Up your homemade salsa game this football season, or whip up smoked salsa for a taco night or BBQ party. Smoke salsa with ingredients like fresh tomatoes, smoked limes, onions, cilantro, jalapeno, red onions, and garlic. Let’s get smoking!!
Add this to the list of tasty Traeger appetizers for game day. It’s right up there with smoked queso and smoked mac and cheese… what else could you need to throw a smoked foods taco night?
HEY THERE — For more tasty smoker appetizers for your next BBQ menu, follow @sipbitego.
Table of Contents
Why smoked salsa is so refreshing to make…
- EASY!! Anyone can make this elevated homemade salsa infused with smoke for a great game day party. Did someone say tailgate party???
- Chill out – You can make this recipe to your desired consistency (chunky or smooth) without losing that smoky flavor.
- Make it spicy or mild.
- Use leftovers as a marinade! If you start thinking outside the box, you can use any leftover smoked salsa as a marinade for a smoked steak. I did…and it was delicious!
- Meal prep ahead! Smoke salsa to enjoy for a few days at a time… This is an easy smoker recipe to prepare in advance. Just cut and season all the vegetables the night before and place in the fridge. Next day, you’ll be ready to just remove the vegetables from your fridge when you’re ready to smoke ‘em.
New to smoked food recipes and Treager recipes?
See my step by step video for beginners (scroll to bottom of page)…
Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make smoked salsa.
Vegetables to smoke in salsa on the pellet grill
- steak tomatoes (can sub roma tomatoes), halved, stems removed, then cut in wedges
- jalapeno, halved, pith and seeds removed –
- red onion, cut in two wedges
- cloves garlic
- lime, zest, and then halve the lime and use the lime
- salt and pepper to taste
- bbq rub (any of your favorite bbq seasonings)
- olive oil
For blending smoked salsa once cooked
- fresh cilantro leaves
- salt and pepper
See these tasty taco night smoker recipes…
How to make smoked salsa
Now I’ll walk you through it…
Quick look at smoked salsa recipe
- Preheat the smoker to 250 degrees F and prepare vegetables with seasoning.
- Smoke vegetables for 60 – 90 minutes flipping halfway through until it reaches your desired level of softness.
- Remove vegetables from the smoker and blend.
- Serve with dipping chips and enjoy.
Detailed recipe steps
- Preheat Traeger Grills or Pitt Boss or whatever pellet grill you’re using to 250 degrees F.
- Prep salsa for smoking. In a large bowl, Mix all main smoked salsa ingredients together to coat them with olive oil and seasonings.
- Optional – Transfer to a wire rack, if desired. If you have any very small veggies, like the garlic cloves, you can pierce through them with a toothpick to keep them together, so they don’t fall through.
- Smoke salsa for 60-90 minutes, flipping halfway (optional), until vegetables are soft and broken down to your desired level.
- Remove salsa ingredients from the Traeger.
- Squeeze just a little smoked lime juice into a food processor and discard limes. NOTE – The smoked limes come out very juicy and if used too liberally, can make the salsa bitter because of the pulp. So if you add lime juice, taste it along the way and make sure to use a sieve before squeezing it in, to get out the pulp from the limes so the smoked salsa doesn’t turn out bitter.
- Add the rest of the ingredients into the food processor or blender, including cilantro (make sure to remove any toothpicks you may have used). Pulse smoked salsa until your desired texture is reached (chunky or smooth). Taste and add salt and pepper and any extra lime juice as needed.
- Serve at room temperature or chilled with chips or smoked tacos and enjoy.
- Bonus points – If you let it sit in the fridge a few hours or overnight, it will take on even more flavor as the ingredients marinate together.
FAQs
It will take you 60 – 90 minutes at 250 degrees F to smoke the vegetables for your smoked salsa. If you have the super smoke option on your Traeger pellet smoker, you could choose to set the smoker to 225 degrees F and use super smoke. It will take a little longer for your vegetables to soften, but you will get even more smoke flavor.
I recommend using beefsteak tomatoes for your salsa for a couple of reasons. Beefsteak tomatoes get its name because of the “beef” or “meaty” like quality the tomato has. This quality makes smoked salsa a bit more filling vs using other types of tomatoes. Also, beefsteak tomatoes do not have a lot of seeds in them. That’s an added bonus because…who wants seeds in their salsa?
Smoked salsa will last for a week in the fridge in a tupperware container with a lid. If you have some sort of air-tight seal container, perhaps it will last longer. In reality though, you will be eating this salsa up, so it won’t last long 😉
You should smoke your tomatoes at 250 degrees F.
I recommend using hickory, or something light like pecan or Traeger signature blend pellets. Hickory is the strongest out of this group of wood chips and will give it the biggest smoke flavor.
Turning smoked tomatoes into a smoked tomato salsa is super simple. You do not need many ingredients, but you should be using beefsteak tomatoes, onion and jalapeno, and garlic, limes plus some fresh herbs like cilantro. Simply chop your vegetables, place either directly on your smoker grill grates or in a grill basket and smoke for an hour at 250 degrees F. Remove the veggies from your smoker, blend in a blender until smooth. Season with salt, pepper, and your herbs and enjoy!
Below, I’m using leftover smoked salsa as a steak marinade. Try this with smoked sirloin steak or smoked ribeye or smoked tomahawk.
More Tasty Grill + Smoker Recipes
- Smoked mac and cheese
- Smoked cream cheese
- Smoked brisket flat
- 321 ribs
- Beer can chicken on the smoker
- Smoked wings
- Smoked tomahawk steak
- Traeger tri tip
- Smoked turkey breast
- Whole smoked turkey
- Smoked Traeger pizza
- Smoked onion rings
- Traeger smoked ham
- Smoked whole chicken
- Smoked jalapeno poppers
- Smoked corn on the cob
- Traeger beef ribs
- Smoked leg of lamb
- Smoked shrimp
- Grilled chicken wings
- Grilled skirt steak
- Flank steak marinade
- Grilled potato wedges
- Smoked pulled pork
- Want more? See my lineup of easy smoker recipes
See my favorite smoker tools and seasonings in my Amazon Storefront.
Meat thermometer recommendations
Every home chef needs a reliable meat thermometer to cook food perfectly.
On Sip Bite Go, you’ll often see me using:
- Meater thermometer – a fancy wireless thermometer that connects to a phone app – gifted to me from a Traeger partnership.
- ThermoPro digital thermometer – which has a wire that connects the thermometer to a display box outside the oven/grill.
It’s like being psychic! The great thing about either of the thermometers above is that I don’t have to take the food out of the oven to know the temperature.
How to use ‘em… What I do is stick the digital thermometer in steak, pork, chicken, whatever… Then put the food in the oven, on the smoker, or grill.
While the meat cooks, it reads the temperature so I know exactly what temp meat is as it’s cooking. Without having to take it out and check. It’s really difficult to overcook food when you know exactly what temp it is inside!
Are you a foodie, too?
Hey home chefs, hope that answers all your questions about making salsa on the pellet smoker.
Connect…
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- Browse the Sip Bite Go recipe collection
Easy Traeger Smoked Salsa Recipe | Sip Bite Go
Ingredients
Vegetables to smoke in salsa on the pellet grill
- 1 lb steak tomatoes halved, stems removed, then cut in wedges
- 1 jalapeno halved, pith and seeds removed
- ½ red onion cut in two wedges
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 lime zest, and then halve the lime and use the lime
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp bbq rub any of your favorite bbq seasonings
- 2 tbsp olive oil
For blending smoked salsa once cooked
- 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat Traeger Grills or Pitt Boss or whatever pellet grill you’re using to 250 degrees F.
- Prep salsa for smoking. In a large bowl, Mix all main smoked salsa ingredients together to coat them with olive oil and seasonings.
- Optional – Transfer to a wire rack, if desired (I think this makes them easier to take the veggies on/off the grill without them falling through), but you can also stick salsa ingredients directly on the smoker grill grates. And if you have any very small veggies, like the garlic cloves, you can pierce through them with a toothpick to keep them together, so they don’t fall through.
- Smoke salsa for 60-90 minutes, flipping halfway (optional), until vegetables are soft and broken down to your desired level.
- Remove smoked salsa ingredients from the Traeger.
- Squeeze just a little smoked lime juice into a food processor and discard limes. (I recommend going light, because the smoked limes come out very juicy and if used too liberally, can make the salsa bitter because of the pulp. So if you add lime juice, taste it along the way and make sure to use a sieve before squeezing it in, to get out the pulp from the limes so the smoked salsa doesn’t turn out bitter.
- Blend smoked salsa. Add the rest of the ingredients into the food processor or blender, including cilantro (make sure to remove any toothpicks you may have used). Pulse smoked salsa until your desired texture is reached (chunky or smooth). Taste and add salt and pepper and any extra lime juice as needed.
- Serve at room temperature or chilled with chips or smoked tacos and enjoy.
- Bonus points – If you let it sit in the fridge a few hours or overnight, it will take on even more flavor as the ingredients marinate together.
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