I eat a lot of salsa. A LOT. I am rather notorious for this, in fact. My friend’s boyfriend once innocently asked if I had anything he could snack on — maybe some chips and salsa? My friend nearly fell on the floor laughing at the thought of me not having chips and salsa in the house. There is no risk of that. Ever.
So when my awesome world-traveling chef cousin came to town for a few days, she offered to teach me how to make roasted red salsa and tamales (more on that later). Can you imagine how much I hesitated? Not. At. All.
And people, this salsa. PEOPLE. With a lifetime of tasting, sampling, and gorging research on salsa, I have never in my life had salsa this good.
Note that this makes a lot — a big mixing bowl full. I’m too embarrassed to tell you how quickly it went here. 
Without further ado, I give you: The Best Salsa Ever:
- 16 full size tomatoes, or nearly a produce bag full of roma tomatoes (we used roma)
- 2-3 yellow onions
- 20-25 Serrano peppers (remove caps) Note: this many peppers makes it hot. Feel free to reduce # of peppers, or scrape the seeds out of them
- 8-10 cloves of garlic
- 1-2 Tbsp salt
- 1-2 bunches cilantro
- Halve the tomatoes and onions and lay cut-side up on a cookie sheet along with the peppers and garlic
- Roast at 375 till the onions look nice and translucent (see bottom left of the next picture), tomatoes look soft, and peppers are getting a nice char on them
- Let it all cool a bit, then run through the food processor with salt and cilantro (we had to do this in two batches)
- Stir it all together and eat with abandon. Trust me.
Update 6/24/09:
Got questions? Be sure to see the comments below from The Cousin — lots of great info from the salsa expert!
OMG! I have got to try this recipe. I make and eat pico de gallo with chips every summer but this looks even better. Does it taste at all like Blue Coast Burrito’s salsa?
Yes! Seriously you’d love it. I promise.
Now this is a great looking salsa!
This sounds amazing!
It IS!! You really must try it. ~OPK
Now that’s salsa!!! We will have to try this technique, thanks so much for sharing!
This looks fabulous! I’m going to try it next weekend for a baby shower I’m going to.
We love Mexican food and delight in the free chips and salsa that normally accompanies each meal…well, that is if the salsa is delicious! I’m not sure who took your photos, but it made me want to run and grab the Romas, onions and Serrano peppers to whip this up to go with the Enchiladas we’re going to make tonight. Wish me luck – your recipe looks amazing!
Thanks! I hope you love it! Check back and let me know how it goes? I’d love to hear! ~OPK
I take all the pictures.
Oh my, that does look delish.
Looks great! I always make salsa. I have never used fresh tomatoes always canned. I roast everything else but have never thought about roasting the tomatoes! I will give it a try, looks great! I love fresh salsa, nothing is better!
salsa IS good! and SO versatile…not just for chips! I love this idea of making your own salsa…so much fresher, you can adjust to your own heat and taste, and saves lots of money!
I am making this as I type….I saw it yesterday and knew it was destined for my belly. I hope it tastes as good as it smells! Thanks!
Yay! Come back and tell me how it went! ~OPK
Roasting makes it so much better!
Wow, this looks delish. I love the consistency. I’m totally going to make this. Thanks for all your gorging research and for sharing the recipe.
That’s what my brother in law loves about it; he loves salsa, but can’t handle the texture of chunks of tomatoes. This is perfect! ~OPK
wow, this looks yummy! great pics too
i’ll definitely bookmark this to try, thank you for sharing!
wow…I’m all in!
Great salsa! I made half the recipe yesterday and I can’t believe how much salsa we have. DH thinks its just like the stuff he gets at a local Mexican place. Thanks for sharing!
wow, that turned out hot and green.
I have a high tolerance for heat but that seems like an awful lot of serranos. Looks great though. I am making it as iI type but will add a few peppers and taste as I go.
It does seem like a lot, I know, but it wasn’t so-hot-you-can’t-even-taste-it hot, I swear. Just good and hot. Maybe the roasting chills it out a bit? You could also strip the seeds out and then roast them if you want all that flavor but not as much heat. ~OPK
If you don’t have a food processor (like me), you can mix everything in a blender (in batches, I’m sure). YUM! I will be trying this out very soon. I hope it’s better than the salsa roja that my exgirlfriend and her mother makes! That’s about the only thing I miss haha j/k.
Hee hee! May it be even better than what you remember.
Yum!! I love it! Dare I ask how long it can last in the fridge? Would you even know?
But I love the idea of always having salsa on hand, and this looks yummy. I will try it next week!
LOL – I’m afraid I wouldn’t know! It was gone in about three days here. Let me ask my cousin and see if she can shed some light on the subject. Let me know how it goes when you make it!
I make a salsa that follows this recipe pretty closely! I don’t roast my ingredients, though I may try that with the next batch. I also don’t use Serrano peppers. I use either a single seeded Jalapeno, or for a real adventure I add one Habanero pepper.
Try adding a touch of lemon juice to yours though, adds just the right amount of extra to it.
Oh yum! That sounds fabulous!
About how long should I roast the veggies and tomatoes? I have them in the oven right now.
Ooh I can’t wait to hear how you like it in comparison!
We ended up roasting it somewhere between 30 – 40 minutes; just watch for the onions to be translucent, and you’re good to go.
That salsa looks really good. Roasting everything first would add tons of flavour.
I made beef fajitas with homemade, flour tortillas and homemade chips along with the salsa roja. I wasn’t able to enjoy the salsa at first because it was way too spicy! Since I live alone, I made a third of the recipe, but I think I put too many serrano peppers (4) in it. I added another roasted tomato (making a total of 5) to make it less spicy, and that worked (it would have been better if I had two extra tomatos instead of one, but I didn’t). I still couldn’t go crazy with it because it was still quite spicy. Once the salt levels were fine, it was still different from the salsa I’m used to eating at my ex-gf’s house. I knew what was missing before I even started the recipe – lime juice. She puts lime juice in almost everything, including Italian food haha. I added lime juice, and then it was almost perfect, with the only problem being the spicy factor. It looked just like hers. It tasted almost exactly like hers. I will DEFINITELY be making this again with a few changes – fewer peppers, add in lime juice and add amount of salt mentioned in recipe.
Thank you so much for posting this! Now I no longer have an excuse to miss my ex! haha
Ah, the healing power of salsa.
Seriously thanks for checking back in and letting me know how it went! I was dying to hear. My cousin and I didn’t make homemade chips this time around, frying oil and a two year old not being good kitchen companions. I’d love to make homemade flour tortillas, though! I didn’t see it on your blog… wanna school me?
I loved the thought of that recipe. I went to my local Hispanic market and was able to get the Roma tomatoes for 3 lbs. for .99 and Serrano’s for 1.50 lb. Easy, cheap salsa that makes a ton. We love medium to hot salsa, but this was bit a too hot with that many peppers for us. I will make it again for sure, but with about half the peppers and adjust from there. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
But yes, I love how cheap and easy this is. Really makes you think about paying $4 for a little tiny jar of it from the store, doesn’t it?
Several people have said it’s hot. Have I burned off all my tastebuds with too much salsa over the years?
I have been making salsa like this for years. The only difference is that I grill the tomatoes and peppers so that the oven doesnt heat up the house. I also add a light squeeze of lime juice to the salsa too. Oh one more difference I do sometimes is dice the onion very fine and stir it in after running the tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, and garlic through the processor.
This is truly an authentic salsa recipe per my husband who is from Veracruz Mexico.
I’m so happy to hear that! It’s my favorite salsa by far. And that’s very smart about the grilling. I hate the oven heating up the house in the summer! That’s definitely next on the list.
[...] Salsa Roja (roasted red salsa): And people, this salsa. PEOPLE. With a lifetime of tasting, sampling, and gorging research on salsa, I have never in my life had salsa this good. Recipe found at One Particular Kitchen. [...]
This salsa taste great! Although I do have one word of warning, this salsa can be very hot depending on where you get the peppers from. I put in half the amount and it was extremely spicy!!!
My grandmother always jokes that my first solid food must have been garlic. I love the spicy stuff!
this was so delicious! truly the “best salsa ever.” my uncle wanted me to make him a batch so i’m roasting as i’m writing. oh yeah, and i only used 2-3 peppers =)
Thanks so much for letting me know you liked it!
Aww! I’m so glad you agree! Even if we have now completely established my freakish tolerance for heat.
Wow, lots of responses to this! Here’s a couple answers OPK didn’t get to:
Storage-
It’ll last at least a week in the fridge in a tupperware-type container, although it’ll rarely stay around that long. You could potentially freeze some if you wanted to store it for longer (then defrost it in the fridge), but really, it is at its best when it’s still hot from roasting!
Spiciness-
Varies a lot based on personal taste (OPK & I both have high tolerances, apparently. Runs in the Family?) and individual peppers. Sometimes you’ll get a batch of extra hot peppers where even OPK & I would be tearing up (doubtful, though!) and other times you might as well have used bell peppers.
It is doubtful — shall we thank Grandma for this freakish heat tolerance? ::dying of laughter::
If you are very sensitive to spice, cut the seeds out and just use the meat of the pepper. Also, roasting the peppers longer will bring out the sugars in the peppers which will make it less firey. Use fewer peppers if you’re wary.
Roasting-
You can definately do this on a grill instead of the oven, in fact, that is my prefered method. I typically roast the onions until they’re translucent, the garlic until it’s browned (not too black), and the tomatoes and peppers until the skins are mostly blackened.
Ooh this is good!
And OPK, when’re you putting the Tamales up here? I may have some new recipes for filling to toss your way…
Well it seems I was so busy eating the tamales that I didn’t actually get any decent pictures of them. LAME.
Oh yeah, I forgot-
the lime thing. Some people put lime in their salsa. Some (including me) don’t. It’s a matter of personal preference; I just prefer to same my limes for fresh margaritas…
Which reminds me there’s another recipe I need to get from you…
Hi,
I saw this recipe on taste spotting and I just made it. Delicious! I made a much smaller batch using the amount of ingredients I had in my fridge. Also, thanks for the comments about adding lemon and lime juice, definitely perked it up. I will make this again (:
This was a total hit with my family. They are pretty picky eaters but no one could stop eating this salsa with chips. Roasting the veggies gives a mellow and rich flavor. Thank you!!! Perfect for a crowd.
I’m new to making fresh salsa. We had a lot of tomatos this year. Can you can the left over salsa instead of freezing? I am new to canning too. I love salsa, and processing the tomatos is perfect because my hubby won’t eat chunks either. Thanks for all your information
Congrats on all the tomatoes! I’m actually going to learn to can this year, so I’m not an expert! My understanding is that canning salsa has to have sufficient levels of acid, and I honestly don’t know if this has that — it’s really made to eat fresh. I’m not saying it wouldn’t work for canning, but I don’t know. This page says:
* * * * *
Why is it necessary to add bottled lemon juice or citric acid to some home canned tomato recipes? Must the lemon juice be bottled lemon juice?
Tomatoes have a pH (acid) level that is just above the line dividing high-acid foods and low-acid foods. It is important for the safety and quality of tomato recipes that the proper acid level is maintained. Since many factors can decrease the natural acidity in tomatoes, the addition of bottled lemon juice or citric acid helps ensure the correct acidification. Bottled lemon juice must be used because its acid level is consistent, unlike fresh lemons.
Recipes that include an adequate amount of vinegar (5% acidity) do not require additional acidification, such as salsa, tomato chutney, and pickled tomatoes.
Always follow a tested recipe. Do not alter the type of ingredients in the recipe or the amount used. For up-to-date recipes, see Recipes.
* * * * *
Maybe some of that could help? Let me know how it goes!
Thanks for the info. I read pretty much of the same. I also read that if you adjust the amounts of tomatoes, lemon juice, etc., you can “create an environment” for Botulism. Yikes! I think I’ll stick to freezing any leftovers that we (may) have. Hubby & I are making it today. Thanks again.
You’re welcome! Please let me know how the freezing goes. From what I’ve read, chunky salsas don’t thaw well (the texture gets off), but that clearly wouldn’t be a problem here. I’m about to be in over my head in tomatoes from the garden, so I’ll definitely be trying some freezing!
Just made this today, didn’t have enough tomatoes so I added a green paprika =)
I don’t have an food processor so I used a blender, but somehow it was a little like mousse… very thin and bubbly LOL
It tasted great though! I ended up adding a little bit of ketchup to make it a little less spicy, it was a bit too much!
I’m making this RIGHT NOW! I’ve never made it, but I can’t wait to try it.
Oh my…. My husband is the type (like you) who cannot get hot enough salsa from the stores, so this did the trick! His nose was running as he was eating it and he was loving it. I tasted it to see if it was salty enough and I almost died. My mouth and lips are still burning, but in a good way! I made homemade tortilla chips to go with it. He LOVED it.
Great recipe. Thanks for sharing. Do you mind if I blog this recipe? I will, naturally, provide links to your site and give you credit!
Yes, blog away with links please — want to be sure my awesome cousin gets the credit for her brilliance. 
Yay!! I’m so glad he loved it. And fresh chips too! Aren’t you good?
How did you get your salsa to look so, well, minced? Mine looks like gazpacho. Regardless, it tastes good. I added the juice from 1 and a half limes and only 4 or 5 serrano peppers. It’s got a nice warmth to it. You must like smoking hot food!
I do like smokin’ hot! Apparently The Cousin and I share this — neither of us thought it was that hot? Anyway, it’s pretty smooth — I think all the cilantro makes it look more textured than it actually is.
just made this recipie and it is very good…did not use as many peppers as she called for and i did add a few other things such as the juice of 2 limes and a couple teaspoons of sugar….love the taste of the roasted onions and garlic…one bunch of cilintro is plenty and after i peeled the skin from peppers i used seeds and all…just remember, its easier to make it mild and then go up the scale…
Sounds great. One question: do you leave the seeds in the tomatoes? Thanks!
Sure do! Just slice them in half and roast.
As far as canning this, we have hot packed salsa for years with no problem. We take the tomatoes and dip them in boiling water to remove the skins first.
Then we bring the sauce to a gentle boil, reduce heat and cook for an hr.
While this is going on we have cleaned our jars, have the lids and seals ready. The very last thing we do is to add boiling water to the jars. WARNING jars will be very hot.
When sauce is ready we drain water off jars and fill with sauce, leaving about 1/2 inch space to the seal.
Place the seal on jar then screw the lid down but not too tight.
Final step is you have a area to place the jars, Upside down, and let rest without moving for a day.
The pressure will seal the jars, you need to let them rest like this for 24 hrs.
Then turn them upright. Check the seals. If they are still able to push down then place this jar in frig. or reheat and reseal. others if the seal is firm you can store.
Good Luck
That’s wonderful!! Thank you!
Thanks for telling me about this on twitter today – I have bookmarked it and will use this recipe next time I make salsa. Maybe the reason mine isn’t hot enough is that I take the seeds out of the jalapenos. Didn’t cross my mind until read your post.
Thanks again!
OH MY GOSH. I saw the bowl of salsa in the recipe above and about lost bladder functions! it looks so delicious!
I can’t wait to try tomatoes + onions + peppers in a cornucopic medly of tantric mexican excitement!
thanks for sharing!!!
This looks amazing…I plan on trying it tomorrow….can you tell me the approximate time of roasting it? do I need to change anything if I plan to can it, do you know?? As in adding vinegar or lemon juice??
Can’t wait to try it. Thanks for sharing.
I want to say around 30-45 minutes for roasting, but The Cousin had great tips in her comments about what to look for as far as signs of doneness.
It IS amazing… just might be on my list for this weekend again.
Unfortunately I’m not an expert on canning, but this was discussed in earlier comments as well. Since I’m not sure what the safe levels of lemon juice/acidity are, I just freeze my salsa in quart size ziploc bags and it seems to do just fine; since the tomatoes are cooked and food-processed (is that a verb?) they don’t get a weird texture when they thaw.
I hope you love it… please let me know!
This was one of the best salsas I’ve ever eaten! Thanks so much for the recipe.
Going to try freezing this!! I will ad a bit of “Fresh Fruit” to keep its color nice and bright!
Yay! Mine seems to do just fine.
This salsa looks and sounds amazing. We make fresh salsa all summer, as soon as the peppers and tomatoes are ready, and I will try this recipe today. Your pictures even make my mouth water!
I am working on “end of garden” canning and ran across your site while looking for new recipes. I am glad to see that you referred people to the information on salsa canning safety. The acidity level is very important because of the addition of onions, garlic and peppers, which are both very low in acid. Also, the tomotoes varieties we have now are less acid than those of previous generations. I always add 1-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice concentrate to each quart even when I am canning plain tomatoes. Freezing sounds like the perfect solution for this wonderful recipe.
Thank you for sharing.
Oh I didn’t know that about the generational acid differences in the tomatoes! I did know I’m no canning expert, so I didn’t want to give advice there. Thanks for the info!
Hope you like the salsa!
OH MY GOODNESS!!!! YUMMMMMMMMMMM.
You (and your cousin) are my new heros. I have never eaten salsa from roasted ingredients and I can’t believe how it makes it taste. I can barely wait for my husband to get home and give him a big treat (salsa, that is)
Another time, I think I’ll try adding some fresh corn and black beans. I think I would roast the corn and add both after blending the rest.
I could eat much more but if I don’t stop I won’t have any room for supper. Maybe that could just be supper.
Thank you again. I’ll be using this recipe for years to come.
Aww!! You made my day! It is just the best stuff in the world, isn’t it? And LOL at the salsa treat for your husband.
It’s actually MY supper tonight! Made another batch this weekend. Is it wrong if that’s what’s for supper??
This is almost identical to my own recipe that I adapted from my father a number of years ago. The only real difference is that I had always roasted the ingredients on the stove top (the roma tomatoes I roast whole) and generally roast the cilantro as well before adding it in. I also add green bell peppers (also roasted, of course) to give even more flavor.
This is a delicious recipe! I have found that the salsa keeps well for a few weeks as far as being edible, but tastes best within the first week usually (especially when it’s still warm!).
It’s amazing when it’s warm, isn’t it? I don’t think I’ll ever forget that first bite the first time The Cousin and I made this. Magical stuff.
Best salsa I’ve ever tasted. I made only a few small adjustments. Instead of serranos, I used three jalapenos I had. I scraped the seeds out of two and kept the seeds in the third. I also added a pinch of sugar.
I made it tonight after work and had all these plans for things I could whip up to serve with it. Instead, it got eaten over the sink, right out of the bowl!
Thank you!!! I agree!!
And that’s almost always how I end up eating it. My sister and I ate it for lunch this week… and only this. Not sorry!
can you can this?
This has been discussed a bit (see the above comment from Diana C and my response) and the bottom line is that I’m just not sure. I’m not a canning expert at all, but I do know that canning requires specific acidity levels to be safely stored; since this recipe wasn’t designed for canning, it likely doesn’t have the required levels. It does, however, freeze fantastically. I freeze it in quart-size ziploc bags and it thaws out beautifully. I hope that helps!
This salsa is awesome!!! Spicy, flavorful, and authentic tasting. I made it over the weekend. I used roma’s, since there is much less juice. I estimated the number of tomatoes based on the recipe. In the end, after slicing the tomatoes in half, they filled two medium-large baking sheets. I also added the juice from six limes. I pressure canned it for the winter and it filled 8, 0.5 liter jars. Thanks a bunch.
my version is as follows – (equally delicious, 10x easier) :-p
2 cans plain-ole diced tomatoes (sometimes it’s 1 can normal, 1 can fire roasted)
1 onion, quartered
1 bunch cilantro, stems removed
salt to taste
sliced jalapeños to taste
food processor
gets spicier as time passes, even those who loathe cilantro will fall to their knees!
Hi there! This sounds yummy and I’m anxious to try it. I am canning salsa tomorrow, but this sounds great for a fresh batch for me and hubby. I love jalapenos but this year we did better with our serranos and I discovered I like them just as much if not more! Thanks!
I see folks asking about the consistency of their salsa being a little off. I have found if you do blend it,only do it for like a half second.. just enough to break everything up smaller. Any further blending just ruins it. We like ours sorta chunky and natural-like..not blended.
[...] 2009 (8) Popular postsSalsa roja (roasted red salsa) (56)Savebucks! How to make incredible iced coffee at home (20)Strawberries! [...]
So happy with the latest batch that I had to come re-comment. My boyfriend got me a great Cuisinart 11-cup food processor (http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=7106&PseudoCat=se-xx-xx-xx.esn_results) for Christmas and suggested this salsa recipe was the best first run. He was right — it was even better-tasting (and much easier!) this time than when I did it in several batches in a smaller machine Still great! Added about 1/4t each of sugar, cumin and coriander seed and used a mix of jalapeno and pasilla peppers, with about half the seeds scraped. Thanks again, and have a happy new year!
I make a similar salsa but use jalapenos instead since they seem to be a little less hot and about a tsp of cumin. I also add a small jar of roasted red bell peppers with the oil/vinegar juice it is canned in. It really adds a lot to the salsa. I hope you get a chance to try it that way. I’d be interested in your thoughts.
I just made it and I must have screwed something up. I tasted too much like tomato. I need to try it again maybe with smaller tomatoes.
Gracious, even with 25 peppers and 2 onions in it? ~OPK
Just wanted to drop a line to say thank you for this recipe. I’ve made it four times over the past couple of months (with a halved recipe) and just yesterday picked up the ingredients to make it again. It also went over really well at my Super Bowl party last month. This is a fantastic salsa and I urge those that stumble upon it to give it a try, ASAP.
Thanks for the recipe. I love tomatoes! Time to give this one a try, I am always looking for more salsa recipes.
I love roasted salsa. I made one recently (grilled all the veggies), but didn’t take down the measures. I will try your recipes once I am done with my last batch.
This Salsa can definitely be canned. Just follow process you would for any tomato product. I can salsa several times a year with excellent results.
Really? It seems like there are pretty specific acidity requirements to be safe.
If you have never made salsa with serrano peppers before…BEWARE….these suckers are hot as heck and if you decide to de-seed them WEAR GLOVES. My nine-year old and I are still in pain with burning hands and eyes from our adventure into roasted salsa! Never again!! (hope the salsa turns out good!)
[...] was more of a chunky salsa, almost like pico de gallo. I personally like a smoother salsa like the Salsa Roja from One Particular Kitchen to eat with chips. But since I am using the salsa in the Salsa Chicken [...]
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Is the photo that accompanies the recipe a photo of what you produced? It’s very dark red with flecks of green throughout. The description of it that I saw in the comments as “chunky” didn’t seem to match the photo…
Yep, that’s the right picture. The comments about chunky were folks talking about not liking chunky salsa, so they loved this because it was smooth (e.g. “That’s what my brother in law loves about it; he loves salsa, but can’t handle the texture of chunks of tomatoes. This is perfect!”).
Thanks for the fast response! I’m going to make it tomorrow. The comment that threw me was the one two posts above mine that said “was more of a chunky salsa, almost like pico de gallo”, which I interpreted as “this salsa was more of a chunky salsa…”. I’m VERY excited to try this and a green tomatillo/avocado salsa recipe I found.
I agree, salsa roja is pretty delicious, I do have to say though, don’t fall for the easy canned tomatoes, as a cook i can say that canned never tastes as good as fresh. Oh and if you like this maybe you’ll like a salsa verde? uses a lot of the same flavours but it’s more herby.
[...] one I can’t wait to try: Salsa Roja (Roasted Red Salsa) Mmmm, [...]
Do you peel the tomatoes with this recipe?
It didn’t say so, and in the pictures some look peeled, while others – maybe not.
I know most salsa recipes call for the tomatoes to be peeled, so maybe this was just assumed.
Also, how long to you estimate this process takes, from start to eating?
Nope, no peeling. The skins are so softened up by the time the tomatoes are cooked that it’s not an issue. Time-wise, I’m going to guess maybe an hour total by the time you chop and roast everything? A lot of that time is just waiting the 30-45 minutes while they roast, of course. ~OPK
Reply to “sharon,” re: canning. You most emphatically can can this. For high acid foods, processing in an open boiling water bath canner will suffice. If low acidity is known, or suspected, then the food must be processed in a pressure canner. I refer you to the “bible” from which I learned canning, the Ball Blue Book. Although this appears to be out of print, the Ball web site offers comprehensive canning instructions: http://www.freshpreserving.com/
What do you mean a “produce bag” full of romas? Our store has the plastic bags that hang in front of the various produce……..is this what you mean?
yep, that’s exactly it!