Homemade Canned Salsa

 

This  year our garden is overrunning  with tomatoes. Last year we did not get hardly any tomatoes at all.This  year has definitely made up for it though. We like tomatoes as much as the next guy,but you can only eat so many tomato sandwiches before  it looses its appeal.This year I made a mental note to home  can as much food as possible. We have cold,long winters here in Pennnsylvania and having a pantry full  of yummy food is really important to me. I hate driving in snow and would much rather hibernate in my house with my  kids and not  venture out the the store. So with  the abundance of tomatoes we are blessed with this year , I am canning salsa, tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce. My crew here goes through salsa very fast around  here. We eat it with tortilla chips, add it to cream cheese for an awesome chicken enchilada base, added to  black  beans and chicken broth for black bean soup, and baked on top of chicken or pork for an easy weeknight  meal. The tomato sauce I use as a base for tomato based soups (green pepper soup,  hamburger soup etc) and the spaghetti sauce is for rigatoni,lasagnas and quick pasta dishes.I just add ground beef, turkey or sausage and simmer.

This recipe for canned salsa is very easy. I think the only tedious part is chopping all of the vegetables. but once that is done, it comes together quickly.I use the hot water bath method on all of my tomato based canning.My nana always made her canned tomatoes that way, and I am carrying on the tradition. I doubled  this recipe and came away with 12 pints of salsa. Stay tuned for pictures and recipes for other canned food.

*note -you can adjust the amount of hot peppers to make your salsa as hot or mild as you  like.I made one batch as written and the second batch with less peppers, for my younger boys.

Ingredients

• 10 cups roughly chopped tomatoes
• 5 cups chopped and seeded bell peppers
• 5 cups chopped onions
• 2 cups hot peppers, chopped, seeded (more or less to your taste)
• 1 1/4 cups cider vinegar(you could use white distilled vinegar)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons cilantro, minced
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 1 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients except tomato paste in large sauce pot.
2. Simmer until desired thickness.
3. Stir in tomato paste.
4. Ladle hot salsa into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head-space.
5. Process 25 minutes in a hot water bath.