Making Salsa!!

-


I’ve mentioned in a few blog posts that I did not plant a garden this year. I’ve been very blessed by the neighbor down the road who has shared the bounty of his garden with us. He’s given us green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, and as of Sunday, tomatoes! He gave us a huge amount! Said he and his wife had canned lots of salsa and tomato juice and did not want to see them go to waste. I told him I’d make salsa from them!! And then he went out and picked green peppers and jalapenos while we were there as well. I came home and weighed what I had.. 40lbs of tomatoes!



Yesterday while grocery shopping I picked up all the rest of the needed items to make salsa. This morning I got at it and gathered it altogether to make a double batch of my salsa recipe…



I began by coring and putting my tomatoes through my food processor. I do not peel them. It is an added step that to me is unnecessary. I’ve done it this way for years now, and never had a problem with using unpeeled tomatoes…



I put the chopped/pureed tomatoes into my big 14qt stock pot and then proceeded to do the same thing with all the other ingredients.. the onions, hot peppers (make sure to wear gloves for the hot peppers!!!), green peppers, garlic, and cilantro. I put everything into my big stock pot..


And then added the vinegar and spices and heated up and let is simmer for about an hour. The recipe calls for 40 minutes. A lot of the tomatoes were very juicy so I let it simmer for a little longer than called for…



Then I added the tomato paste and let it simmer for another 20 minutes. Watch this carefully as it can easily scorch during this time. Stir it often.


While it was simmering I washed my jars and got out my rings and put them in water to heat up…   Then it was time to put in the jars.. put a lid & ring on and put them in the canner…







You use a boiling water bath for this recipe. I canned each batch for 15 minutes. I had 4 batches to do as only about 8 or 9 jars will fit in the canner at one time. In the end I had 30 pints of salsa along with a little leftover that I put in a bowl and my kids devoured it as they were coming home from work.



The recipe originally came from my friend Leah Hillman. I don’t add the sugar as we don’t care for sweet salsa. Also the heat of this salsa is determined by how many seeds you choose to include with your hot peppers. I took the seeds out of half the jalapenos and left them in for the other half. I used habanero peppers (which are very hot!!) too.. I added 4 to the whole batch. My salsa is quite spicy/hot.. but that is how we like it.. :)


Homemade Salsa for Canning

10 lbs tomatoes, chopped
6 medium onions, chopped
3 cups bell peppers (any kind), chopped
12 jalapeno peppers, chopped and seeded
5 chili peppers, chopped and seeded (this will make it spicy or milder, depending on the peppers you choose)
10 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 1/3 cups white vinegar
1/4 cup salt
2 tsp pepper
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp cumin
2 tbsp lime juice
3 cans tomato paste (the bigger cans, not the tiny ones)

Combine all ingredients except tomato paste in a large stock pot. Simmer approximately 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tomato paste and mix well. Simmer another 20 minutes or so. At this point, I take out about half of the salsa, blend it smooth in the blender and then return it to the pot, but you can leave it chunky if you prefer. Ladle into hot jars leaving 1/4" headspace. Cap and process 15 minutes in a water bath canner. Remove jars and let cool.

This recipe makes approximately 15 pints.

The original recipe also called for 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar, so if you like your salsa sweeter, add this in.

Thank you Leah for sharing this!!


 
 

Comments

  1. HeatherD76September 17, 2014 at 7:59 AM

    I am going to try out this salsa. My hubby eats salsa like crazy and I hate buying the stuff at the store. I have pretty much everything growing in my garden.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Melissa M.September 18, 2014 at 6:38 AM

    I pinned this and this may very we'll be the first thing I ever try to can! Than you for the detailed instructions!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All messages are moderated. After approval your message will be posted. Thank you for your comments!! Crystal :)

Popular posts from this blog

Canning Chicken Noodle-less Soup

-
Image
Today was one of those busy days that it seemed I was moving from the time my feet hit the floor until this evening.. But, I got so much done and that is a great feeling! :) One of my accomplishments today was canning 14 jars of chicken noodle-less soup. I call it “noodle-less” because you can’t can noodles. They end up falling apart. So I canned the chicken, veggies and broth. When I go to use the soup I will bring it to a boil and then add a handful of noodles (any type of pasta will work) and cook it until the noodles are done. Because I plan to add the pasta after the fact I wanted to make sure there was enough chicken broth to do this. So I only filled my jars about half to two thirds with chicken and veggies and then filled with chicken broth. Here is how I did this…. I started off with 2 chickens that were a total weight of about 10lbs. I put them in my 14 quart stock pot… I then added 2 gallons of water.. And 3 tablespoons salt.. I brought this ...
Read more

Canning Cabbage

-
Image
I had 4 large heads of cabbage that weighted about 25 pounds. We had some really hot days and I figured I better get the last of them picked soon. My daughter Sierra and I ended up processing 3 of them yesterday and I have one left for a meal on my menu this week. I made pickled cabbage and then canned up the last of the cabbage. Here is the recipe for the pickled cabbage (according to how I made it)… 8 pounds cabbage 1 large onion 1 ½ red peppers 1 lb carrots ¾ cup salt 9 cups water 12 cups white vinegar 10 cups sugar 1t mustard seed 1t celery seed Slice cabbage thinly. Slice onion and peppers. Grate carrots. Mix all veggies together in a very large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix in well. Let sit for 2 hours to soften veggies. Rinse veggies well.  In a large stock pot (mine was 14 quarts) combine water, vinegar, sugar, spices. Bring to a boil. Add cabbage/veggies. Bring to a boil. Fill hot pint jars with veggies using a slotted spoon. Fill jar with brine...
Read more

Canning Beef Stew

-
Image
In my last blog post I shared that I had bought 10 pounds of beef roast. I cut it all up and used 4 pounds in 2 crockpot freezer meals ( http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/two-more-crockpot-meals-for-freezer.html ) . I used the other 6 pounds of meat along with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery to can beef stew. Here were the general proportions I used in canning 7 quarts of beef stew.. 6# beef 2# potatoes 2# carrots 1# onions 1# celery After I cut up the meat and got the freezer meals done I moved to the beef stew. I peeled and cut up the potatoes and carrots. I chopped up the onions and sliced the celery. I pulled out 3 quarts of veggie stock from my freezer to use for liquid in the stew. You can use beef or chicken stock or you can use water. I did not add anything to thicken the liquid as usually thickeners don’t hold up in canning. You can thicken the broth after it is opened if you would like. I added 1 teaspoon salt to each of my ...
Read more