Name: The Best Fresh Salsa Recipe
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 14
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: One 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed; One 4 oz can chopped green chilies; One 16 oz jar salsa; 2 cups fresh or frozen corn; 5 diced plum tomatoes; 1 diced large red bell pepper; 1 diced green bell pepper; 1/4 cup diced red onion; 1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro; 2 minced garlic cloves; 2 TBSP lime juice; 1 tsp sugar; 1 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp ground cumin

If you ever try this fresh salsa recipe, you will want to make it again and again! That’s what happened to me! This is one of my favorite ways to eat fresh vegetables. Several of the ingredients are common garden produce– so it’s the perfect way to use up the abundance of your harvest.

salsa in a bowl with sour cream and a spoon

I nearly forgot to tell you how EASY this recipe is to make! Nothing to blend up, and just a few things to dice– the bell peppers, tomato, cilantro, garlic, and onion.

Normally I don’t care for onions unless they are cooked, but in this recipe you don’t even notice the onions. Dice them small, and it will be fine. Usually you will find me altering recipes, but this is one recipe that I stick pretty closely to how it is written. I originally found it in a Taste of Home magazine years ago by Jan Daniels from Rochester, MN, but a search of their website doesn’t show this recipe.

There are tons of different salsa recipes out there, and I’ve tried a few different ones. Let me tell you about some of the aspects of this particular salsa.

It makes a large batch– but disappears quickly!
Make it at least an hour ahead of time, so the flavors have time to blend together. And if you used frozen corn, it can thaw.
It doesn’t matter which order you add the ingredients– just add all of them and stir it up.
It calls for jarred salsa (I prefer Aldi brand mild salsa) as one of the ingredients– but don’t worry– you can barely tell it’s there!
There are no jalapenos in this recipe.
It calls for cilantro, but you can easily omit this if you don’t have any, or if your family doesn’t like it. I like it, but sometimes I don’t have any, and the salsa still tastes really good!
The little can of diced green chilis are not hot. This is a mild recipe with LOTS of flavor!
If you want this salsa to be hot instead of mild, use hot salsa for the jarred salsa ingredient.
If you don’t have garlic cloves, you can substitute some garlic powder, but it does taste best with the cloves.
Don’t skip draining the black beans.
It calls for a red onion, but really you can use any color. The red onion does add to the beautiful colors though!
It calls for plum tomatoes, because they don’t have as much juice as other tomatoes. But you can certainly use any type of tomato– it will just have more juice and it doesn’t affect the flavor.
I use bottled lime juice. It lasts forever in the fridge.
You can use fresh, frozen, or canned corn. If you use canned corn, be sure to drain it. My favorite to use for this recipe is frozen corn.
If you don’t have the suggested combo of green and red bell peppers, you can use yellow or orange or whatever you have.
I may double the cumin because I like it.
My favorite tortilla chip is On the Border from Walmart or Sam’s Club. You can also use Fritos Scoops, which are perfectly sturdy enough for this hefty salsa.

Add some chips, and this salsa is practically a meal all by itself! It already has beans for protein, but you can add more if you like. Put it on a bed of lettuce, and it’s a super healthy lunch. The way I did it was, Lettuce first, Salsa next, and crushed fritos lastly on top. Oh, and a dollop of sour cream.