Roasted Tomato Salsa Recipe (Salsa Asada)

Roasted tomato salsa, or salsa asada, is my go-to for tortilla chips and tacos - a traditional Mexican sauce full of the deep, smoky flavour you only get from roasting the tomatoes and chilli first.

It is made from simple, easy-to-find ingredients, and you can use whatever chilli you have to set the heat you like. A few pieces of bell pepper give it more body and a milder kick. It is naturally vegan and gluten-free, and it comes together fast.

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Salsa Asada, Salsa Roja or Pico de Gallo?

Asada means roasted, and that is the whole distinction. A salsa asada is built from vegetables charred first, over a comal, a grill or in a hot oven, so it tastes smoky and deep rather than fresh and sharp. A salsa roja is simply a red salsa and can be raw, boiled or roasted. Pico de gallo is the opposite end of the scale: nothing is cooked at all, everything is chopped rather than blended, and it is meant to taste bright and crunchy.

That is why this one is worth the tray and the twenty minutes. If you want the fresh green kind you want a pico de gallo, and no amount of roasting will get you there.

History of Mexican Salsa

Salsa is simply the Spanish word for sauce. The versions that matter here are much older than the word: the peoples of Mesoamerica, the Aztecs and Maya among them, were grinding tomatoes and chillies together long before anyone wrote a recipe down.

The Spanish arrived in the 1500s with onions, garlic and coriander, and those went into the same bowl. That is roughly the salsa we still eat, and every region has been bending it towards whatever grows locally ever since.

Equipment You’ll Need

Char first, blitz second, and you need very little

A Closer Look at the Ingredients

Salsa asada keeps it simple - just a few ingredients, each doing a job:

• Tomatoes Four ripe ones, halved. Plum or Roma are the ones to look for: they are meatier and drier, so they char rather than stew and they do not flood the processor. Instead: vine or salad tomatoes work but come out looser, and cherry tomatoes are a good answer to a glut, though they are sweeter so you will want a little more lime.
• Chillies Five red and five green, tops off and everything else left in. The seeds and the pale veins are where the heat lives. Instead: change the variety rather than the number, because adding more of a mild chilli mostly adds moisture. Jalapenos keep it gentle, serranos take it up sharply.
• Red bell peppers Three, and they are part of the recipe rather than an optional extra. They give the salsa its body and a background sweetness, and they soften the heat by bulking it out rather than by watering it down. Instead: leave them out for a fiercer, thinner salsa and expect a smaller yield.
• Red onions Four, in quarters rather than slices so the layers hold together on the tray and catch at the edges. Roasting takes the raw bite out entirely. Instead: white or brown onions are fine, and a little sharper.
• Garlic Twenty cloves, which is not a misprint. Roasted garlic is sweet and mellow rather than pungent, so it behaves like a vegetable here. Watch it though: it browns faster than everything else on the tray and past golden it turns bitter, so check at the halfway mark and pull any that have coloured hard. Instead: a whole head, or half the number if you would rather taste the tomatoes first.
• Coriander seeds and cumin A tablespoon of each, and they go in at different points on purpose. The whole coriander seeds roast on the tray with the vegetables, which toasts them and brings out a warmer, nuttier flavour than the raw seed. The ground cumin goes in at the blend, where it stays earthy. Instead: ground coriander at the blend instead of seeds on the tray, using a little less.
• Fresh coriander A bunch, stalks and all, added at the blend rather than roasted. Heat destroys what makes it taste fresh, which is exactly the note it is there to supply. Instead: flat-leaf parsley if coriander tastes soapy to you. It is not the same thing, but it keeps the green lift.
• Lime, vinegar and salt Two limes and 60 ml of white wine vinegar. Roasting concentrates the sugars, so without a real hit of acid the salsa tastes flat and sweet rather than bright. Salt goes in to taste at the blend. Instead: cider vinegar, or all lime if you would rather, using about four.
• Pickle juice 60 ml, and the jalapeno brine left in the jar is what gives this salsa its tang. It is the ingredient people leave out and then wonder what is missing. Instead: water thins it without adding anything, so use the brine from any pickle jar you have before you reach for the tap.

Why Roasting Changes the Salsa

Charring does three things at once. The skins blister and take on real smokiness, the tomatoes lose water so what is left is more concentrated, and the sugars in the onion and garlic brown and turn sweet instead of raw and harsh. That is the difference between a salsa that tastes like a bowl of blended vegetables and one that tastes cooked.

The one thing to watch is the garlic. Garlic is drier and sweeter than onion, so it browns considerably faster on the same tray at the same temperature, and past golden it goes bitter in a way you cannot season out. With twenty peeled cloves going in from the start, check the tray at the halfway mark and pull any cloves that have already coloured hard. That single habit is the difference between a smoky salsa and a bitter one.

How to Make Salsa Asada, Step by Step

Four steps and one tray. The roasting does the work, so the only real skill is knowing when to take the tray out and how much to blend.

1. Char everything on one tray. Heat the oven to 240 C and spread the chillies, bell peppers, tomato halves, onion quarters, garlic and coriander seeds out in a single layer, because anything piled up steams instead of charring and steamed vegetables make a flat salsa. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes, until the skins are blistered and blackened in patches. Look at the garlic when you check it: it browns faster than everything else and it is the usual reason a roasted salsa tastes bitter. Let the tray cool for 20 minutes.
2. Blend it, but only just. Tip the roasted vegetables into a food processor with the ground coriander, cumin, black pepper, fresh coriander, lime juice, vinegar and salt. Pulse rather than run it: a blender left going turns salsa into juice, and the texture you want is loose but still a little chunky. Loosen with the pickle juice or water if it is stiffer than you like, a spoonful at a time. If you want a smoother salsa, take the tomato skins off before they go in rather than blending longer, because the blending is what costs you the texture.
3. Taste it now, while you can still fix it. This is the step people skip and it is the one that matters, because roasted vegetables vary enormously in sweetness and the chillies vary in heat. Salt first and taste again, because under-salted salsa reads as sharp rather than bland. Then decide on lime for brightness, or a little more pickle juice if you want the tang to lead.
4. Chill it for at least an hour. Straight out of the processor the salsa tastes of its loudest ingredient, usually the raw-edged lime or the chilli. An hour in the fridge and the smoke, the sweetness and the acid settle into one thing, and overnight is better again. Taste it once more when it comes out of the fridge, because cold mutes both salt and heat and a salsa that was balanced warm can read flat straight from the door. Serve it cold with tortilla chips, or spooned over tacos and grilled meat, and give it a stir first because it separates a little as it sits. It keeps in a jar in the fridge for about a week and it is better on day two than on day one.

Recipe Card for Roasted Tomato Salsa

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What to Serve With Roasted Tomato Salsa

This smoky salsa asada is the heart of any Mexican spread. Pile it onto tortilla chips, spoon it over my Cochinita Pibil Tacos or Al Pastor Tacos, or serve it alongside a cheesy Quesadilla Con Carne. It is also fantastic stirred through scrambled eggs or drizzled over grilled meats.

Storage

Keep the salsa in a clean, airtight jar in the fridge for up to a week - the flavour actually gets better after a day. It also freezes well for up to 3 months; freeze it in small tubs or an ice-cube tray so you can thaw just what you need.

Variations

This salsa is easy to make your own:

• Smoky: add a chipotle chilli in adobo, or char the tomatoes and chillies a little harder, for a deep, smoky flavour.
• Chunky corn & black bean: stir through roasted sweetcorn and a tin of rinsed black beans for a heartier salsa.
• Extra garlicky: roast a whole head of garlic and squeeze the soft, sweet cloves straight in.
• Fresh & zingy: add more coriander and a good squeeze of lime just before serving.

FAQ for Roasted Tomato Salsa

How long does roasted tomato salsa keep?

Store it in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to a week - the flavour actually deepens after a day. It freezes well for up to 3 months too.

How do I make it spicier or milder?

Change the variety rather than the number. The recipe already uses ten chillies, so adding an eleventh mostly adds bulk and moisture, while swapping in a hotter sort changes the salsa without changing the balance. Beyond that, the seeds and the pale veins carry most of the heat: leave them in for a fierce salsa, strip them out before roasting for a mild one.

Do I have to roast them at 240°C?

As close to it as your oven will go. The heat is the whole point: at 240°C the skins blister and char in fifteen or twenty minutes, while at 180°C the vegetables slowly stew in their own juice and you get a sweet, watery sauce with none of the smoke. Spread everything in a single layer too, because piled-up vegetables steam instead of charring. You are after patchy black rather than evenly cooked.

Do I need to peel the tomatoes?

No - roasting softens the skins and blitzing the salsa breaks them down, so peeling is not necessary. Worth knowing why it is a real choice rather than laziness: most of a tomato’s aroma sits in the skin and the wall just under it, so the blackened skin is carrying a lot of what makes this salsa taste roasted. Peel it and you get a smoother, milder salsa; leave it in and you get the smoke and the flecks.

Is this salsa vegan and gluten-free?

Yes, it is naturally both - just tomatoes, chilli, onion, garlic and seasoning.

Can I freeze roasted tomato salsa?

Yes - it freezes well for up to 3 months. The texture softens a little once thawed, so it is best used in cooked dishes or blended smooth after freezing.

Can I can this salsa to make it shelf stable?

No, and please do not. This is not a tested canning recipe and it should not be treated as one. Safe water-bath canning of a salsa depends on the acid being high enough relative to everything low-acid in the jar, and this one is heavy on exactly the low-acid things: onions, bell peppers and twenty cloves of garlic. Changing the ratios in a tested recipe is the classic home-canning mistake, and a low-acid mixture in a sealed jar is where botulism risk lives. Keep it in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze it. If you want jars on a shelf, use a recipe that has been laboratory tested for canning and follow it exactly rather than adapting this one.

Why is my salsa watery, and how do I thicken it?

Usually the tomatoes. Most of a tomato is the seedy jelly and the juice around it, and that part carries about twice the acidity of the firm wall, so a juicy salad tomato gives you a thin, sharp salsa while a plum tomato gives you body. Three fixes: use plum or Roma tomatoes, scoop out the seedy jelly before roasting, or drain the finished salsa in a sieve for a few minutes. You can also tip it into a hot pan with a spoonful of oil and let it bubble for five minutes, which thickens it and deepens the roasted flavour at the same time.

What are the best tomatoes for roasted salsa?

Plum or Roma. They are bred to be meaty and comparatively dry, so they char rather than stew and they do not flood the processor. Vine and salad tomatoes work but come out looser. Cherry tomatoes are a good answer to a glut and roast well, though they are sweeter, so you may want a little more lime to balance them.

Can I make it without an oven?

Yes, and the traditional way is closer to a pan than an oven. A dry comal or a heavy cast iron pan over a high heat chars the skins hard and fast, turning everything as it blackens. A barbecue is better still in summer and gives real smoke. An air fryer works at around 200 C, in batches, and a grill under a close overhead element chars faster than an oven does. Whichever you use, you are after blistered and patchy black, not evenly cooked.

A Few Words from the Chef

Salsa asada is one of those things I always keep a jar of in the fridge - it lifts almost anything, from scrambled eggs to grilled meat. Once you have roasted your own tomatoes and chilli, the shop-bought stuff never quite measures up. If you make a batch, let me know how hot you took it - leave a comment and a rating below.