Make this refreshing strawberry salsa with sweet onion, chocolate nibs, mint, and lime juice. It's perfect served as an appetizer with chevre (goat) cheese and crackers or spooned over grilled asparagus.
This bright salsa takes 15 minutes to make and benefits greatly by resting for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavors to meld together.
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When spring unfurls her tender leaves and I start to see fresh strawberries at the market, I look for all the ways to use them. I love making 5-Minute Strawberry Sherbet (ok, full confession, it's 5 minutes after the food processor is all chilled up) and this refreshing Strawberry-Coconut Soup with Mint, made with coconut milk.
But during strawberry season, my favorite thing to serve at a party is this strawberry salsa.
🍓 Strawberry Fun Facts
Here are some fun strawberry factoids you can toss around at your next cocktail party.
- The botanical name for strawberry is fragaria, which means fragrance.
- Strawberries belong to the rose family. So, a few judicious drops of rose water in recipes calling for strawberries emphasize their floral aspect.
- There are two main beliefs of how strawberries got their name.
- Straw was used between the rows to keep the berries clean and to protect them in the winter, and
- In Europe, ripe berries were carried to market threaded on straws. Take your pick.
- Strawberries provide more vitamin C than oranges and are also an excellent source of potassium and folic acid.
- Once strawberries are picked, they will never ripen any further.
🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
The secret to faster and easier meals often lies in the ingredients. For example, store-bought items and ingredients you make ahead and store in the refrigerator (or freezer) can turn a 60-minute recipe into a 30-minute meal or less.
For all of the ingredients, measurements, and directions, go to the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post.
- Fresh ripe strawberries - This salsa is all about fresh ingredients, so don't use any strawberries that are past their prime. Use your best strawberries for this salsa.
- Sweet onion - Vidalia onion is perfect in this recipe, but any white onion works fine. Do not use yellow onions.
- Fresh mint
- Lime juice
- Agave nectar
- Chocolate nibs (optional) - these are crumbled bits of dried cacao beans used to make chocolate. They're unsweetened and are a great foil for the natural sweetness of strawberries.
- Dried Ancho Chile (optional) - I don't use the powder, but instead break up a dried whole ancho chile, and sprinkle some in the salsa. Ancho chile is a very mild chile, and adds an earthiness to the salsa, keeping it from being too sweet.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to products and foods I use in my kitchen. This means that at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. To view my entire storefront of recommended kitchen tools and equipment, check out my shop on Amazon.
📝 Instructions Overview
Detailed instructions for making this easy strawberry salsa recipe are in the recipe card below, but here's an overview!
Step 1
Prep the strawberries. Using the tip of a small, sharp knife, pierce each strawberry around the stem to remove it. This is often referred to as hulling strawberries.
Slice each strawberry in half and then each half into thirds. Dice and transfer to a medium bowl.
Step 2
Prep the sweet onion. Peel the onion and slice it in half. Finely dice using a sharp chef's knife. Transfer to the bowl with the strawberries.
Step 3
Prep the fresh mint. Stack the mint leaves on top of each other and roll up into a tight roll. Thinly slice with a chef's knife. Transfer to the bowl with the strawberries.
Step 4
Finish and toss. Add the lime juice, agave nectar, salt, pepper, chocolate nibs (if using), and crumbled dried ancho chili (if using). Gently toss everything.
Step 5
Rest. Allow the salsa to rest on the countertop at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.
👩🍳 Why This Recipe Works
- The combination of sweet strawberries with earthy chocolate nibs and ancho chile flakes makes this salsa a winner.
- Sweet onions add savory and a little texture to the salsa.
- Both mint and lime juice make the flavors pop.
👩🍳 Preparation Tips
- A good quality knife is one of the most important tools you can have in the kitchen. I use a chef's knife for all the prepping except hulling the strawberries. For that, I use a small paring knife. Read this post for my top 20 must-have tools and equipment for vegetarian cooking.
- It's best to use a non-reactive bowl for macerating the salsa as strawberries are considered acidic. Examples are stainless steel, ceramic, or glass bowls.
- Chilling this salsa really makes a difference to the flavors. Be sure to give the salsa enough time to mingle all of its great flavors.
🫙 Best Way to Store Strawberry Salsa
This strawberry salsa is best when fresh, but if you have leftovers you'd like to store, transfer them to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 day.
💡Ideas for Possible Variations
- If you prefer a little heat to your salsa, finely mince either 1 tablespoon of jalapeño pepper or Serrano, depending on the spice level you want, to add to the salsa. The ancho chile flakes are not spicy.
- Just before serving, toss with 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar and a final twist of freshly ground black pepper. Add more balsamic vinegar, if that's your preference, but remember that a little goes a long way.
- Other fresh herbs you can use in place of the mint leaves include fresh basil, parsley, or chopped fresh cilantro.
- Swap out the sweet white onions for red onion.
🍽 Ways to Use Strawberry Salsa
- Serve with goat cheese (chevre) or Boursin cheese and crackers.
- Add a small scoop to a pureed strawberry soup or mango soup as a garnish.
- Toss some into a spinach salad.
- Spoon over grilled asparagus.
- Serve with salty tortilla chips or corn chips.
- Serve over the top of ice cream. If you choose this, eliminate the sweet onion.
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Fresh Strawberry Salsa Recipe with Chocolate Nibs
Equipment
- Paring knife
- Chef's knife
- Medium non-reactive bowl such as stainless steel, glass, or ceramic bowls
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups hulled and diced fresh strawberries
- ½ cup finely diced sweet onion Vidalia onions are perfect here!
- 2 ½ tablespoons thinly sliced fresh mint leaves
- 1 ½ tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 teaspoons agave nectar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt or ⅛ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground coarse black pepper
- 2 teaspoons chocolate nibs optional
- 1 teaspoon finely crumbled dried ancho chili optional
Instructions
- Use a paring knife to pierce each strawberry around its stem to remove it. This is called hulling strawberries. Slice them in half, and then each half into thirds and dice. The size of the dice depends on how you plan to use the salsa. For spreading on crackers with cheese, use a smaller dice. If the salsa will be added to a salad or served over grilled asparagus, go with a larger dice.Transfer the strawberries to a medium bowl.
- Dice the onion into pieces smaller than the strawberries. Add to the strawberries.
- Stack the mint leaves on top of each other and tightly roll them up. Use a chef's knife to thinly slice across the width of the roll. Be sure to use only fresh, undamaged leaves.Add to the strawberries and onion.
- Add the lime juice, agave nectar, salt, pepper, chocolate nibs (if using), and crumbled dried ancho pepper (if using), and toss everything together.
- Allow to rest on the counter for the flavors to marinate and meld together. Serve at room temperature.
Nutrition
Susan Pridmore is an award-winning cookbook author and the owner of The Wimpy Vegetarian. She has been featured in Huffington Post, Healthline, BuzzFeed, The Food Network, and Parade Magazine. She is professionally trained and focuses on easy vegetarian recipes for busy lives, bread-baking, and tips for new vegetarians. Susan lives in the mountains in Lake Tahoe with her husband and mini-labradoodle.
Viviane Bauquet Farre
Absolutely stunning reds! What a fun sweet alternative to more conventional salsa recipes. Your food photography really makes the colors jump!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much Viviane! Food photography is something I'm really working on these days, so I really appreciate your comment 🙂 Your photography is always so beautiful.
Hannah
Your strawberry salsa is inspired, Susan! I can't wait to make it. Love your addition of nibs. What great strawberry info, too! I've wondered where strawberries get their name from - good to know straw is actually involved. Have a great weekend!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I love reading about things like this - like the provenance of names of things. Thanks for stopping by, Hannah! Hope you're having a great weekend!
LiztheChef
Who knew??
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Not me, that's for sure. I love little interesting trivia about food 🙂
Lynda - TasteFood
How creative! The nibs are an inspired twist.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I'm using nibs now in all kinds of things. They hung around my kitchen for a year, and now it's like I'm discovering them for the first time 🙂
Wendy Read
Oh yes! This looks so good, and I always have an abundance of strawberries here to experiment with. Thanks for posting 🙂
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks Wendy!! And this is sooooo easy. I'm sure it would last longer too, if you didn't dress it until 30 minutes before serving.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Awwww, thanks Suzanne. Strawberries make me happy too. I can never get enough of them it seems.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I saw your blog hop and was thinking about this one or the Farmhouse Strawberry cake from earlier this month. Thanks so much Matt for noticing this one!! I love your site!
Liz
Oh, man, this looks (and sounds) amazing!!! I just adore a fruit salsa!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I gotta say - it's so refreshing and sooo good. I just eat it up plain half the time.
Choc Chip Uru
I love your style of being informative about your ingredients as well as providing a killer recipe - may I just say hooked? 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
juniakk @ mis pensamientos
ahhh i love the idea of making strawberry salsa! YUM! i bet this would be perfect topped on some light white fish!
angela@spinachtiger
I picked tons of strawberries this year and I'm going with the theory that they used straw between the rows. Who knows? All these facts are so interesting. It makes so much sense that they are part of the rose family. I read this year that to keep strawberries, put them water with some vinegar. Soak strawberries with apple cider or white vinegar 1 part to ten parts water for a minutes. Drain. Put in fridge. It prevents mold spores. It worked for me. I just defrosted a gigantic bag of strawberries given to me and I'm going to turn them into this salsa and go from there.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I love this idea! I'm assuming you'd need to make sure they're completely dried after their quick soak. The vinegar would kill the spores - so it makes sense. I'm going to try it with my next batch. Thanks so much for contributing your idea!