25 Minute Fresh Homemade Salsa Roja
This roasted tomato salsa roja recipe packs a punch of fresh flavor with minimal ingredients and is shockingly easy to make — it’s ready within just 25 minutes! It’s a terrific salsa dip for entertaining because the roma tomatoes, white onion, and peppers take a trip through a food processor, so you end up with a smooth salsa that evenly coats tortilla chips. Serve warm or cold, it’s your preference!
Ingredients
- 1 lb roma tomatoes (or tomatoes on the vine)
- 1 large white onion
- 2 serrano peppers (or jalapeno or fresno peppers)
- 1 poblano pepper
- 1 red bell pepper
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 teaspoons diamond crystal kosher salt (use half as much of any other brand)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to broil with an oven rack on the top rack. Line a sheet tray with aluminum foil.
- Cut onion into quarters and remove the skins. Cut red bell pepper, poblano pepper, and serrano peppers in half, remove seeds and ribs. Optional: Leave the seeds and ribs on some/all of the hot peppers for a spicier salsa.
- Slice an X in to the bottom of each tomato. Place the tomatoes, whole, on the sheet tray. Arrange the peppers on the sheet pan cut-side down, skin-side up and the onions pointy side up.
- Roast the veggies under the broiler on the top oven rack for 10-15 minutes. The skin of the peppers and tomatoes should be deeply browned and even blistered in some spots, but not burned.
- Place all the roasted veggies, plus garlic cloves and salt in a blender or food processor and process until desired consistency has been reached. For a chunkier salsa, run on low speed for a shorter amount of time. For a more sauce-like salsa, run on high speed for a longer amount of time. Adjust salt to taste.
- Serve warm or cold.
RECIPE NOTES
- The high acidity of this roasted tomato salsa helps it last up to 2 weeks in the fridge.
- To freeze: You can just freeze it as-is, but if you really want to do it "right" and reduce the risk of freezer burn, put the portion you plan to freeze in a saucepan over medium heat and let it simmer until it thickens slightly and some of the liquid has evaporated. Let it come to room temp before you freeze it. Make sure to leave ½" of air at the top of the container, because the salsa will expand as it freeze.
- TIP: For a salsa roja that has some tomato chunks in it, leave one of the roasted tomatoes out of the blender. Chop it up into a small dice and sprinkle it with a pinch of salt. Stir it directly into the salsa roja, or use it to top the salsa in the serving bowl.
- Just like in my recipes for homemade hot sauce and cheddar jalapeno bread, which also call for hot peppers, you can increase the heat of this salsa recipe by leaving the seeds and ribs of some or all of the peppers intact.
- Where is the broiler? In most ovens, the broiler is in the top of the oven. Adjust one of your oven racks so it's on the top-most setting and let the broiler fully preheat before use. In some ovens the broiler is below the oven, in which case make sure you have an oven rack in place. The vegetables may broil faster since they're closer to the heating unit so keep an eye on them!
- If you don't have a broiler setting on your oven, crank the heat as high as it goes and use the top-most rack. OR use a propane/culinary torch OR grill the veggies.