Best Store Bought Salsa for Weight Watchers

You’ve asked and I’ve listened!

Finally, here’s the long-awaited post of the Best Store Bought Salsa for Weight Watchers!

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I must say that chips and salsa are one of my all-time favorite snacks.

When I first started Weight Watchers, it really helped me stay on track.

I needed a snack that actually tasted good and satisfied that crunch I was looking for.

I’m very much a chip kind of person versus a sweets kind of person, so chips and salsa was very helpful to me!

Most salsa is 0 points, so that is always a good thing! Especially when it tastes good!

When we make tacos, I usually serve chips and salsa while I’m cooking so my family doesn’t bug me too much about asking when dinner will be ready.

My whole family really enjoys a good salsa, and they were ever-so-happy to help me test all these different kinds of salsa.

The spicy ones we left to the grown-ups, but the two little kids definitely had a say in the voting for the non-spicy salsas.

I’ve come up with 10 different categories of styles of salsa.

I thought that would be a good amount for the Best Store Bought Salsa for Weight Watchers.

Before I started researching for this post, I really didn’t know the large number of varieties of salsa there are!

We have a few different grocery stores here in the Midwest, but I decided to go to Walmart because most of us are within driving distance to a Walmart.

I didn’t want to write a post and then leave you hanging without the ability to buy these salsas!

I also have a favorite salsa recipe that I make in the summer and fall that I received from my friend’s mother.

I have to admit, I love my homemade salsa better than any store-bought salsa any day, but we don’t always have the fresh ingredients here in Wisconsin during the winter to make the homemade version, so we do also buy store-bought salsa as well.

I’ll include the recipe to my homemade salsa at the end of this post, and if you’d like to try that as well, feel free!

The categories that I have chosen are just a few categories of salsa.

There are a few more, but I thought a solid 10 categories would work.

First, let’s talk a little about salsa, and what it is.

What is salsa?

If you don’t already know, salsa is a condiment.

Salsa is usually a tomato base, filled with various fresh vegetables and spices, then blended.

Salsa is sometimes cooked, and sometimes it’s not. It is mostly served cold.

It’s used primarily for dipping various foods, but the most common is tortilla chips. It is similar to Pico de Gallo but has a thinner consistency.

I did have a roommate in college that would dip carrot sticks in it!

Eating salsa is a great way to keep Weight Watchers Points low.

Since it’s made with primarily with fresh veggies, it’s low in fat and added sugar and it tends to almost always be zero points, which helps us meet our weight management goals and with weight loss.

How is salsa used?

As I said above, the main use of salsa is as an appetizer or a snack, as a condiment.

Many people around the world dip tortilla chips in salsa.

It can also be used as a condiment for tacos, burritos, and quesadillas.

Sometimes it’s used as a salad dressing for a taco salad, and a drizzle of salsa always adds a kick of flavor to lettuce wraps.

One of my favorite naughty dips is to take salsa and mix it with cream cheese and sour cream. That’s something I can’t have as often though. Boo!

Top 10 Best Store Bought Salsa for Weight Watchers

When I headed to Walmart, I wasn’t sure what I was going to buy or how many I would come home with for our taste test.

When I walked in with 26 containers of salsa, my husband was very confused.

I already had an idea with what categories I wanted to group them in, but together as a family we tasted and tested and came up with (mostly) agreeing on the top 10 Best Store Bought Salsa for Weight Watchers.

I did not take pictures of these salsas while in the store because I felt like a weirdo doing so.

Then, when we taste tested them, it was dark outside, and I had some awful lighting for pictures in my kitchen.

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Any funds made from those sales help me to keep the blog up and running and allow me keep trying new recipes!

#1 – Best Restaurant Style Salsa

My husband I both thought that the deli style (found next to the deli in the refrigerated section) Fresh Craving Salsa was the best.

We tried three different kinds, and this one seemed to have to most fresh taste.

It had the cleanest ingredients of the three brands that I bought to try.

It isn’t 100% clean, but it was decent.

There was a mild and medium heat to choose from, but I bought the medium.

There is 170 mg sodium in a serving, which isn’t the best, but it sure tasted good.

It has one gram of sugar, with zero added sugar, and is 0 points per serving.

Price: $3.48 for 16 ounces, or 1 pound.

This salsa is packaged in a plastic container.

Runner up: Pace Restaurant Style Salsa. 

#2 – Best Cilantro Salsa

Yum! I didn’t even know this was a thing! The ingredients list for this one was equally pretty clean and tasted even better than I thought it would! The price was a bit more than I wanted to spend, but it was worth every penny.

The winner here was Tabla Fresca Farmstand Cilantro Salsa.

This salsa was a restaurant style salsa as well, and I also found this in the refrigerated section, next to the deli. It had a touch of heat to it, but nothing I didn’t like or couldn’t handle. The serving size is 30 grams, and it does have 125 milligrams of sodium per serving, with one gram of sugar. The price for this was $5.98 for 32 ounces. It was a lot, but it was gone in one week, if that says anything! This is packaged in a plastic container.

Runner up: Marketside Cilantro Salsa

#3 – Best Guacamole Salsa

My husband is a guacamole nut, me- not so much.

I enjoy the taste of it but avocados give me such a bad stomachache, so I try to stay away from them.

We tried two different salsas in this category.

Both of them were quite good, but we felt that the On the Border Guacamole Salsa was the winner.

It was smoother and had less of a bite to it than its runner up.

You could taste the avocado better than the runner up as well.

The ingredients weren’t as clean and it does include oil, so that was a setback for me.

The spice level for me was medium.

The serving size is 2 tablespoons and it’s 2 points for one serving.

The price was $3.48 for 15 ounces, and it is packaged in a glass jar, found in the dry ingredients section of the store.

Runner up: Herdez Guacamole Salsa

#4 – Best Mango Salsa

This one was hard for me. I’ve never liked mangos very much, so off the bat I wasn’t a fan of any of these. The kids and my husband did like them all, but they felt that the Newman’s Own Mango Salsa was their favorite. The ingredients are mainly clean, with no oil in this salsa. It is a bit higher in sodium, carbs, and sugar, but still comes in at one point per serving. Serving size is 2 tablespoons. The cost for this product is $3.24 for 16 ounces and it is packaged in a glass container.

Runner up: Marketside Sweet Heat Mango Peach Salsa

#5 – Best Black Bean Salsa

This one was so good! It had a fresher taste for mass produced salsa.

The winner here – we were all in agreement, except for my 6-year-old – was Amy’s brand Black Bean and Corn Salsa.

Of all of the salsas we tested, this one had the cleanest ingredients. This salsa is also organic, so that his a plus. The tomatoes were a bit chunky, which I typically don’t like, but these were cooked well, and they were pretty soft. The spice level was low, if any at all. I’ll be buying this one again. Serving size is 2 tablespoons and it is zero points per serving. The cost was $4.97 for 14 ounces, and it is packaged in a glass jar.

Runner up: Great Value Black Bean and Corn Salsa

#6 – Best Peach Salsa

My family members love peaches, so when I saw peach salsa, I knew I had to buy a couple to try. I could only find two different peach flavors, and both of them were good!

We ultimately decided that the Great Value Peach and Pineapple Chipotle was the best, because the runner up was too hot for our liking.

The peach flavor was subtle, but you could definitely taste it. You can definitely taste the chipotle flavor, but it was a nice touch. It was better served cold than at room temperature. The serving size is 2 tablespoons, and it’s one point per serving. The cost was $2.96 for 26 ounces, and it’s served in glass container.

Runner up: Marketside Sweet Heat Mango Peach Salsa

#7 – Best Picante Sauce

Picante sauce is my absolute favorite, hands down. Like I said above, I’m not much of a chunky tomato type of person, and I like more of a watery consistency in my salsa. To me, picante sauce is more like that, so I tend to lean that way.

We all loved the Pace picante sauce the best. I bought the mild. We actually almost ate the whole jar in two days, as a family.

It tasted very fresh and had very little to no heat at all, so it was good for the kids. The flavors are blended well together. The ingredients are mostly clean, so that was a good feeling to know that. The sodium is on the higher side of all of the salsas we chose, but this was hands down my favorite. This picante sauce is zero points per two tablespoon serving. The cost was $2.38 for a 16-ounce glass bottle.

Runner up: Great Value Picante Sauce

#8 – Best Pineapple Salsa

This was one of those varieties of salsa I didn’t know existed!

The winner here was Newman’s Own Pineapple Salsa. If you like pineapple on your pizza, you may like this salsa.

I did not care of either of them enough to buy it again, but my husband did really like the taste of the pineapple in the salsa. It is a subtle taste, and you can mainly taste the tomatoes and spices, but it’s almost a pineapple, sweet aftertaste. I don’t care for sweet salsa, and I don’t like sweet pizza either, so I’m guessing it’s a personal preference. The flavors were blended well, and we tasted it at room temperature, so I’m not sure if it would taste better cold. The ingredients were okay, there is sugar in this one, so that is somewhat of a downfall. Despite the added sugar, the points value is one point per two tablespoon serving. The cost was $3.24 for a 16-ounce glass container.

Runner up: Great Value Peach and Pineapple Chipotle Salsa

#9 – Best Hot Salsa

This one is not a favorite of mine. My taste buds were on fire. I hate how the heat of the hot salsa lingers for what seems forever. I used to love spicy food, but since I’ve had kids it’s like something has changed with my tastebuds and I can’t stand much heat anymore. I did try these, but my husband is the heat master and took the main role here. My two boys did not want to participate in this category.

The winner in this category was Mateo’s Gourmet Salsa, Hot.

We both liked the consistency of this salsa, and we liked how the tomatoes weren’t extremely huge chunks, just the right size. The heat was pretty hot, but my husband said he has had hotter (coming from the guy who did the one chip challenge). We liked the ratio of juice to chunks in this salsa and the flavors were powerful and delicious. The sodium was creeping towards the higher side here, but the taste of this salsa is worth it! The ingredients were the cleanest of all of the tested salsas. The points value is zero points per two tablespoon serving. It is packaged in a glass jar.

Runner up: Herdez Salsa Casera – Hot

#10 – Best Salsa Verde

Instead of using tomatoes, tomatillos are used in salsa Verde. I would rather have regular salsa, but salsa Verde does taste so good on tacos. We tried three different brands for this category.

The winner was Herdez Roasted Salsa Verde.

It has an incredible roasted, tangy flavor. It’s not something I would like to dip my chips in, but man, it really takes tacos up a notch. The heat is pretty intense, even in the mild, which I purchased. When I tasted it with a chip, it was pretty hot. We did put it on our tacos the next day and the heat wasn’t as bad since I wasn’t directly eating it like I was with the chip. The ingredients are pretty clean and simple, and the price isn’t bad. It was $2.98 for a 15-ounce jar, and it is zero points per two tablespoons.

Runner up: Chi Chi’s Mild Salsa Verde

There it is! The Best Store Bought Salsa for Weight Watchers. I hope this list helps you with your salsa search. There are a lot of varieties to choose from, and it was definitely fun going on a salsa hunt and then a taste test! My personal homemade fresh salsa recipe is:

Three Roma tomatoes, diced

1/4 of medium red onion, diced finely

1 cup of cilantro, chopped

1/4 cup (or more) of fresh lime juice

2 cored jalapeño peppers, diced finely (you can use serrano peppers or pasilla peppers instead)

1/2 cup canned black beans, rinsed well

1/2 red bell pepper, cored and chopped finely

1/2 green bell pepper, cored and chopped finely

4 green onions, chopped finely (omit if you like less of an onion taste)

(You can also leave the jalapeno peppers out, or lessen the amount, if you are not a fan of any heat)

Mix well, and for best results, refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. If you feel it is too chunky and not enough liquid, you can add more lime juice or lemon juice, but the acid from those juices will start to break down the vegetables as well, so keep that in mind if you add more juice. If you want a smoother consistency, you can always add into a food processor. Add some to melted Velveeta cheese and make a delicious, fresh salsa con queso! It’s a great salsa if you’re looking for a fresh, tangy, delicious snack.

Salsa is a low fat, great option to satisfy your snack cravings, while keeping points low. This Weight Watchers salsa guide should help you to find the perfect buddy for your tortilla chips! You can also use salsa to top tacos, and I have a great chicken recipe that is great for taco night. See my Weight Watchers Fiesta Chicken Recipe here.

If you find new ways to incorporate salsa into your meal plans, or would like to let me know your thoughts on this article, please comment below or contact me here.

If you’re looking for other ways to keep your WW points low, please check out my other WW recipes here.

Thank you for reading about the Best Store Bought Salsa for Weight Watchers! Enjoy!