mild though and I could add up to 3.
Enjoy with your favorite tortilla chips or on a taco!

Notes

Jalapeños can vary tremendously in heat, so roast one or two extras so you can make your salsa just as spicy as you like it.

If you like your salsa chunkier but need to add more jalapeño after the initial blending, remove half the salsa from the blender while you add more jalapeño and blend it. Recombine with the chunkier portion and taste again.

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