If you have tomatoes to use up this time of year, this is an easy way to preserve them. Warning: my husband says once you eat this salsa, you'll never like store-bought salsa again.
And when tomatoes are cooked, their lycopene is better absorbed by our bodies!
It's Monday morning. I ended up making 32 quarts of salsa and canning 30 of them this past weekend. I made four varieties:
Mild
Mild with green tomatoes and zucchini
Medium-hot
Medium-hot without garlic and onions
I think I'm ready to open a roadside market! Just kidding, but salsa is fun to make.
(One of my kids can't have onions and garlic, so I made a special batch sans garlic and onions.)
There's something very satisfying about canning produce. I like the process, cleanliness, and organization it requires.
My grandparents owned a "motel/restaurant" during the Great Depression. In fact, it was one of the first hotels/restaurants in the Fort Wayne area. Anyway, they'd drive up to Michigan hauling a trailer with a temporary stove and canning supplies. Then they'd pick peaches and cherries and can them on location in order to be able to have peach and blueberry pies to sell year-'round. (They also grew large gardens and canned lots of food.)
Then my parents took food preservation to a whole new level of productivity.
Maybe that's why I like to can--it takes me back to my roots.
[Btw, this low-sodium salsa recipe has only 1.5 T of salt per batch (which is totally optional). For an entire batch, that’s only 15 mg of sodium per 2 T serving. . .as compared to 170 mg of sodium per 2 T serving in many store-bought salsas. I don’t know anyone who eats just 2 tablespoons of salsa at a time!]
Garden Fresh Salsa
Makes 6-7 quarts
2 gallon tomatoes
2 jalapeno peppers
2 red peppers, roasted
6 tomatillios, roasted (optional)
2 green peppers
2-3 serrano and/or habanero peppers (only if you like it hot)
(and if you like it super hot, add any variety of peppers you like!)
I bunch cilantro
2 onions
1 bulb garlic, crushed and diced
2-3 zucchini (optional)
2T cumin
1/2 T salt (optional)
1/2 T pepper
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup lemon or lime juice concentrate (do not use fresh lemons or limes)
Thoroughly wash all produce. Quarter the tomatoes and then chop them in a food processor for about 6 pulses. Drain the juice using a colander. (I save the juice for other recipes.) Chop everything else in the food processor too. Make sure to add other vegetables with the cilantro in the food processor; otherwise, it will stick to the sides of the canister. Then add everything together, including the vinegar, lemon or lime juice, and spices, into a large, heavy-bottom stock pot.
Turn on the heat. After it comes to a full boil, slow cook for 45 minutes, allowing it to cook down an inch or two. (Add a can of tomato paste near the end if you’d also like a sweet flavor; just make sure to mix it in thoroughly.)
Process 45 minutes (for quart jars) in a water bath canner.
Once you eat this, you may never like store bought salsa again!
Cheers!
Emily Boller, artist, mother, and author of Starved to Obesity, lost 100 pounds more than twelve years ago by eating an abundance of high-nutrient, plant-rich food. Today, she’s certified in whole plant food nutrition from the Nutritarian Education Institute. She’s on a mission to combine practical, no-nonsense and cost effective tips—with easy to understand science—in order to help anyone escape the addictive grip of the Standard American Diet.