Green Tomato Salsa – Canning

Our area had an early frost – and no amount of covering was saving my tomato plants …sad face…..  In an attempt to save my tomato crop – I pulled all of them and made green tomato salsa.  I had ALOT of tomatoes so this canning recipe is for a large batch.

  • 42 cups of chopped or pureed green tomatoes (I used our food processor as I like a less chunky kind of salsa)
  • 5 tablespoons of minced garlic
  • 6 chopped onions
  • 6 chopped jalapenos – adjust this based on your heat tolerance
  • 2 1/2 cups lemon or lime juice
  • 2 cups chopped cilantro (this is a very polarizing ingredient – do not feel like you need to put it in)
  • 2 tablespoons cumin
  • 2 tablespoons pepper
  • 2 tablespoons oregano
  • 2 tablespoons salt
  • 19 quart jars

Here I am getting started on my food processor (I did add in some tomatoes that were slightly ripe)

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To give you some perspective on how much this is.

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and pull it back……

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Prep your water bath, jars and lids.  Simmer and don’t boil.

Combine and boil the tomatoes, onions, peppers, and garlic….once the mixture is boiling add in the lemon/lime juice and spices.

Reduce heat and simmer from 5 to 20 minutes.

Carefully ladle the salsa into the hot, prepped jars – add the lid and the screw on lid/band….don’t over tighten.

Place filled jars in the water bath and let boil for 20 minutes – depending on location.

Remove and allow to cool.  Check the lids before labeling and storing.  All lids should be down.

salsa

Yum!

 

Garden Tomato puree base for future meals

My garden is exploding in tomatoes…which I love…..I am just adjusting my plans with the tomatoes that are ripening as I go.  I have only had a handful ripe at one time, so I have been able to easily make meals and/or snacks with them.  This past week, I have had too many to work into our meals and not enough friends who like tomatoes (hello!).  Hopefully, towards the end of summer – my mom and I will be canning together….but now I am making a frozen tomato puree to use in future meals.

Like my hard water??

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  • 20 roma tomatoes
  • 6 heirloom tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon basil, oregano, thyme
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 chopped extra large onion or 1 small onion
  • 1 tablespoon garlic
  • salt/pepper

I used my blender to puree all the tomatoes with a cup of water and added that to a large pot…..um..that pic doesn’t have all of them.

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At this time, I started sauteing the onion with a dash of salt and pepper.  Just towards the end, I added in the garlic….being careful not to burn it.

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Then it all goes into the pot with the tomatoes.  Then add the rest of the spices and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes.

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I taste tested mine as I went to ensure that it was not overpowering on the spices and still maintained a strong tomato taste.  I want to use this as a base in future meals and since I have different options as to what those meals will be….I want to keep it loose.

After the mixture cooled, I poured it into some freezer bags and placed them in the freezer.

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All in all – I am happy with the result and will let you know what meals I end up using this for.

Right off the bat, I am thinking – spaghetti, barley soup, chili and chicken makhani.

Garden gone crazy

I was out of town for 3 days….barely….and my garden went and exploded on me….in a good way.  I had a few potted vegetable plants that were looking kind of sad and a raised garden full of seeds that hadn’t made an appearance yet.  The Memorial Weekend treated my plants very well……….

Kale:

DSCN1883Cilantro:

DSCN1879Sweet Mint (hello – for awesome Mojitos):

DSCN1881Peas:

DSCN1882And here is a preview of the final garden area that is getting added:

DSCN1884Sweet, right?!  Those are some left over gutters that we had and Dave set up a drip line.  So pumped.