Basic Tomato Salsa For Canning

Tomato salsa for canning in jars with produce

4.58 from 19 votes

This fresh garden salsa is easy to make and the perfect salsa for canning, particularly if you're new to cold pack canning for vegetables!

Yield: Approximately 7 (16 oz) pint jars

Prep Time6 30

Cook Time25

Total Time6 55

Course: Sauce

Cuisine: Mexican

Servings: servings

Calories: 10kcal

Author: Sarah | Curious Cuisiniere

Ingredients

9 lbs tomatoes
2 lg green peppers, diced (approx 2 cups diced)
2 med white onions, diced (approx 2 cups diced)
1 teaspoon salt
Hot pepper (of choice)*
⅓ c white vinegar
⅓ c apple cider vinegar
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon cumin
6 oz tomato paste

Instructions

Prepare the Veggies

Dice tomatoes and mix with diced peppers, onions and salt in a large strainer placed over a bowl. (This will pull the liquid from the tomatoes, helping to give you an end result that is not overly liquidy.)
Dice your hot peppers and add to the tomato mixture.* Let the vegetables strain on the counter for 6 hours. (You will want to check your mixture every so often to be sure your bottom bowl is not overflowing with juice. Keep the juice! We’ll be using it later.)

Preparing Your Salsa For Canning

About one hour before you want to start canning, bring your water bath canner to a boil and wash and sanitize your jars.
Mix the liquid that has been strained from the tomatoes in a large sauce pan with the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer 5 min.
Add the diced vegetables and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

Canning the Salsa

Carefully ladle the hot vegetables and liquid into the jars, leaving ¼" head space from the top of the rim. (Use a clean butter knife to move the contents of the jar around so that the liquid flows all the way to the bottom.)
Wipe the rims with a clean, damp towel. Place the lids and bands on the jars. Place jars in the canner, so that they are not touching, and process for 20 minutes. (Your processing time starts when the water returns to a boil after the jars have been added.) If necessary, process the jars in batches.
When the processing time is up, remove the jars from the water bath and let cool on a wire rack for 24 hours. Once the jars are cool, remove the bands and check the lids for a seal. If the lids are tight, return the bands to the jars (loosely) and store them for up to a year.

Notes

*The hot peppers and quantity you use depends on your family’s heat preference. We have made this recipe using ⅓ c diced jalapenos and we have made it using 1 ½ Caribbean hot peppers.

We find that while the jalapenos created quite a spicy salsa right off the bat, it mellows considerably by the next summer. So, if you plan to make your salsa last through the year, you might want to make it a bit spicier than you prefer to allow for the peppers to mellow. Tasting (with a clean spoon) is key when you are adding your peppers to the vegetable mixture; so that you find a heat level you are comfortable with.

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