Canning Tomatillo Salsa

Adapted just slightly from Mountain Feed & Farm Supply

Spicy, tangy, vibrant green salsa verde loaded with tomatillos and saved in jars to preserve the bright beautiful taste of summer. Tomatillos are not only tasty, they help improve digestion, fend off cancer, boost your immune system, improve your vision and can help lose weight.

This salsa is going to serve as a glimmer of hope for me this winter. I’m actually looking forward to some midwinter enchiladas doused with this vibrant green sauce to remind me that summer really does exist. Sometimes in the midst of winter, I wonder if all the green of my forest and colors of flowers and the fabulous garden deliciousness was all a dream. I always need something to reassure me that winter WILL end and the trees will grow and there will be all the sweet scents and colors of flowers and butterflies and pretty birds. In the middle of winter, this all seems like a beautiful dream while the snow and white and grey skies seem to go on forever …

Oh, but we are not there yet! There are still many lovely days to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors before winter sets up on us. Although some of my trees are started to shed their leaves, I’m still reveling in all the goodness that the harvest brings … my parents have a huge garden and they always always have way more food than they can handle. This year my dad’s tomatillo plant grew into a giant bush! It was taller than me and just as wide and absolutely covered with berries. (Yes, tomatillos are technically berries … a relative of the gooseberry, actually.) So when my mom and dad asked me what I wanted from the garden, my dad REALLY wanted to share some of his tomatillos. I came home with a box full of tomatillos and dad said I should make some tomatillo salsa.

Tomatillos are both tart and sweet so they really are perfect for salsa, although there are loads of other uses for them. Still, I am pretty sure the #1 thing people make with tomatillos is salsa verde. Who am I to argue with that? I had so many tomatillos in my box that if I made a refrigerated salsa (like I usually do), there’s no way I could eat it all before it went bad. So it was time to pull out my canning supplies! Mason jars, lids, rings, a jar grabber and a large pot for the boiling water bath. I do have an actually canning pot, but it doesn’t work with my flat stove top, so I just use a big tall soup pot for the hot water baths and it works just fine. The jars rattle around a little as they “cook”, but it gets the job done.

I looked about for a recipe because I know better than to go canning just any old salsa recipe and I decided on this one from Mountain Feed & Farm Supply. Unless you have a pressure canner, you must be careful that the acidity is high enough to preserve the salsa. Because I didn’t have quite enough tomatillos for the full recipe, I added some green Aunt Ruby tomatoes that I know are not acidic enough on their own for canning, so I took double safety precautions and added both lime juice and citric acid.

Canned Tomatillo Salsa

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: About 4 pints or 8 half pints of salsa 1x

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 6 lb. tomatillos (or a mix of tomatillos & tomatoes, mostly tomatillos), husks removed
• 1 medium onion (about 1 cup, chopped)
• 4 – 6 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 2 teaspoons canning salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons citric acid
• Mixed hot peppers, to taste (I used serrano, jalapenos and carrot peppers)
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

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Instructions

1. Put a bunch of the tomatillos in a handi chopper or food processor and pulse to chop. Pour into a soup pot or large saucepan. Repeat until all the tomatillos are chopped, then chop the onion and garlic into small bits.
2. Heat the soup pot over medium (or medium high) heat. Add the lime juice, cumin, canning salt, citric acid and hot peppers and stir. Taste and add hot peppers to the desired heat. Bring to boiling, then reduce heat to a bubbly simmer and cook for about 20 minutes or until reduced by 1/3. Stir in the cilantro.
3. While the salsa is cooking, sterilize the jars and lids in the hot cycle of the dishwasher or in boiling water. You will need about 4 pint jars or 8 half pint jars. Fill a water bath canner or tall soup pot 2/3 of the way with water and bring to a boil for a water bath for the salsa.
4. Using a canning funnel, pour the salsa into the hot sterilized jars, leaving about 1/2 inch space at the top. Wipe the edges with a clean cloth to ensure there are no drips, then top with lid and screw on the ring, holding the jar with a towel to tighten.
5. Using a jar holder, lower the hot jars into the hot water bath, bring the water to boiling and let cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Use the jar holder to remove the jars from the bath and set on a towel. Listen for the “pop” as the jars seal. If any of the jars fail to seal, put them in the fridge. Remove the screwed on rings from the sealed jars, label them with “tomatillo salsa” and the year and store them in a cool dry place.

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Notes

RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/

© Copyright 2018, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.

What else can you make with tomatillos?

Tomatillos are great in soups, salsas, bloody marys and margaritas, guacamole and sauces. You can roast them and put them on burgers or sandwiches or you could even bread and fry (or bake) them for a crunchy tart sweet appetizer. Here are some delicious tomatillo recipes to get you started:

• Purple Tomatillo Salsa Fresca
• Creamy Cilantro Tomatillo Soup
• Spicy Hot Tomato Tomatillo Jam
• 11 Tomatillo Recipes – Saveur
• 15 Ways to Use Tomatillos Any Time of Day – Kitchn
• 27 Tomatillo Recipes for Some Summertime Tang – Bon Appetit

What equipment do you need to can salsa?

You’ll need a large pot that’s tall enough to fill at least an inch above the jars with water, a jar lifter, a jar funnel, a canning rack plus mason jars, lids and rings. Oh and don’t forget the citric acid and canning salt! (Note: If you make a purchase from any of these links, I will receive a small portion to help support the costs of the blog. Thanks for your support!)

Monica from The Yummy Life also has some solid advice on canning equipment and step by step instructions.