It’s our first post! It is for one of the best salsa recipe ideas we have. We’re so excited to get this blog up and going. I couldn’t help but start it as quickly as I could install WordPress. I’m Chris from Four Kids and a Chicken and this is our new blog. I own Dan330.com and was feeling a little squeezed out of my own site as we have about 60 contributors now. We also have about 2.5 million social media followers. That’s a lot of competition and people to keep track of! I wanted to start something fresh and new that was meant both as a resource for myself and family but was also a good journal for our kids someday. Honestly, I don’t even know where this blog is going. We don’t have ad networks yet. We don’t have sponsors. Heck, we don’t even have categories figured out. All I know is this will be the place we park our original content, all by its lonesome self. Welcome to FourKidsAndAChicken.com
Canning Salsa
This has been a very busy summer of canning, preserving, growing, harvesting, and homesteading. Canning salsa recipes are a wonderful way to preserve your garden for the winter. If you are new to my family and me, you should know this was our first year of trying to grow all of our red sauces for our family of 6 from our own suburban garden. We’re calling it suburban homesteading. It’s like homesteading but walking distance from a Target and a Walmart. So it’s basically like glamping for homesteaders. Now that you know a little bit about us, I am going to share one of my favorite things to make, small batch salsa.
Fresh From The Garden
Right now we are nearing the end of our season and have hundreds of jars of food stored up. We are finishing the season by demonstrating a quick similar to this spicy salsa recipe from Ball. You can see their full recipe for their Zesty Salsa here.
If you are interested in learning to can or want to expand your gardening and preserving, I researched and picked my favorite products and put them in affiliate links below. I highly recommend the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving at FreshPreserving.com
Small Batch Salsa
I’ll be honest, the absolute best salsa comes straight out of your garden during the summer. But if you live in the north, your garden is only producing for 2-3 months and this is just impossible. Thus the need for preserving your garden and enjoying the fresh food year round. This means you will be making a lot of salsa in small batches. Make sure you have fun with your different small batch canning salsa because there are a few things you can do to make each one unique and safe to eat. Just make sure you follow the canning practices in the book above. Most importantly, that it is bathed long enough and it is acidic enough.
The last batch of tomatoes we pulled from the garden was 28 pounds. When you preserve like we have, you quickly learn to adjust salsa recipes for the quantity of tomatoes you pick so you don’t waste any of your garden so mastering the small batch salsa techniques can really benefit you as you continue to garden.
Salsa Canning Recipe
A small batch salsa recipe designed for canning. You can adjust the peppers to make a spicy salsa recipe.
20 minPrep Time
15 minCook Time
35 minTotal Time
Yields 1 small batch
Ingredients
- 5 cups tomatoes ( I love San Marzano or other Heirloom)
- 2.5 cups chopped green bell peppers
- 2.5 cups chopped onions
- 1 to 2 cups chopped hot peppers
- 1/2 cup and 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar with the mother
- 1.5 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp cilantro
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice per can reserved for packing the salsa
Instructions
- Boil a large pot of water and sanitize clean jars for 10 minutes.
- Transfer jars to an oven at 250 degrees
- Place lids in simmering water. Do not boil! This will ruin the seal.
- In a large pot, combine all ingredients except the lemon juice and gently boil until slightly thickened. This will take about 10 minutes depending upon how much heat you use.
- Ladle the salsa into your jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
- Remove air bubbles, pour one tablespoon lemon juice into each can.
- Wipe Rim
- Center lid on jar and tighten to a finger tip tight. You must leave it so loose so that the air and steam from the water bath can escape and sanitize the jar.
- Water bathe for 15 minutes.
Notes
Read the blog at FourKidsAndAChicken.com for additional tips for canning small batch salsa.
Additional Small Batch Salsa Tips and Instructions
Start by reviewing the recipe and preparing your ingredients. Then sanitize and prepare all of your equipment and cans. We chopped our tomatoes and other vegetables and put them in two large stock pots if one is not quite big enough.
The recipe calls for bringing them to a boil for about 10 minutes stirring constantly. Pack your prepared jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Stir to remove bubbles, wipe the rims, center the lid and adjust band to fingertip tight.
I have an electric ph meter I use for checking the ph. I use this one: PH Tester PH-009 Digital pH Meter. When canning, we are always looking for a reading lower than 4.6. I tested this batch and it came to a 3.7. The recipe doesn’t call for it to be tested, but I have one, and I figured it didn’t hurt to just take a quick look. The acidity is very important to the safety of the salsa.
Because we pull all of the ingredients from our garden, each of the small batch canned salsa’s have different quantities. Simply adjust the salsa recipe for the quantity of tomatoes you have. This time, we adjusted the salsa recipe and ended up with 20 pints of salsa.
Our Thoughts On Canning Salsa
Here are our thoughts on this salsa recipe: While it does not compare to fresh out-of-the-garden shopped salsa, no canned or purchased salsa could. This recipe is as close to fresh out of the garden as we have ever been able to produce. The heat from the peppers as per the instructions is mild to slightly hot. Although it would depend on how spicy your peppers were and you could adjust this a little as well. We tried a can from last year just to compare it to our new batch and it still was very fresh tasting. We’re looking forward to a winter of enjoying our summer garden’s produce.
Other Recipes Like our Canned Salsa Recipe
This recipe is part of the Foraging Minnesota series.
If you like preserving and canning, take a look at these other recipes:
- Dill Pickle Recipe For Water Bath Canning
- Drying Herbs Fresh From The Garden
- Homemade Strawberry Jam Recipe
- Why We Made All Of Our Tomato Sauce From Our Garden
- Preserved Roasted Tomatoes
- Home Made Crabapple Jell
- How to make Maple Syrup
If you like homemade recipes or things from scratch, check these out: