If you grow vegetables and herbs, you can whip up a fresh batch of flavorful salsa anytime during the summer. This article tells you how to grow your own salsa ingredients.

Salsa is a delightful dip for tortilla chips and an all-purpose sauce for many meals. I often use it as a topping for eggs, fajitas, enchiladas, salmon, beef, pork and roast chicken.

Common salsa ingredients include tomatoes, tomatillos, onions, peppers, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, and salt. Avocado, corn, parsley, oregano, pineapple, mango and apricots are a few more ingredients that make a salsa savory and fruity.

Fresh tomato salsa (pico de gallo) is super easy to make. In a bowl, I combine fresh diced tomatoes, finely chopped green onion or a Vidalia onion, cilantro, diced jalapeño peppers, garlic, lime juice and sea salt. It’s that simple.

Here’s how to grow your own salsa ingredients:

How to Grow Tomatoes

Tomatoes grow best in a spot that receives at least six hours of direct sunlight, but eight hours is better. Tomato plants need fertile, well-drained soil along with consistent water. When there’s drought, the soil needs a good, deep soaking. Tomato plant roots can grow 8 to 12 inches deep so let the hose dribble slowly until the roots are sufficiently wet. That’s important because drought-stressed plants are more susceptible to insects. If your plants are not producing flowers, they may need more sunlight or fertilizer. When the temperatures climb above 85 degrees during the day or drop below 55 degrees at night, flowers may fall off and consequently you won’t have fruit until the weather cooperates. Any type of vine-ripened tomato — plum, cherry or beefsteak — can be used in salsa. My favorite is Midnight Snack. The fruit starts out deep blue and turns reddish-blue when ripe.

Tomatoes              Photo by Greg Moroz

How to Grow Tomatillos

If I’m making salsa verde (a green salsa), I use my homegrown tomatillos (Physalis philadelphica), which produce a bumper crop every summer. Although they may look like a tomato, and they prefer the same growing conditions, tomatillos are a type of ground cherry and have a papery husk. I grow both the green and purple varieties. They taste the same, but I like the way the diced purple tomatillos look in a bowl of salsa. The harvest begins about 60 days after transplanting and continues until the first fall frost. Tomatillos are ripe when the papery husk is dry or has pulled away to reveal the plump fruit.

How to Grow Scallions

Scallions (green or bunching onions) are grown for their green leaves, which can be white, red or purple at the base. Some produce a very small bulb. I use the leaves and the chopped bulbs in my salsas. Seeds are sown in early spring outdoors and plants are harvested in 50 to 60 days. As with other vegetables mentioned here, scallions need full sun and well-drained soil with regular moisture. Harvest the plants when the leaves are about 6 to 8 inches tall to avoid the Sulphur taste found in many store-bought green onions.

How to Grow Jalapeño and Serrano Peppers

Peppers are tender, warm-season vegetables that thrive in well-drained, fertile soil and full sun. I use a water-soluble “starter” fertilizer when transplanting to get them off to a good start. Plants are set 18 to 24 inches apart in a vegetable bed. I also grow individual plants in 10-gallon pots (with drainage holes) that are filled with soilless potting mix containing granular fertilizer. Uniform moisture is essential, so pepper plants should be watered every few days during hot, dry periods. Like tomatoes, pepper plants do not tolerate frost, or cold, wet soil. When night temperatures are 50° to 55°F, the plants grow slowly, the leaves may turn yellow and the flowers drop off. In my Zone 5 garden, I wait to plant them until late May when the danger of frost has passed. Don’t be in a hurry to pull fruits off the plant, which can crack the stems. Use scissors or pruning shears.

Peppers              Photo by Greg Moroz

How to Grow Cilantro

This is one of the few annual herbs that is quick to produce flowers and seeds — and then the plant dies! It’s a common lament of cilantro-loving gardeners. For that reason, I always grow it from seed, which is much cheaper than constantly buying and replacing plants. Frequent harvesting of the leaves can help slow the flowering process. And, sowing seeds every couple of weeks extends my harvest. Grown from seed, cilantro is ready for cutting in about 50 days. Give the plants full sun and well-drained soil. We grow cilantro in the herb garden as well as in pots. If your cilantro plant does flower, let it go to seed, which is called coriander. Look for varieties marked “slow to bolt,” which means slow to flower and a longer time to harvest.

How to Grow Garlic

In my Zone 5 garden near Chicago, I plant garlic cloves in the fall and harvest the heads of garlic in midsummer. Choose a spot that receives at least 6 hours of sun from spring through summer. Plant the cloves in fertile, well-drained soil, placing them 3 to 4 inches apart and 2 to 3 inches deep. A raised bed works well for garlic because it warms up quickly in the spring and tends to drain quickly after a rain. By summer, the leaves begin to turn yellow and fall over, a sign the garlic is dry and ready for harvest. In the Chicago area, harvest time is usually in July.

Tasty Recipes for Home Grown Salsa

Now that you have fresh, homegrown ingredients, it’s time to prepare the salsa. Here are some of my favorite recipes —

Fresh Tomato Salsa

2 cups diced ripe tomatoes.

1/4 cup finely chopped green onion.

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves.

2 Serrano or Jalapeño peppers, minced.

1 garlic clove, minced.

1 T. fresh squeezed lime juice.

1/2 to 1 tsp. sea salt.

Place the ingredients in a non-metallic bowl and toss to combine. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes while the flavors meld.

Pico de Gallo Salsa

A slightly different version of fresh tomato salsa —

3 large, ripe tomatoes.

1/2 red onion bulb, finely chopped.

1 large fresh green jalapeño, seeds removed and finely chopped.

2 T. fresh cilantro, chopped.

juice from one lime.

salt and pepper.

Cut tomatoes in half, scoop out and discard the seeds. Dice the tomatoes and place in a large, non-metallic bowl. Add the onion, pepper, cilantro and lime juice. Season to taste with some salt and pepper and gently combine the ingredients. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or more to let the flavors develop

Salsa Verde

Roasting the vegetables brings out the great flavor in this green salsa.

8 oz. tomatillos, (about 3) papery husks and stems removed; rinsed, dried and cut into quarters.

1 poblano chile, stems and seeds removed, chopped.

1 jalapeño chile, remove stem, cut in half and remove seeds.

2 T. plus 2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil.

3 garlic cloves, peeled.

2 tsp. chopped fresh oregano.

1 tsp. ground coriander.

salt and pepper.

2 T. minced fresh cilantro.

3 scallions, chopped.

1 T. lime juice.

Line a baking sheet with foil. In a bowl, toss tomatillos, peppers, garlic, oregano, coriander, 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/4 tsp of pepper and 2 tablespoons of oil. Spread the mixture on the baking sheet. Broil the vegetables on an upper rack in the oven until the tomatillos and peppers are browned (about 10 minutes). You may have to stir the mixture half-way through the broiling. Once they’ve cooled, put the vegetables in a blender. Add the cilantro, scallions, lime juice and the remaining oil and blend until smooth. Pour into a non-metallic bowl and let the flavors meld in the refrigerator.

Pineapple Mango Salsa with Tequila

1 large golden pineapple, flesh diced to 1/4-inch pieces

4 mangoes, flesh diced to 1⁄4-inch pieces.
2 plum tomatoes diced to 1⁄4-inch pieces.
1/2 red onion, finely diced.

1 shallot, finely diced.
A garlic clove, minced.
1 jalapeño pepper, deseeded and minced.
1 Serrano pepper (or habanero, if you like it HOT), deseeded and minced.
1⁄2 cup chopped cilantro.
1 tablespoon agave syrup or honey.
2 shots tequila.

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar.
1 teaspoon sea salt.

Macerate all ingredients together in the tequila and refrigerate the mixture for at least four hours. Drain the liquid (you can drink it if you like a spicy-hot cocktail) and add the juice of one lemon and one lime to the mixture. Let salsa come to room temperature and serve with tortilla chips.

Fun, Fresh, Flavorful

While salsa purchased in a jar is convenient in a pinch, discover the joy of making your own from vegetables and herbs grown in your garden. The best part — no preservatives, and you know how the plants were grown and handled. Experiment and create your own salsa recipes by adding black beans, roasted corn kernels, purple onions, or for fruity salsas, add fresh mango, pineapple, nectarine, pear, or dried chopped fruits.

Read more about peppers, how to choose them and grow them.

The Complete Chile Pepper Book: A Gardener’s Guide to Choosing, Growing, Preserving, and Cooking. Dave DeWitt and Paul W. Bosland. Timber Press. 2014

The Field Guide to Peppers. Dave DeWitt and Janie Lamson. Timber Press. 2015

Have a bumper crop?  Learn how to preserve your salsa for winter use.