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This Jalapeño salsa recipe is exactly what happens when the chef of your fave food truck (blush ☺️) and your food processor become besties. It's oil-free, and not just spicy, but also hyper-flavorful enough to rescue your face from any boring meal prep situation. Bonus: it makes your kitchen smell like you know exactly what the heck you're doing (even if you're 100% winging it).
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It's hot (in flavor and looks), a little limey, and ridiculously easy-no simmering, no stove babysitting, just pure green gold in under 20 minutes. Vegan taco bowl loading, chip-dunking, vegan fajitas-drizzling, or leveling up the scrambled tofu in your vegan breakfast burritos right quick are all in a day's work for this salsa. This bad boyo brings a tear of joy to your eye.
I have an abundance of jalapenos in the garden and this was the perfect recipe to use some of them up. It is delicious, easy to make and not too spicy. I will make this again.
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🥰Why you'll adore this salsa with jalapeño peppers
✊ Vegan AF & GF: Like all of my vegan Mexican recipes, this salsa doesn't need any animal products or cholesterol to slap on anything from tacos to that weird rice thing you made last night that needs saving. It's basically allergen ninja-level, destined to be filed away in the binder of your fave gluten-free vegan recipes.
⚡ Fast Track Flavor: Made in under 20 min, you get chunky texture and spicy vibes in record time.
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all of my vegan recipes, this one got the thumbs-up from a massive team of hundreds of recipe testers from all over the world who roasted, pulsed, and dunked their way to the salsa holy land.
💣 Learn the bomb vegan Mexican recipes
This guide to my most popular vegan Mexican recipes is 100% FREE, & you'll love the actual heck out of it 🥰
🌶️Jalapeño salsa ingredients
Jalapeño Peppers
Jalapeños bring the perfect heat and freshness to salsa, and there's no real substitution that brings quite the same vibe. They vary wildly in spiciness, from practically mild to "call 911, shawty fire burning on the dance floor," so having a bunch of them in the recipe helps average things out. For less fire, you can remove the seeds and ribs, but if you're sensitive to heat, you can substitute some of the jalapeños for poblano or green bell pepper.
Tomatillos
Tomatillos are the substance backbone here- citrusy green flavor bombs in fruit form. They're also the same magic behind my salsa verde recipe, which you'll want to keep on hand for making next-level chilaquiles verdes.
White Onion
White onions are traditional for a smoother flavor in salsas. Or use yellow onions or Vidalias if you want a naturally sweeter onion flavor.
Cumin Seeds
Toasted cumin seeds give your salsa a musky bassline. Sure, you can use ground cumin instead as long as you toss it on the sheet for just the last 2-3 minutes of roasting, instead of the full time.
While regular cumin seeds work great, the ones from Burlap & Barrel are my personal ride-or-die. I use them in my calabacitas & adobo sauce; these slender, more aromatic seeds slap harder than expected.
Get my fave cumin seeds for free!
Using this link, add the wild mountain cumin to your cart, spend at least $15 on some of the other absurdly good spices from Burlap & Barrel (they all seriously slap) and the bottle of this bangin' wild mountain cumin becomes FREE, and you will love it so much.
Serrano Pepper
Serrano steps up the heat with a crisper flavor than jalapeño. Leave it whole for subtle fire, or split and de-seed if you want to dial it in. A great alternative is the thin green Indian chilis known as hari mirch, which I also use in my Indian green chili pickle. They've got a clean, sharp heat that slaps you upside the head in a glorious way that I love.
Cilantro Leaves
This recipe is actually a great place to use up those minced cilantro stems-they give the salsa a slightly more structured texture that just works, and I hate wasting food anyway.
Lime Juice
Always use fresh limes if you can, but if your limes are dry or harder than a month-old bagel, lemon juice can sub just fine. Either way, use the real stuff, not some 200-year-old bottle of citric acid and yucky old melted airplane juice.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Salsa Roja
Sub out tomatillos for roasted tomatoes and use toasted dried guajillo chiles to transform this into a brick-red salsa roja-deep, sweet, and smoky with a little garlic and lime. It's what your tortilla chips have been dreaming about in their adorable triangular sleeping pods.
Habanero Salsa
Swap out the jalapeños for roasted habaneros (or use both, you wild thing). My habanero salsa is fiery and fruit-forward, which might be why it's one of the most popular recipes on my site.
📖 How to make jalapeno salsa
If you're hangry enough to start chewing raw tomatillos, I got you-scroll straight to the recipe card and save the scenic photo tour for later.
Step One
One Small Prep for Man:
Set oven to 450°F (230°C). Spread jalapeños, tomatillos, onion, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and serrano pepper on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Step Two
Roast Busters:
Bake 12-15 minutes until everything softens and chars slightly.
Let the roasted mix rest 10 minutes.
Step Three
Love the Way you Lime:
Transfer to a food processor with garlic, cilantro, lime juice, and salt.
Step Four
Mixin' Impossible:
Pulse just until it's mixed but still has a little texture.
Step Five
You Got Served:
Serve immediately, or store in the fridge for up to 4 days, portion and freeze for up to 3 months in airtight containers, or can it and store it in your doomsday bunker to keep your family alive during the end times, or whatever.
💡Serving Ideas
This is the perfect stuff to be dipping vegan taquitos that are stuffed with tofu chorizo. Or let it run wild on your vegan tamales, vegan carne asada, or jackfruit carnitas that are crying out in the night for their very own salsa moment.
Drizzle it on vegan tostadas, or wait-got a pot of vegan picadillo, vegan Mexican rice, or plain ol' bowl of vegan refried beans? This salsa turns those thingies into actual meals of their own.
👉Top tips
- Even Roasting = Balanced Tang: Shake the sheet once halfway through to char everything evenly. Especially because the veggies have no oil on them, a piece of parchment or a silpat is kinda crucial to prevent sticking, and to minimize cleanup.
- Chunkiness Matters: Pulse in short bursts-over-processing leads to watery salsa that slides off your nachos.
- Wear Gloves: Hey, if you've got sensitive skin, wear gloves when cutting peppers. Also, do not rub your eyes (or anywhere else…) after handling them. Just don't.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Yes, just use short pulses so as not to obliterate the stuff into a smooth liquid.
You probably over-blended it or didn't roast off enough moisture. Pulse in bursts and avoid under-roasting tomatillos, especially if they are cut large.
Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Stir before serving, as the liquid may settle. Cool completely before freezing in airtight containers for up to 3 months-just portion it first unless you enjoy chiseling salsa ice blocks.
To can safely, make sure the acidity hits proper pH levels (below 4.6) and follow legit canning protocols.
✌️You'll love these salsa recipes too:
Master the art of vegan Mexican cooking in a super-fun recorded cooking class with Chef Adam Sobel!
Jalapeno Salsa
Ingredients
- 4 jalapeño peppers stems and seeds removed
- 2 cups tomatillos peeled and quartered
- ½ cup white onion diced
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 serrano pepper stem removed
- 1 teaspoon garlic minced
- ½ cup cilantro leaves chopped
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- ¾ teaspoon salt or to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C).
- Place the jalapeños, tomatillos, white onion, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and serrano pepper on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Roast for 12-15 minutes, or until the vegetables are softened and lightly charred in spots.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
- Transfer the roasted mixture to a food processor along with the minced garlic, chopped cilantro, lime juice, and salt.
- Pulse a few times just until the mixture is well combined but still chunky, with no massive chunks of onion or jalapeño remaining.
- Transfer to an attractive swerving bowl, or place in a jar or an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days if not using immediately.
Notes
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Pat Peschman says
I have an abundance of jalapenos in the garden and this was the perfect recipe to use some of them up. It is delicious, easy to make and not too spicy. I will make this again.
Paige Davis says
This recipe resulted in a delicious, flavorful salsa that my family loved. It was so easy to make and the finished color is quite appetizing. Fantastic dip for our tortilla chips, and it also jazzed up some quesadillas. Will definitely keep this as part of our Mexican recipe collection!