Video
The Best Homemade Salsa for Canning
The BEST homemade salsa for canning. Have fresh tomatoes? Then you'll want to make this salsa, either hot or mild. It's so delicious and inexpensive to make!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 9 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes, they must be peeled first, see directions below or tutorial here
- 2 1/2 cups chopped green bell peppers
- 2 1/2 cups chopped white onion
- 4 medium jalapeños, chopped (see notes)
- 8 large cloves garlic, chopped
- 6 teaspoons canning salt
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 1 12-ounce can tomato paste
Instructions
Remove the skins from the tomatoes
- To do this, make an "X" in the bottom of the tomatoes, then place in boiling water for 60 seconds. Then, remove the tomatoes from the water and place directly into a bowl if iced water to shock. The skins should slip right off. (I use my spider to transfer the tomatoes from the boiling water to the ice water without getting splashed.)
Make the salsa
- Place all of the ingredients in a large pot (you will need a 10qt. saucepan for this batch, or split the ingredients among 2 saucepans) and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until thickened and cooked.
Prepare cans to be sealed
- Ladle the cooked salsa into clean, sterile jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe rims of jars with a damp, clean, paper towel, then place lids on top. To make filling easy, I highly recommend a funnel.
Process using a water bath
- To do this, bring a large saucepan filled with water to a boil. Your saucepan needs to be tall enough to have the water cover the jars by 2 inches- though the jars will displace some of the water as they are added.
Add the jars to the water bath and cover with a lid
- Process for 30 minutes, then remove. I use these canning tongs to make things easy.
Let the jars sit for 24 hours
- The salsa will remain good in the jar for up to 18 months… if you can keep yourself from eating it all before then!
Notes
You can make this salsa as spicy or hot as you'd like. For a hot salsa, I use 4 Serrano (or habanero peppers) with the seeds. For a milder salsa, seed 1-2 of the jalapeños before chopping. For very mild salsa, seed all of the jalapeños. Remember that the heat will lessen as the salsa sits, so I tend to error on being spicy then not. It's hard to correct spice level so if you don't like things spicy, then start with only 1 jalapeño and go from there.
However, note that you can decrease the amount of jalapeños but you cannot increase for pH balance. If you prefer a very hot salsa, then you'll want to sub in a hotter pepper for the jalapeños OR you can sub jalapeños for some of the green pepper.
Nutrition
Serving: 2tablespoonsCalories: 23kcalCarbohydrates: 5.2gProtein: 1.1gFat: 0.2gSaturated Fat: 0gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0gMonounsaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 161mgFiber: 1.2gSugar: 0gCalcium: 10.6mgIron: 0.7mg