For those who have a tomato and pepper garden, here is a salsa recipe. Add extra cayenne or jalapeño pepper for a spicier salsa.
| Prep Time: | 1 hr |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs |
| Servings: | 80 |
| Yield: | 20 pints |
Ingredients
- 24 pounds tomatoes
- 1 (12 ounce) can tomato paste
- ½ bunch cilantro
- 16 jalapeno chile peppers
- 2 medium heads garlic
- 6 large green bell peppers, chopped
- 6 large onions, chopped
- 9 tablespoons salt
- 1 cup distilled white vinegar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup cornstarch
- ½ cup water
Instructions
- Core and peel the tomatoes. Remove the tomato seeds and pulp. Put seeds and pulp through a food mill. Chop the outsides of the tomatoes
- In a large pot over low heat, boil the milled liquid and tomato paste for 1 hour, or until the liquid is reduced by 1/3.
- In a blender or food processor, puree cilantro, jalapeno, garlic and 1/2 cup of the tomato liquid from the large pot. Slowly stir this mixture into the pot.
- Bring the contents of the pot to a boil while mixing in the green peppers, onions, chopped tomatoes, salt, vinegar and brown sugar. In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in water. Add the cornstarch mixture to the pot. Stirring continually, boil the mixture until all the vegetable are soft — about 30 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool, and place it in sterile containers.
Reviews
Ive been using this recipe for years, I use tomatoes and peppers from the garden, but i use adobo spice 2 tablespoons and a can of chipotle peppers. I make about 21/22 quarts a year
I’ve made this recipe a few times now, and it is delicious. Even my picky kids love it. I used salsa peppers instead to make it more pallet able for them.
I made this salsa and it has been a favorite of everyone that I shared it with. People are even recommending that I sell it.
I FOLLOWED THE recipe AND made some great tasting Salsa ,My question is ,when you make a large amount do you have to add any lemon juice I order to can it? I made a smaller batch with the reduction amounts in your program . I did three jars and did the water bath for 15 mins I had the salsa hot and did not cool it down .the jars sealed fine and I tasted one jar that I did not can and we ate the whole pint! let me know your thoughts as I want to do a full size recipe when all my tomatoes ripen,Thanks ,Dennis
I’ve been using this recipe for several years and it turns out well with a great flavor. I usually omit the cornstarch and the majority of the tomato paste (and we don’t miss either). However, the last time I made a batch, I decided to make a full batch and can it. If I do this again, I will DEFINITELY omit the sugar. The longer this sits, the sweeter it gets. The last jar I opened was too sweet for my tastes.
This is nowhere near hot enough fro me. I did seed the jalapeno, so that might be part of it. I’m going to add some red pepper flakes to get the heat up.This salsa doesn’t look as red as I would like it, with all the cilantro it just turned sort of brownish.
My family and I LOVE this recipe! I have made it for the last five or six years and have been told many times that this is the “Best Salsa ever”. I make it as listed but also add about 1/2 cup of diced fresh carrots for some added crunch and sweetness and some extra fresh cilantro. The only draw back of making this is that it does take ALL day. However, I pack it in hot canning jars and it keeps very well.
Ive tried a lot of salsa! But this one is my new favourite. I was afraid of dissapointment (since I have been quite a few times in the past) so I reduced the recipe quite a bit and now I’m dying to make more. Its perfectly balanced iny opinion unless your not a coriander and garlic person of course. I love both so I couldn’t help adding more 😉
Nice because it wasn’t as watery as other fresh salsas, but we like the chunky non-cooked versions better.
At a farmers market a while ago I got a PILE of tomatoes very cheap at the end of the season. I made this massive amount – froze more half in plastic freezer bags. My son loved it, and I used much of it in all kinds of Mexican recipes. I cut and pasted the recipe and put it under ‘Food’, one of my word files. When going through the ‘freezer’ somehow a bag of it was still around, and it was . . . five years old (embarrassing) because it was such a hit – out of curiosity I thawed it to see how it was . . . amazing, it was still pretty good. We are having our 25 anniversary in ten days I’ll be making this again, but probably with canned tomatoes!
I have a small to medium garden each year…just kills me to throw out the large amount of tomatoes that I have as I take down the garden. Last year tried homemade salsa for the first time with this recipe….Absolutely wonderful! I took out the seeds from the jalapenos….should have left about 1/3 in. (this depends on the size of the veggie too i think since the heat comes from the seeds and center) Be sure to wear gloves when handling the jalapenos… Made this again this year. Used my large roaster that I use during holidays…worked out well! Yielded 27 pint jars…Be sure you have all things cut and ready so that you can keep the string going. This year, I used seeds and core in half of the jalapenos…just a bit spicier/hotter…still not bad. Very good flavor! If you are a beginner, have all things prepared before cooking starts. You can peel and core toms ahead of time and freeze if necessary….I gave jars away to daycare families for xmas with goody bags….they all raved about this! Don’t think I need to look for another recipe since everyone seems to love this one!
I enjoyed this a lot. I scaled it WAYYY back to four servings because of what I had in the garden. Also, I did not process it–I could have eaten the whole amount in just one sitting. I did not find it to be too sweet, as other had mentioned. The directions confused me a little. Once I had everything in one pot, I just transferred it all into my food processor and gave it a few spins. Great smooth-ish texture and wonderful, fresh flavor. The only real changes I made we extra garlic and a squeeze of fresh lime.
This is a really great recipe. I’ve only made salsa a couple of times, and this one will be my go-to recipe from here on out. Just sweet enough, just tangy enough, and just spicy enough. My toddlers even enjoy it! What more can you ask for??
This salsa is the best. I cut the batch size down because I only had 9 lbs of tomatoes. The only changes I made were adding little more cilantro and leaving out the tomato paste. (I love cilantro and relized to late that I didn’t have the tomatoe paste) Otherwise I followed the recipe as stated. According to my husband, “It is the best salsa I have never had.” That is good enough for me. I will be making a whole batch to can this weekend. Thanks
I was really looking forward to making this recipe, but I must say we didn’t really enjoy it. Tasted like jarred salsa mixed with brown sugar. Hard to describe the taste.. just different. It was okay on/in things, but not by itself. It was very time consuming, not worth all of the work.
This was very very good. I did add juice from half a lemon, which made it a little better. I would have used lime, but I can’t get that where I live. Thanks for this recipe!
Sooo tasty! It seemed really spicy when I tasted it during cooking, but after canning, it’s extremely mild. I gave the veggies a quick whirl in the food processor, and it ended up with the taste and texture of the salsa/hot sauce served at Taco Time (a chain in western Washington). The salsa seems to be universally loved by kids.
First time making salsa and I LOVED this recipe! For me it was very time consuming but well worth the work. The only changes that I had, I felt that I didn’t have enough bell pepper so I added in some hot banana peppers. This is one of those foods that you can’t stop eating once you start! I will make this again.
I loved this combination of ingredients. The Cilantro is the key ingredient to making this fresh and authentic tasting Salsa. I prefer a less spicy Salsa and this is perfect! I changed the technique a bit. After I skinned my tomatoes I run through a blender to make the consistency of crushed tomatoes. I then followed the rest as directed. Now I have the perfect taste and consistency. I half the recipe and it makes about 10 pints.
Wow, sooo good! I used mostly Romas fresh from the garden. Only 1 head of garlic, 2 bunches cilantro, about 10 huge jalapenos, half w/ seeds, 3 T salt, which was plenty, no sugar and added juice of 2 limes. Everything else is right on and the texture is perfect and it’s pretty spicy the way I love it. Oh, and I did chop everything but 3/4 of the tomatoes in the food processor. Perfect!! My new favorite.
I halved this recipe and still got 15 jars of salsa. It is a great and simple recipe, albeit time consuming to peel, core and chop all those tomatoes, let alone the onion and pepppers! I made this recipe exactly as written and will make it again this way in future, but may add more chili, as per the author’s suggestion as I was worried about ending up with a too hot salsa. We have already made great salsa eggs for breakfast with this and served with sour cream and tortilla chips to our friends.