SALSA!!

We grow tomatoes.  My family really doesn’t like tomatoes, but they like salsa.  My parents grow tomatoes too…and they have about 7 plants!  Thankfully, they are generous and share their tomatoes with us so we can make the SALSA!!  This salsa recipe calls for 20 cups of diced tomatoes, so you might just wanna make a half a batch. This is my mother in laws recipe and it’s the BEST!!   Scroll down for complete recipe…

Start by peeling your tomatoes.  We’ve found the easiest way is to blanch (put them in boiling water for a few minutes) the tomatoes and the peeling comes right off.

It helps if you have a nice guy that cuts up the tomatoes for you!  Make sure you wear a shirt that you don’t mind getting tomato splatter on…dark green was a good choice!

Next, I divided the 20 cups of tomatoes into 2 large pots.  Dice the onions and peppers and add half to each pot.  As you can see, it’s not considered cheating if you buy the pre-diced veggies!  By the way, those are 3 Anaheim peppers that I used too…dice them up nice and fine.

Here’s what it looks like when you add all of the veggies, green chiles,vinegar and spices together… beautiful colors!

Before the salsa really starts cooking, reserve 2 cups of the salsa in a large bowl, and add the cornstarch and tomato paste. This will be a thickening agent for the salsa.  Yes, I’m a messy cook!

Add the reserved mixture back into the pot and cook for 20 minutes.  It will look like this.  Notice the change in color…

Next, you’ll want to pour the salsa into canning jars.  We used pint jars AND quart jars.  You might want to use a funnel so salsa doesn’t pour onto the jar rims- preventing them from sealing properly.  Make sure you leave a good half inch at the top before putting the lid and ring on the jar.  (This recipe made 5 quart jars plus 7 pint jars.)

At this point I went to my parents house to actually “can” the salsa due to the fact that the aluminum canner will not work on my induction stove.

I filled the “canner” with water (about half way) and then set the salsa jars inside the metal rack and then made sure that the water was at least an inch above the top of the jar…

Put the canner lid on and wait until it boils.  Water should boil for 20 minutes, then you can take the jars out. (I used special canning tongs to take the jars out.)  I set the jars on a towel to cool on top of the counter and let them sit there for 24 hours.  You should hear the jars “popping” when they sit for a minute…that should be music to your ears…they’re sealing!!

After 24 hours you can move them to a storage area.  When you open a jar, it will be good for several weeks in the fridge!!

Here’s the recipe in full-