House Salsa
August 19, 2010 | Print | E-mail | Filed under canning, tigresscanjam, tomatoes
This month’s Tigress’ Can Jam challenge was tomatoes, which made me a little nervous. I decided to make tomato sauce – that had to be simple, right? – but when I opened up my trusty Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving to the page on tomato sauce, what I saw was a few pages of guidelines instead of a recipe. Ever since my pepper and onion sauce fail, I’m always worried about not adding enough acid when preserving vegetables, so I like to have a recipe I can stick to to make sure I get the proportions right. After frantically flipping through the book for a little while, I finally landed on one of the first recipes in the book: simple house salsa. Though I do like salsa, I really just thought it would be fun to invent my very own house salsa! I halved the original recipe because I only had 5 cups worth of tomatoes. Give it a try, and tweak it a bit to make it your own!
- 3/4 cups chopped onions
- 1/2 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 5 cups coarsely chopped tomatoes
- 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley
- 1/2 Tbsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 Tbsp hot sauce
In a large sauce pan, combine the onions, garlic, and vinegar. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat and boil gently for 2 minutes. Then, stir in the tomatoes and peppers. Return to a boil and cook 3 minutes before adding in the spices, salt, sugar, and hot sauce. Reduce the heat and boil gently until the tomatoes and peppers are tender. Remove from the heat.
Prepare your canning supplies. Sterilize the canning jars by running them in almost boiling water for several minutes. Boil a few cups of water in a small saucepan for the lids.
Pack the salsa into the hot jars, leaving 1/2″ headspace at the top of the jar. Place jars in the canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes. Remove the canner lid and wait 5 minutes before removing the jars. Makes 3-4 eight-ounce jars.
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August 19th, 2010 at 10:06 am
Yes! I am always look for new salsa recipes. I get bored really easily and never do the same thing twice. I am going to try!
August 19th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Beautifully made! Salsa is one of the best things in life!!!! – especially made with FRESH ingredients!
August 19th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Pass the tortilla chips because the flavors in this salsa ROCK!
August 19th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Yum! Homemade salsa is on my canning list this year, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. Yours looks spectacular… Fantastic job!
August 19th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Oooo cinnamon in your salsa? That sounds interesting!
I’m always nervous about altering recipes when canning. Like I’ll mess up the acid ratio or something and it won’t be safe. How do you know what to do? Tell me your secrets so I can make up a peach salsa recipe!
August 20th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Mmmm! Looks fabulous!
August 20th, 2010 at 10:02 am
Homemade salsa is the best!
August 20th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
It always looks like you have so many tomatoes until you skin and see and then you find out you don’t have enough for a full recipe!
August 20th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
You have managed to make salsa look so pretty – LOVE the colors
August 20th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
What a pretty picture! I make homemade salsa often…love it!
BUT I am terrified of attempting to can…I need to spend a day with someone who knows what they are doing and learn lol…maybe they have a clinic somewhere for that…I am going to put it on my 2011 to-do list! Thanks for the inspiration!
August 20th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Christine – I do exactly what I talked about in my post – I pick a tried and true recipe and then make my modifications from there. I try to keep the proportions the same for the vinegar and the main vegetable(s) being canned, but I experiment with spices and other add-ins. I’d recommend starting with a recipe in the Ball book; I think it’s one of the best canning resources out there. Good luck!
August 20th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
I love salsa. Thanks for sharing your recipe. It sounds delicous:) You are inspiring me to do some canning…..hmm..maybe now that the weather is cooling a bit:)
August 20th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
I crave chips and salsa on a daily basis…pathetic, right? I would love to enjoy some chips with this delicious salsa!
August 20th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Homemade salsa?!? You are my hero!
And cinnamon? I would love to try that!
August 21st, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Thanks for the reply, Tracy. I don’t have the Ball book, but I do own one canning book and have three different ones from my library that I feel like are mine because I borrow them over and over all year long! LOL! Thanks for the advice! I’ll let you know how I do tweaking my own recipe out of a basic tried and true one!
August 22nd, 2010 at 12:40 am
Time for some chips and salsa!!
August 22nd, 2010 at 10:21 am
i love love homemade salsa! Honestly I don’t think u understand how much I love it
I could eat it my the jar until it is all gone!
August 22nd, 2010 at 11:30 am
Ooh I love fresh salsa! Not sure mine would make it to the canning process, as I’d eat it too quickly!
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:52 pm
So pretty! And cinnamon? Genius! Pass the chips, please!
August 25th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
What a fun mixture of spices! This sounds as though it’s going to be your house salsa for a long time to come.
August 31st, 2010 at 1:10 pm
I’m the founder/moderator for Punk Domestics (www.punkdomestics.com), a community site for those of use obsessed with, er, interested in DIY food. It’s sort of like Tastespotting, but specific to the niche. I’d love for you to submit this to the site. Good stuff!