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Homemade Salsa — A Cost Argument

January 19, 2016 By Patrick 6 Comments

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What if your local market starting selling jars of salsa for 94 cents?  Jars like this:

classic tomato jalapeno salsa just jar

And if the $0.94 version tasted significantly better than the $4.79 store-bought version, which would you buy?

cost argument homemade salsa price comparison

It would be a no-brainer right?

So why do people still pay five bucks for store-bought salsa?  I don’t know!

FRESH, VIBRANT 94 CENT SALSA

Here is your ingredient list for 2 cups worth of delicious homemade salsa:

tomato jalapeno salsa ingredients

With corresponding receipt:

cost argument ingredients with receipt closeup just receipt

We are only using half the onion ($0.28), plus we’ll add a few cents in for the single garlic clove — coming out to a frugal 94 cents.  (Note:  this is from a produce market in Vancouver so your prices could be higher/lower.)

There’s only one catch:  you still have to make it.  But that’s easy.

Rinse the tomatoes and cut out the stems.  Roast them in the oven at 400F for 20 minutes or so.

tomatoes after roasting

Add to a blender along with the 1/2 onion, 1 clove garlic, and 1/4 of the jalapeno.

tomato jalapeno salsa one quarter jalapeno at a time

Pulse blend and taste for heat.  Not enough?  Add another quarter of the jalapeno, pulse blend, and taste again for heat.

tomato jalapeno salsa adding another quarter jalapeno

Everyone’s taste buds are different so the first batch takes some tasting.

Once you get the heat level to your liking you can salt to taste.  If you have fresh tomatoes you probably won’t need much salt.

tomato jalapeno salsa wide shot with ingredients

And there you have it.  Fresh, homemade salsa.

You’ll be surprised how much flavor it has.  The combination of freshly roasted tomatoes and a properly balanced heat level creates something best described as otherworldly.

Give it a try, it’ll outgun anything you can bring home from the supermarket.

And it costs 94 cents.

Buen Provecho.

(Note:  You can use the same technique to make a rich, smoky Tomato-Chipotle Salsa.  This page has some step-by-step instructions if you want to learn how.)

P.S. Spend 30 seconds scrolling through our Mexican Cooking Survival Guide and you’ll have 27 new options for dinner tomorrow night.

 

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Filed Under: Mexican Cooking 101, Most Recent, Salsas

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mathgician

    July 6, 2016 at 7:58 pm

    1.19$+ a few cents for garlic? Wheres .94 cents from.

    Reply
    • Patrick

      July 6, 2016 at 10:07 pm

      Hi Math thanks for your note. The receipt shows the price for a full onion. Our recipe only uses half an onion so you can divide the $0.55 in half to keep your salsa under a buck. Cheers 🙂

      Reply
  2. Carmella

    January 25, 2016 at 5:14 am

    You’re right, I have no idea why I don’t make my own salsa. You absolutely CANNOT lose with me when you roast tomatoes.

    Reply
    • Patrick

      January 25, 2016 at 4:49 pm

      Yup, I’m the same, roasting the tomatoes is a gamechanger.

      Reply
  3. Jason

    January 20, 2016 at 8:18 pm

    I’ll have to try it!

    Reply
    • Patrick

      January 25, 2016 at 4:49 pm

      94 cents!

      Reply

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Hey, I'm Patrick! I spent 2 years living in Cozumel and got obsessed with Mexican food. I built this site to share all the recipes and techniques I've learned along the way. Read More…

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