Homemade Avocado Salsa

This homemade avocado salsa recipe is ready in 10 minutes and so easy to make. Our restaurant style salsa is a great alternative to the classic tomato based salsa you already know and love. We enjoy this salsa served with not only our favorite tortilla chips, but also on tacos, nachos, steak, and even as a salad dressing!

Dallin and I LOOOOOOVE salsa! In fact we love it so much that when we were dating, we started mixing up fresh ingredients for our own salsa and guacamole. Which, after much trial and error, led us to the making of this fabulous concoction: Easy Homemade Avocado and Tomatillo Salsa.

Loaded with avocados, tomatillos, jalapeños, cilantro, and onion this salsa has a cool and creamy texture. The perfect contrast to a hot and crisp tortilla chip!

In an effort to keep things simple, we prepare this homemade avocado salsa recipe in a blender. No fine chopping needed. Let the blender do all the hard work for you!

Making Homemade Avocado Salsa

Gather your Salsa Ingredients

The first step to any good recipe is to find the freshest ingredients. I mean with only six ingredients in this salsa, you have to be a little choosy about what you are adding to the blender.

• Avocados: Avocados are the backbone of this homemade 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 salsa add a little water before blending.

Four Tests to Find Ripe Avocados, Every Time

There are four things to be on the lookout for when choosing the perfect avocado at the grocery store. 

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Bruises and Soft Spots - Always avoid avocados with large squishy bruises, soft spots, or breaks in the skin. 

Speed Up, or Slow It Down

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. The colder temperature will slow the ripening process 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.

Blend It Baby

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. I literally cannot handle the heat. But 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.

Chill and Serve

Once all the flavors and heat level are to your liking, put in the fridge to chill. I have found this 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!

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, place in an airtight container (we use snapware) in the refrigerator. It will last a week in the fridge.

Chip and Dip Lover?

On a salsa kick? You definitely need to give Mango Avocado Salsa a try! Fresh Mango Avocado Salsa pairs perfectly with your favorite grilled dishes, chicken, salmon, fish, shrimp, steak or pork … you name it! Enjoy it as a snack or appetizer with hot tortilla chips, on your next taco or burrito bowl. 

Some of our other favorite chip and dip combos you need to check out are Sausage Rotel Dip and Seven Layer Dip.

And after you've had all the salty goodness you can take, and are needing to balance the scales a bit with something sweet, these Fudgy Chocolate Bar Brownies or Old Fashioned Chocolate Chip Cookies are sure to do the trick.