Loaded with avocados, tomatillos, jalapeños, cilantro, and onion this Homemade Avocado Salsa has a cool and creamy texture. It is the perfect contrast to a hot and crisp tortilla chip! Ready in 10 minutes and so easy to make this restaurant style salsa is a great alternative to the classic tomato based salsa.
This salsa is delicious served with not only tortilla chips, but also on tacos, nachos, steak, and even as a salad dressing! Prepared in a blender there is no fine chopping needed. Let the blender do all the hard work for you!
And if you find yourself on a salsa kick? You definitely need to give Mango Avocado Salsa a try! Some of our other favorite chip and dip combos you need to check out are Sausage Rotel Dip and Seven Layer Dip.
🥘 Ingredients
The first step to any good recipe is to find the freshest ingredients. I mean with only six ingredients in this Homemade Avocado Salsa, its okay to be a little choosy about what you are adding to the blender.
- Avocados: Avocados are the backbone of this Homemade Avocado Salsa recipe. Make sure when choosing them, you choose nice ripe ones. One overripe avocado can ruin the entire batch of salsa.
- Tomatillos: When selecting tomatillos remember they have a thin husk. Make sure to remove this! Tomatillos can be green or yellow (but are usually green when bought at a store). Yellow coloring indicates ripeness ... although, my tomatillos never seem to get past that green stage.
- Onion: While you definitely could use onion powder in a pinch, fresh onion is ALWAYS the way to go.
- Cilantro: FRESH IS BEST!
- Jalapeños: Depending on the level of heat desired, scrape out and discard the jalapeño seeds. Less seeds means less heat; more seeds mean more heat.
- Salt: Feel free to adjust the salt to your taste. But remember, salt does enhance the flavors of a dish. So be sure to add at least a pinch of salt for full flavors.
- Water: This is an optional ingredient in my book. Water merely allows you to have extra control over the texture and thickness of your salsa. For a thinner Homemade Avocado Salsa add a little water before blending.
🍳 Instructions
Now that we have the freshest, most ripe ingredients, we are ready to get blending. Let's start with those tomatillos. Peel the husk away from your tomatillos and half them to add to the blender.
After you are done with the tomatillos, loosely chop your cilantro and toss in the blender. This recipe calls for one bunch of cilantro but if you find your bunch is enormous, like ours was, start by adding half of it and go from there. You can always add more later if looking for additional flavor at the end.
Now for those beautiful ripe avocados we selected. Peel, remove the skin, separate from the pit and add them to the blender. Followed by your onion.
Next ... the jalapeños. I am a bit of a wuss when it comes to jalapeños so I deseed them completely while wearing gloves. There is nothing worse than rubbing your eyes hours, even days later and instantly regretting that decision.
If you are fearless like Dallin, and prefer your salsa to have some heat, leave in all the seeds. After your jalapeños are in, add the salt and begin blending.
If your blender is struggling a bit, feel free to add your water, little by little till it gets going. You will then want to blend all of your ingredients until smooth.
💭 Top Tip
Choosing good avocados when making this Homemade Avocado Salsa is key. There are four things to be on the lookout for when choosing the perfect avocado at the grocery store.
- Pressure Test - If the avocado is firm not giving at all when squeezed in your palm, it is under ripe. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if the avocado gives too much and feels as though it could be easily squashed, you are looking at an overripe avocado. You want to find one that just gives to slight pressure.
- Color Test - When not yet ripe, Hass avocados have bright green and bumpy skin. As the avocado ripens, the bright green coloring progresses to more of a dark green, brown or nearly black color.
- Stem Test - Peel back the stub of stem that is at the top of the avocado. If a light shade of green it is probably under ripe and will need a few days to finish ripening. Rich green means you probably have a ripe avocado on your hands, ready to use. If brown underneath, you've got an overripe avocado.
- Bruises and Soft Spots - Always avoid avocados with large squishy bruises, soft spots, or breaks in the skin.
👩🏻🍳 How to Serve
Once all the flavors and heat level are to your liking, put in the fridge to chill. I have found this Homemade Avocado Salsa has the best flavor if chilled overnight, but a few hours is totally fine if wanting to serve immediately.
Let's be real. If I am honest, I almost never remember to make it ahead of time. Instead I find myself mixing it up before dinner or as a snack to eat right out of the blender. But chilled is best as it really allows all the flavors to meld together and intensify!
🍽 Storing
This homemade avocado salsa recipe is great served with fresh tortilla chips or on just about anything else you can think of. It truly is a delicious savory pairing. Some of our favorite ways to enjoy it is on burritos, chicken tacos, as a spread on sandwiches, as a salad dressing or on top of anything off the grill.
To store your Homemade Avocado Salsa, place in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will last a week in the fridge.
📋 FAQ's
Can you speed up or slow down the ripening of avocados?
Be mindful that once an avocado reaches ripeness, you only have a day or two before it over ripens and is no longer useable. To preserve an avocado you can place it, uncut, in the fridge. Colder temperatures will slow ripening, but not stop it completely.
On the other hand, if you have an unripe avocado and need to speed up the process, you sure can. Just place in a brown paper bag with other ethylene gas producing fruit. Bananas, apples, mangoes, peaches, or tomatoes all work well just to name a few. The gasses emitted from the other food will speed up the ripening process of your avocado so that it will be ready to eat in 1-2 days.
For a full list of good pairings check out this great Keep Produce Fresher, Longer chart. It also provides a fabulous visual of what fruits and vegetables to avoid placing together. Placing ethylene absorbing foods with ethylene emitters and can wilt and spoil your produce faster.
📖 Recipe
Homemade Avocado Salsa Recipe
This homemade avocado and tomatillo salsa is the ultimate party pleaser. Loaded with cilantro, avocado and tomatillos, this salsa is perfect to dip, spread, and dollop. We make this weekly … so you know it’s good!
Ingredients
- 5 green tomatillos
- 3 avocados
- 1 bunch cilantro
- ¼ of a small onion
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2-3 jalapeños
- ¼ cup water (optional)
Instructions
- Peel and then half the tomatillos, onion and avocados. Place in the blender.
- Loosely chop the cilantro and add to the blender. Add salt.
- Remove caps from the jalapeños. For a more mild flavor, deseed your jalapeños, unless you prefer your salsa to be hot in which case leave seeds in. (Dallin leaves all the seeds in his, but he’s fearless.) Add jalapeños to the blender.
- Blend all the ingredients until smooth.
- If the salsa is too thick to mix, add the water little by little until able to blend.
- Place in bowl and chill in refrigerator till ready to serve.
- Enjoy! We love to eat this with chips, on burritos, fajitas, tacos, bbq chicken wraps, sandwiches…just about EVERYTHING!
Notes
- With our Blendtec, we usually have to stop a few times and scrape the bottom and edges with a spatula.
- For the best taste allow the salsa to sit in the fridge overnight so all the flavors have time to meld and the salsa can chill.
- To store, place in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week in the fridge.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 105Total Fat: 9gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 429mgCarbohydrates: 7gFiber: 5gSugar: 1gProtein: 2g