Mom's Homemade Canned Salsa

I managed to convince my mom to let me share her Salsa Recipe!! If you love a chunky and tangy Salsa than this recipe is for you. This was my first time ever making it so I enlisted the help of both my Mom and Grandma! We had a great girly day slaving in the kitchen haha! We decided to get up early and hit the local farmers market to get all of the veggies we needed. I was shocked at how cheap I was able to get everything! In total I spent $42.00 to make this batch of Salsa! Now that may not seem cheap to some of you but here is an approx break down of my costs!

14 Half Quart Jars ($7.00)
Labels ($4.00)
Sugar ($3.00)
Pickling Salt ($3.00)
Cider Vinegar ($2.00)
All Veggies ($23.00)
TOTAL: $42.00

So when you really look at the cost, the top 5 items are things that I wouldn't necessarily need to go out and buy every time I made this recipe. I also didn't need to get the labels but I wanted my jars to look pretty...I know lame lol. I now own 14 jars, so if I clean and store them properly once they are empty I can use them for next years batch. So over all to make this next year it will only cost me about $23.00! I think that's an amazing cost, considering you would pay in store for this many jars of salsa! I know I usually pay about $4.00 or more for a jar each time I buy one, so 14 jars x $4.00 = $56.00!! Now I love Salsa like a crazy person so having this much on hand is WONDERFUL!

Ok I'm done rambling about how awesome canning is lol

Mom's Homemade Canned Salsa
Makes 3.5 quarts (I doubled mine to get 7 quarts and used 1/2 quart jars)

Per 1/2 Quart (Approx) Calories: 197 | Carbs: 44g | Fat: 1g |Protein: 14g | Sodium: 55mg | Sugar: 25g

8 Cups chopped Roma Tomatoes
4 Cups chopped Yellow Peppers
2 Cups chopped Onion
1 Cup chopped Red or Green Peppers
2 Cups chopped Zucchini
3 Jalapenos or Chili Peppers chopped (seed removed!)
3 TBSP Sugar
2 Cups Cider Vinegar
1 TBSP Pickling Salt
2 TSP Paprika
1 TSP Oregano
1 CUP Tomato Paste

Tools:
1 Large Pot
1 Large Bowl
1 Canning Pot (Or any giant pot will do, especially if your doubling this)
Canning Funnel (if you have one on hand)
Half Quart Jars (14 if doubled)

Notes: We used Roma Tomatoes because they are "meatier" than regular ones and are great for a chunky Salsa. The sugar you can leave out if you would like, my mom has done it both ways and either one turns out great, I did use sugar in mine since it was my first time making it and I like to stick to the recipe. If you have a food processor the chopping time is way faster! There were 3 of us doing it and all the prep took about 40 minutes which will be explained below!

STEP 1: Place a large pot on the stove about 1/2 full of water and bring water to a boil. Fill a large boil with cold water next to the stove. Drop 4-6 tomatoes into the boiling water. (This step is to help with the peeling of the tomatoes) Only leave the tomatoes in for a few minutes, just enough that when you touch the tip of a knife to them the skin peels back. Take tomatoes out and place them into the bowl of ice water.  Peel tomatoes and chop them into quarters and place them into the canning pot. repeat this step until you have your 8 cups of tomatoes. (Since I doubled mine I ended up using 50 tomatoes!!!)

STEP 2: Chop and measure all of your vegetables. Once you have done this you can place them into the canning pot as well! Larger chunks will allow for a chunkier salsa and smaller chucks a not so chunky salsa LOL :)

I wanted to sneak a pic of just the tomatoes but Mom and Grandma were
flying through the chopping and dumping things in on me! LOL!



STEP 3: Place your giant pot of veggies onto the stove and set to medium heat. Add in all other ingredients and stir!

STEP 4: Now that you have everything in the pot and on the stove cover and let it simmer for 2 hours! Be sure to keep a close eye on it and adjust the temperature accordingly if it begins to stick or burn. I was sure to stir mine every 15-20 minutes just to be sure. Pour yourself a cup of coffee or wine if you would like :) and wait it out!

STEP 5: You will want to sterilise your jars! We started this process about 20 minutes before our 2 hours of simmering was up. The easiest thing to do is fill a clean sink with boiling water and place your jars and lids into the sink and let them sit. Some people fill another large pot with water and bring it to a boil, but I didn't have another pot on hand. While your jars are sterilising you can take a taste of your salsa and see if you would like to add anymore spices. I added a little bit of Cayenne pepper to get some heat. (Next time I may leave some of the seeds in the jalapenos for some added heat)

STEP 6: You will notice some slimy gunk coming to the top of your simmering salsa. This is basically the impurities coming out of your veggies. You will want to skim this off of the top of the Salsa as best you can and toss it away. If something is going to cause it to spoil while sitting in your pantry...this is it. Of course getting it all off isn't always possible but do your best.

STEP 7: It's been just over 2 hours of simmering and its time to get canning! Pull your jars out from the hot water using tongs! Place the jars on a cookie sheet or lasagna pan (to avoid a mess on your counter!) If you have a canning funnel on hand place it inside of on of the jars and start scooping your salsa in! You jars will be hot so please be careful! Fill each jar right to the very top, leaving very little space! Repeat this step until all your jars are filled.

My Mom was nice and brought her canning funnel, which helped so much!

STEP 8: Place the lids on each jar. Make sure that there isn't any juice of seeds on the rims of your jars. This will prevent them from sealing properly and is another thing that will cause your Salsa to spoil on the shelf. Place the lid on the jar and tighten! You don't need to tighten them so much that you can't get the lid off come dinner time, but make sure its on there good! Place you jars on towel on the cupboard to let them cool. As they are cooling you will here them "pop" this is just them sealing themselves, and is a good thing!

You did it! Congratulations on your giant batch of Salsa! Once they have cooled you can label them if you would like. I bought  dissolvable labels so that the jars are easy to clean off for next year!

ENJOY!

*EDIT* If your jars all seal properly and you place them on your pantry shelf, they should last up to 2 years or more. My mom was using up the last of her 2 year old batch not to long ago. There is always a risk of it spoiling just like anything with canning. But if you do everything I said above you will lower that risk so much. My mom has never had a jar spoil on her! Once you have opened a jar and put it in the fridge, it will last at least a month or more. I eat mine far to quickly for it to ever spoil so this is very approximate!