In-Season Recipe Connection: Katie's Canned Salsa (2024)

My homemade canned salsa recipe has been a huge hit in our house. I figured out how to make my homemade salsa taste like the restaurant. I hope your family also enjoys my recipe for canned salsa.

Is it conceited if I say we’re kind of salsa connoisseurs around here? I suppose it’s not even that we have particularly trained palates, but more because of a deep love of spicy, Mexican foods that makes us qualified.

That and the massive quantity of salsa we consume.

On taco night, my husband polishes off half of a 16 oz. jar of “HOT” salsa all by himself. When my daughter was two she would eat it with her spoon if we told her she’d been cut off on tortillas chips.

My husband’s favorite restaurant, naturally, is a local Mexican bar: “…famous Mexican cafe. It’s the great taste of Mexico right in your neighborhood.” (Can you just hear the corny commercial jingle?) It’s not exactly in our neighborhood, but it’s worth the 20-minute drive. They have a wet burrito that enables you to skip looking at the menu altogether.

I tried two different homemade salsa recipes last summer, both directly from good friends. They were both yummy, but the one I want to share today received the husband review:

“It tastes just like it!”

Oh yes. He meant “the restaurant’s” salsa.

I think the trick might be the cumin. Use heaping teaspoons. Popping a few Anaheim peppers in the green pepper category won’t hurt either.

Why Can Salsa?

We didn’t like lacto-fermented salsa. If nobody eats it, it’s not healthy. My jars of lacto-fermented salsa last year were pretty much only used in…cooking. Ironic, I know. I killed all the probiotics in there anyway.

Plus, tomatoes, at least, are healthier when cooked because heat releases the lycopene. So I’m more than happy to preserve fresh produce in my canner when it’s salsa, of which we can never have too much. (If you’d like to know more about fermentation, HERE is a free download to get you started.)

Tired of Unhealthy Choices at Every Social Gathering…

…and tired of watching your kids eat junk?

I’m happy to be able to offer you this free ebook with:

• 10 whole foods recipes that won’t break your budget
• Well-tested appetizers, salads, and desserts that every guest will recognize and enjoy
• Practical strategies for sharing healthy food with others
• And the valuable secret to getting kids to eat real food in the face of a rich buffet spread…

Yes, Send Me The Real Food Party Recipes!

By canning my own salsa I can avoid:

• BPA in cans (although I’d usually buy salsa in glass jars…so I guess this only applies to canned tomatoes)
• Note: Did you know regular canning lids are lined with BPA-laden plastic? If you’re looking for an alternative, try Tattler reusable, BPA-free lids.
• most pesticides (my farmers aren’t 100% organic, but many use as few chemicals as possible)
• refined sugar (use sucanat or another unrefined sweetener, or none)
• table salt (use Celtic or Real Salt)

Tips for Canning Salsa:

• When you slice jalapenos, smart people should wear gloves. I know you’re wise like that. You probably won’t just “try” to not touch the seeds and then make this your mantra for the rest of the night: “Don’t touch your eyes. Don’t touch your eyes. Don’t touch your eyes.”
• On food processing for salsa: Make short layers instead of trying to pack it full. It’s easier to get larger pieces that way instead of mush. Also, use the pulse instead of just turning it on. The impact of gravity between each pulse also avoids mush. Do not drain the liquid off or add any thickeners, as that’s not safe for canning.
• Be sure to use fresh produce, washed, with no moldy spots.
• On adjusting recipes: I know you want to “make this your own,” but with canning recipes, you can only do so much. It’s important for food safety to have the proper ratio of acidic to non-acidic foods. The tomatoes are acidic, but the peppers, onions, and garlic are not. That’s why you must add the vinegar (no substitutions), and you can’t really mess with the amounts of peppers. You could, however, fiddle with green peppers and colored bells, or sub some of the jalapenos out for a milder pepper if you don’t like it so spicy. Just don’t be too generous with your helpings and overdo the amounts. That’s one thing I love about this recipe – it gives quantities in cups, rather than forcing me to scratch my head and wonder which onion is “small” and which green pepper fits the “medium” category. See this article on Modifying Canning Recipes and Food Safety for more details.
• On adjusting the heat: You can use seeds in part or all of your jalapenos. Seeds add heat; I leave them in about half the peppers. That’s for “hot” salsa! Also, you can seek out hot peppers with more stripes or “cracks” if you like spicy, as they naturally carry a zing.

Finally, without further rambling, I give you:

The Recipe: Mexican Restaurant Canned Salsa

Print This Recipe

Print

• Need a little help getting healthy food on the table every day? Real Plans takes the stress out of meal planning and puts the nourishing food BACK on your table. There’s a plan for every diet type, including GAPS, Paleo, AIP, Whole30, vegetarian and more! You remain totally in control: use your own recipes, accept theirs, and teach the system what your family likes…Check out how powerful it is here!

Salsa Canning Safety

I am still a little scared of canning, enough so that I left a question at this post about headspace in canning jars (for salsa, I think you should leave about 1/2-1 inch, in other words, fill until you reach the bottom of the jar band), and I think you should probably read the canning and food safety post as well.

The directions with this salsa recipe state: Process 35 minutes. I would recommend finding a board-approved salsa recipe online and using their processing times. For me, I’m going to process 35 minutes for pints and 40 for quarts and call it good, but I’m crazy like that.

That said, I continue to can salsa year after year and each time we fully enjoy the finished product!

Keep a dishcloth handy when you make salsa…

You could spend all day with a knife and cutting board to chop these many ingredients for a few jars of salsa, or you could form a new relationship with your food processor.

And lest you think I have it all together, please observe the aftermath:

Sigh. Maybe we should plan to go out for Mexican food after I can another double batch this weekend. I’m sure my husband would have no complaints!

My husband probably wouldn’t let me try this one, because it’s fruit with savory and he doesn’t go for that kind of thing, but Donielle’s cherry tomato salsa looks so intriguing!

Unless otherwise credited, photos are owned by the author or used with a license from Canva or Deposit Photos.