by We love Mexican food and this week, we’ve already been immersed in the stuff! I made Taco Soup and cornbread for supper Monday, canned salsa yesterday, and today (besides canning stewed tomatoes) I’ve been working on a triple batch of beef enchiladas…time consuming but oh so worth it! Wanted to share my salsa recipe with you…I’d someday like to find one with lime juice as the acid base…but we’re perfectly thrilled with this one so why bother, right?
Mary’s Mild Salsa–makes 10 pints
- 22 tomatoes (I put in more if they’re on the small side)
- 4 bell peppers, chopped fine
- 3 onions, chopped fine
- 1 cup vinegar
- 3/4 cup jalapeno peppers, chopped fine (confession, I use 4 small jalapenos–we like it really mild! so add peppers to your taste)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1 cup (12 oz) tomato paste (this thickens your salsa nicely!)
- Cilantro to taste (fresh is best!)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
After getting skin off tomatoes (dip in boiling water 20 seconds, then into cold–skin falls off), you could put 2/3 of them in blender and blend, and then chop the rest of them, depending on how chunky you like your finished product. We like it chunky so I usually just chop the whole batch and skip the blender. After chopping/blending, put all ingredients into pot, bring to a boil and then simmer for 25 minutes. Water bathe pints for 10 minutes, quarts, 20.
In years past I have omitted the tomato paste from my salsa and the result is a really runny salsa. Yes, it feels kind of like a cheat to add a can of tomato paste to home-canned salsa, but it really doesn’t take away from the taste, and results in a great consistency w/o hours and hours of stirring and boiling away your salsa to the right thickness. I’ve even done batches with 50% paste tomatoes, and still need to thicken it up. We like the Contadina brand tomato paste, it contains no high fructose corn syrup.
I’ll have to post the Taco Soup recipe sometime…it has taco seasoning mix, ranch dressing mix, corn, ranch-style beans…great, now I’m wishing I’d doubled that recipe!
I’m swimming in homemade canned salsa right now. My mother-in-law is making some every week.
I line my shady windowsills with all my canned goods…it looks pretty, and doesn’t rob my cupboard space! Plus, my kitchen is as country as it gets, so they fit right in!
I LOVE salsa! I don’t put vinegar in mine….well, I do, but not straight. I use Italian dressing (like Wishbone). That is my secret “base” to my salsas (guess it’s not a secret anymore, LOL). And then I also take my tomatoes and roast them like crazy, burn them good. Same with the peppers. Then I throw all that in the VitaMix and voila – killer salsa. I put onions, salt, pepper, garlic and other stuff in there too. YUM!
MMM! Thanks for sharing that…the roasting part sounds like a great way to add rich taste! And I love Italian dressing, cook with it all the time…
Thanks for stopping by! I love your blog btw!
Is that enough acid to keep it safely canned?? If it is then yummmm does that sounds good. Thanks!
Hi Dave, are you asking about my recipe for salsa or Gena’s? I’ve been canning mine this way for years, as has my aunt-in-law and it’s never caused any problems!
Thanks for stopping by! Funny, according to my blog stats, this Home-canned Salsa post gets a huge amount of traffic! Must be that time of year…
yeah I bet it is! Tomatoes are flowing like water right now hehe.. my garden is like a red and green jungle!
Nice recipe. I tried it with extra cilantro and its great. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome! We like the extra cilantro a lot!
This turned out really well for me! I did add a tsp of cumin to my halved recipe. Took this to our Bible Study and it was a hit with my friends. Going to can another big batch today to save for gifts for Christmas.
Mary, I made this recipe first time this year — loved it and have shared much. I did use lime juice in place of vinegar — it tasted great, but used less salt – hope it’s safe? Q – can I pack vegies raw and then process? I am thinking there would be more of a ‘fresh’ taste? Fresh basil is also good addition. Thanks!
Mary, can I substitute lime juice, same amt., instead of vinegar? Also, my sauce is so thin — delicious(!) but thin — is that why people use tom. sauce? Or am I doing something wrong in processing?Thanks!!
Debbie and Mandy, I’m SO glad you guys love the salsa! Thanks bunches for letting me know!
Julie, I’ve always wanted to try the lime juice switch in this, but haven’t got any idea if it would can safely? Wish I was more help…and yes…it is thin unless you use paste tomatoes…otherwise, you have to add the tomato paste. This year I had no access to paste tomatoes (I’m going to plant some in next year’s garden!!) so I added the tomato paste, and the salsa was the perfect thickness. Not your fault at all! If it makes you feel better…when I realized my salsa wasn’t thickening up in cooking, I left it on the stove with my daughter watching, and drove the 6 miles to town for tomato paste, lol! It was worth it! Hey, if you find out the answer to the lime juice Q, could you come back here and let me know? Thanks!! I’m super careful when it comes to canning…a friend of mine is going to have to boil ALL her canned tomato products 15 minutes before using them because she didn’t water-bathe them long enough in her canner. Can you imagine? All that work…
Happy Canning, everyone!
I can alot of tomatoes and tomato juice each year and I use lemon juice to increase the acid so I don’t see any rason
you couln’t use lime juice.
You could always trie powdered tomato’s vs paste… will help thicken it right up..I’ve tried vingar recipts lemon juice recipts and citric acid recipts husband hates them all… so am going to try this one.. from Nevada ourselfs so we are very very very picking about our salsa.s.
Amber, hope you like how the salsa turns out! Thanks for the tip on powdered tomatoes…I haven’t heard of such a thing!
marys salsa recipe / on the jalopeno peppers do you remove seeds? and about how many cups of onions should you use?
Hi Lori,
Yes, remove the seeds, and for one recipe, I use 3 med-large onions, so whatever the equivalent in cups that would be? I sometimes put in more, this recipe is really forgiving, so if your family preference is more or less onion, you can play around with amounts!
Hope this helps!
Mary