Easy Grilled Salsa

This post was updated on July 21, 2020 to include new photos and descriptions.

This time of year, I’m in complete grill mode normally. It’s a lot faster to grill stuff, the clean up is easy which Betsy likes, and once you get the hang of it, I find that the food is almost always better, but that’s definitely true for grilled salsa!

While grilled meat is always a star, people forget that grilling food just does fantastic things to it in general. Any food that has sugars in it will get slightly caramelized. It evaporates a lot of liquid, enhancing flavors. It can give a slightly charred flavor to certain foods which is great in small doses.

This easy grilled salsa takes advantage of all of these powers of the grill. I’ve made a few different varieties of this over the past month or two and, honestly, it’s pretty hard to go wrong.

Easy Grilled Salsa Recipe

It’s tough for me to write recipes for stuff like salsa because I usually just wing it and encourage you to do the same. I start at the store or farmers market and just look for stuff that looks nice and fresh. That’s the most important part of salsa.

On this given day I decided to do a half tomato, half tomatillo thing, which I’ve never done before. I really like the mix though.

If you have lots of colors on your cutting board, you’re off to a good start!

The veggies are super-easy to prep for this. Since we’re grilling them, you want to keep them pretty whole. You can cut stuff in half in you want, but it’s fine to just toss the stuff on whole!

I tossed all my veggies in a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkled them with a bit of kosher salt before tossing them in my grill pan. If you don’t have a grill pan you could wrap everything in foil and poke some holes in it.

How to Grill the Vegetables

Crank up the heat on the grill and let your veggies cook for about 10-15 minutes. If you can, keep the lid closed and turn the veggies every few minutes to make sure they are cooking evenly.

Now. If you don’t have a grill, I’d recommend roasting these guys in a 450 degree oven for 10-15 minutes and you should end up with a very close finished product.

You’ll know you’re done when the peppers start blistering and the tomatoes bursting!

Once all the veggies have become a bit tender and charred, remove them from the grill to let them cool a bit.

Then add them to your blender (you may have to work in two batches) along with a small handful of cilantro.

Pulse it up until it’s the consistency you want. I recommend keeping the salsa it a bit on the chunky side.

NOTE: When blending, make sure not to overfill your blender or use hot foods as they could splatter which isn’t a good experience.

It should go without saying that you can serve this up warm or cold with lots of chips!

As with most salsas, I found that this stuff was even better on day two actually when the flavors had a chance to meld a bit.

I don’t mind store-bought salsa one bit, but this is a very quick way to make a good amount of very tasty salsa.

Give this easy grilled salsa a shot the next time you’re itching for some Tex-Mex!

Storage for Salsa

This salsa is fresh and not really intended to be canned or jarred. It keeps well in the fridge for 5-6 days or you can freeze it in quart-sized freezer bags.

Like this recipe? Check out my 12 easy game day recipes.

Here are a few other great Tex-Mex Recipes!

• Cheesy Black Bean and Chicken Skillet
• Tex-Mex Stuffed Slow Cooker Sweet Potatoes
• Chorizo Queso Dip
• One Pan Tex-Mex Chicken and Rice from Real Housemoms