How to Thicken Salsa: Tips for Fixing Watery Salsa

Whether you’re canning salsa or making it fresh for a Mexican feast, a thin consistency can ruin tacos and slip right off your tortilla chips. The most common culprit for watery salsas—especially homemade salsa rather than jarred or canned options—is the tomato used as the base. Tomato flesh contains a lot of moisture, so when you add it to your fresh salsa, it can easily make the mixture too watery.

Using a food processor to purée your ingredients can exacerbate the issue, so try slicing the tomatoes by hand to avoid overprocessing.

One way to ensure that you wind up with thicker salsa is to manage the moisture in your tomatoes. There are a few ways to do this:

1. 1. Choose less watery tomatoes. Consider using Roma tomatoes when making your next salsa recipe. They’ll yield less moisture than other types of tomatoes when sliced. In general, a firmer tomato will make your salsa less watery.
2. 2. Scoop out your tomatoes. Instead of using all the interior flesh from your tomatoes, try scooping it out and adding the chopped skin first. You can then add the flesh gradually until the salsa reaches the desired consistency and finish it off with a squeeze of lime juice and salt and black pepper to taste.
3. 3. Drain the tomatoes in advance. Another strategy is to leave your chopped tomatoes in a strainer suspended over a bowl to let some water drain out before adding them to your salsa.

If you’ve already made your salsa and it has turned out watery, there are a few ways to save it:

1. 1. Add more ingredients. Try adding more vegetables to the mixture to absorb some of the moisture. Avocados are a good candidate for this if you don’t mind making your salsa creamier. Less-watery ingredients like jalapeño peppers, fresh cilantro, and bell peppers can bulk up your salsa. Gabriela Cámara’s salsa verde cruda gets its creamy texture from avocados and tomatillos, which are full of pectin, a fiber that creates a gel-like consistency.
2. 2. Try a thickener. Add thickeners like cornstarch or arrowroot to your salsa as a last resort. To do this, mix one tablespoon of thickener per cup of salsa with an equal amount of water. Then bring your salsa to a simmer over low to medium heat and slowly incorporate the slurry until the salsa has thickened. If it’s a raw salsa like a pico de gallo, take care not to cook the salsa on high heat since you’ll lose that fresh flavor profile.
3. 3. Use tomato paste. For tomato-based salsa, try adding one tablespoon of tomato paste at a time until your salsa reaches the desired consistency.

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