Almost every fall my mom, aunt and I get together and make homemade tomato salsa. This was my 6th year of making salsa with my mom and aunt and this year my cousin joined in on the fun! The four of us worked for a good eight hours, chopping, mixing, pouring and canning and came away with 92 – 500 mL jars of fresh, homemade tomato salsa. This recipe is one that has been in my family for a while and comes from an index card, handwritten in my mom’s recipe box. 

There are a lot of ingredients to gather to start a batch of homemade tomato salsa. For this recipe I will provide the ingredients for one batch, yielding in about 10 jars of salsa. We did this batch nine times in order to yield our 92 jars – if you want more than 10 jars, duplicate the recipe for 20; triple it for 30, and so forth. 

We chopped up all of the vegetables to start. The tomatoes, peppers and onions were diced, while the garlic and jalapeno peppers we chopped up in smaller pieces. When making this large of a batch, this can seem labour intensive. However, if you are chatting away and having fun with family, the time flies by and the dicing and chopping seems like less work! 

Once everything is chopped, all of the vegetables and other ingredients go into a large soup pot. Stir well and bring to a boil. Once at a boil, let simmer for 10-15 minutes while continuing to stir. 

Ladle the hot salsa into sterilized jars, leaving about 3/4 inch from the top. 

Clean the tops of the jar off so the lid seals well; put the lids on and process in a canning bath for 25 minutes. Remove from the bath and let cool. Date your jars and store in a cool place. 

Enjoy fresh homemade tomato salsa on eggs, baked potatoes, with meat, on a taco or burrito, or as a dip with tortilla chips!!

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Homemade Tomato Salsa

Makes ~ 10 - 500 mL jars of fresh, homemade tomato salsa. Great for using as a dip with tortilla chips, with eggs, on a baked potato or on your taco/burrito!

Ingredients

• 30 Roma tomatoes diced
• 4 green peppers diced
• 6 medium onions. diced
• 4 garlic cloves minced
• 3 jalapeños minced
• 1- 425 mL jar of salsa I know, strange that salsa goes into salsa
• 4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 3 cans tomato paste
• 3/4 cup vinegar
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp pickling salt
• 1 tsp paprika

Instructions

1. Put all ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil while stirring. Once at a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
2. Add hot salsa to sterilized jars. Wipe the tops of the jars off to ensure the lid gets a clean seal.
3. Add jars to a canning bath and process for 25 minutes.
4. Let jars cool and store in a cool dark place. Enjoy with tortilla chips, on eggs, baked potatoes or anything you want, really!

What do you put salsa on? If you make preserves, do you make giant batches?!