The best homemade salsa

I LOVE making salsa as it’s so easy (just chuck it all in a food processor) and it tastes so fresh and zingy. In fact, as a teen, I used to come home from school and make a batch of this salsa then sit, watching Ready Steady Cook, eating big scoops of it with salted tortilla chips. It felt like a ‘healthy’ snack (if you ignore the tortilla chips..) because it’s made with loads of fresh fruit & veg.

Now, I never make tacos, nachos or any kind of Mexican meal without it! Shop-bought salsa is a no from me hun.

N.B – This recipe is similar to a Mexican pico de gallo salsa, but that would typically include fresh jalepeño chilli rather than ground spices. Personally, I don’t usually put fresh chilli in it as I don’t always have it on hand and I find there’s enough flavour with just the below recipe. However, if you’re a chilli-lover, you could add half a chopped fresh chilli into the mix.

Easy homemade salsa

Serves 4 (as a side/dip for tortillas chips or part of a Mexican feast)

Prep: 5 mins

½ small (or ¼ large) red onion (or you can use 2 spring onions), sliced

½ lime

½ red pepper, roughly chopped

100g tomatoes (cherry tomatoes best, or any variety, preferably on the vine), roughly chopped

Large handful coriander, roughly chopped (stalks and all!)

1 ½ tsp ground cumin 

1 tsp paprika 

A couple of drops tabasco (optional)

To make in a blender/food processor/mini chopper:

1. First, peel and slice the red onion and put it in a dish, then squeeze over the juice of half a lime. Leave this to soak while you roughly chop the rest of your ingredients (soaking red onion in any kind of acid takes away a bit of that that harsh raw onion bite).

2. Next, chuck all your chopped ingredients into the blender – the tomatoes, pepper, coriander, spices and finally the red onion and the lime juice it’s soaking in, with a generous pinch of salt (and a dash of tabasco, if using). Pulse this in your processor until it’s looking salsa-like but not liquid – you want it to still be chunky.

3. Taste and adjust according to your likes – if your lime wasn’t very juicy and you want a bit more zing then add more lime juice; if you like things spicy, add more spice.

To make without a blender

This can really easily be made with just a knife. All you need to do is chop all the ingredients as finely as possible and mix in a bowl with the spices, lime juice and a pinch of salt.