How do I make homemade Salsa thicker?

Question

I have been playing with homemade salsa for a few weeks now and I can't seem to figure out how to get that thicker tomato texture that a lot of southern Mexican restaurants have.

Right now I play with these ingredients:

1. Tomatoes
2. Onion
3. Jalapeño
4. Cilantro
5. Lime Juice
6. Garlic Salt/Cumin

This seems pretty basic stuff for salsa, but it has a pretty water'd down feel no matter how I swing it. How do I get the tomato base that some of the classic salsa's have in order for everything to hold on the chip a little better?

Update

I really wanted to accept two answers because I like both depending on what I am doing. For a fresh salsa(pico de gallo) straining the juice from the tomatoes seems to work really well. But for the thickness I was going for the key was experimenting with Tomato Paste/Cooking the salsa. I am able to get a much thicker salsa that I enjoy much more. I did learn how to create killer pico de gallo from this though.

Answer 1

There's a few types of salsa -- salsa fresca (aka pico de gallo, aka salsa cruda), which is "fresh salsa" and uncooked, and if made fresh, it shouldn't be too watery (unless you add to much liquid, eg, lime juice), but letting the vegetables sit after salting will start to draw out extra liquid and could become watery.

For truly thick salsa, you have to treat it like a jam, and cook it to release the pectin in the tomato. (or I guess you could use some other thickeners ... I've never tried. tomato paste, maybe?) You don't necessarily have to cook the other ingredients, too, but I personally like roasting the peppers and onions to sweeten then up and remove some of the extra liquid. (halve the peppers and seed them, lay them on a tray cut side up with the onion cut into wedges, roast 'til they're softened, then dump into a food processor and either pulse or liquify it, depending on how chunky you like it. And the skin falls off the peppers, so I leave 'em out).

You can do the same roasting with the tomatoes, and it'll be thicker from the food processor, but you won't get the same cling without letting them cook slowly in liquid to develop the pectin. If you roast the tomatoes, I like to use plum tomatoes, as they have more "meat" to the gel around the seeds, and take out the gel and seeds.

Answer 2

Have you tried straining the salsa? Put it in a coffee filter or in some cheesecloth in a sieve sitting over a bowl. Let drain until the salsa's the texture you want.

Answer 3

If you remove the liquid and seeds from your tomatoes, that should increase the chunkiness. Also to remove liquid from tomatoes, consider giving them a whirl in a salad spinner.

Answer 4

If it's a salsa that you want avocado in, a relatively soft avocado cut up and mixed in will kind of dissolve, and thicken things up a bit.

Answer 5

Just chop tomatoes roughly and leave them in a strainer overnight in the fridge. It helps your salsa to have a better consistency.

Answer 6

Adding some Okra can thicken it up, it can also add an interesting texture to the final product if you like chunky salsas.

Time will also help, although reduces chunkiness. As it cooks down the result is smoother and thicker. Tomato paste will help it thicken more quickly and allow you to keep larger chunks of tomato as you go.

Answer 7

Roasted Nopales work well, especially when puréed and they add a nuttiness that is a nice complement to most salsas. I also agree roasting tomatoes helps, but you don't always want that. If you have a blender, emulsify a neutral oil into part of your salsa, if you want it to remain chunky leave some of the ingredients out of the blender and mix by hand. Roasted garlic. I think avocados works well but over-mellows out most salsas. That might be your thing, so try it out.

Straining, for me, is the last resort. You really don't want to lose flavor, but you could always strain the tomato water out, if you have a nice fine mesh strainer either overnight or a few hours and then reduce the liquid on high heat and reintroduce into your salsa.

Blending nuts, particularly pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and other neutral nuts into a paste and introducing that into your salsa will work quite well too. Think molés. Oh, and of course chocolate, but not that sweet stuff. Use mexican chocolate or a nice dark unsweetened bakers chocolate.

There are many ways to improve the mouth feel of salsa, I only mention the ones that come to mind as readily done in the home.

Answer 8

people If you want to make thick salsa all you have to do is cook in a pot like normal and then put in a frying pan and cook just the water out not the juice from the fruit!!!! You can cook it down as thick as you want with out looseing any flavor.

Answer 9

add corn starch.....slowly like making gravy......its in a couple recipes i looked at and i also tried it for mylself and it works