What do I do with all of these green tomatoes? So, if you are here I am guessing you might have had some of the same issues I did this year.
My garden started out looking amazing. Then the heat wave and drought kicked in. No matter how much I watered it was just too hot and my garden didn’t have enough shade. I’ll be adding shade cloth hoops for next year. Anyhow the water just kept the plants alive.
After a couple small harvests of ripe tomatoes it was too hot for my plants to even flower. Once the heat subsided, not the drought, they started to bloom again. Finally I had tomatoes, but I ran out of time. We had an early freeze so I had to go harvest all the green tomatoes. Now what?
Salsa verde it is. I prefer to remove the seeds and not have them in my salsa. It is time-consuming, but while I’m blanching and removing the skin I might as well.
These will be made in batches, so today I will process approx. 12 cups of blanched, seeded, cored, and chopped tomatoes. A simple rough cut is all that is needed when I am blanching and seeding. They will get thrown in the processor to dice up to my liking when I am done with this step.
Next I got to work chopping up the peppers and onions. I grabbed out all the seasonings I’d need as well. For this amount of tomatoes I diced up 2 large bell peppers, using a yellow and a red for some color.
Hot peppers are totally up to you. I like my salsa mild since I am a light-weight when it comes to spicy. With that in mind, I added in a half a cup of finely diced jalapenos and habaneros. You may laugh, but I always wear gloves when I am seeding and dicing hot peppers.
Oops, forgot the cilantro and garlic, so I chop up ½ c of cilantro and lastly, crush and finely chop 5 cloves of garlic or roughly 2 Tablespoons. For my recipe, I add ½ c. of lime juice and ¼ c. white wine vinegar.
The seasonings are 2 ½ t. Ground cumin, 2t. Dried oregano, 2 ½ t. Salt, 1 ½ t. Ground black pepper. I have lemon juice sitting off to the side to add to the top of each jar of salsa before sealing them up in their water bath.
Prepare the water bath by heating up 7-pint jars in simmering water so they are ready to use. I wash the lids and the bands and keep the lids in warm water while waiting to be used as well.
This works well as I grab out one jar at a time with the jar lift, dump the water back in the pot, fill the jar with salsa, add lemon juice, seal and put it back in the water; continue with all the jars.
Now that everything is ready, I combine the tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, lime juice, and white wine vinegar in a large saucepan and bring it to a boil. Then I stir in the cilantro and the seasonings while I reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Using a jar lift, grab one jar at a time out of the simmering water. Use a ladle and canning funnel to fill the jar leaving about ½ inch of headspace and removing any bubbles you see. Add 1 T. of lemon juice to the top (I do this to ensure safe acidity in all my canned tomato products).
Then I wipe the rim clean, center the lid on the jar, screw on the band and place it back in the water and continue until they are all full and back in the water bath.
Turn the heat up on the water bath until it reaches a full boil making sure there it has at least a couple inches of water over the top of the jars. Put the lid on and boil for 20 minutes.
Then turn off the heat and remove the lid and let it stand for 5 minutes before removing the jar with the jar lifter and placing them on a towel or wooden cutting board for 12-24 hours to cool undisturbed.
Before storing them in your pantry, press on the center of the lids to check for a seal. They shouldn’t flex if there is a good seal. Label the jars and don’t forget to date them.
If you have extra, keep it in the fridge for up to a week after enjoying it now.
After two batches I ended up with 15 pints of salsa.
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Green Tomato Salsa Verde
Equipment
- Large pot
- water bath canner
- ladle
- canning utensils
- 7 pint jars
Ingredients
- 12 c chopped, cored, peeled, seeded green tomatoes
- ½ c seeded, diced jalapenos, habaneros, or hot pepper of your choice
- 2 c diced peppers (2 large peppers: 1 red and 1 yellow)
- 2 large yellow onions (may use red if you prefer)
- 2 tbsp garlic (5 cloves crushed and minced)
- ½ c Fresh diced cilantro
- ½ c lime juice
- ¼ c white wine vinegar
- 2 ½ tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 ½ tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 7 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Blanch, core, peel, remove seeds from the tomatoes and then chop them or put them through a food processor based on whether you like your salsa chunky or smooth
- Prepare the water bath and tools needed before continuing. place 7-pint jars in your water bath canner making sure the water is a couple of inches over the top of the jars. Heat the water to a simmer. Set your lid magnet, jar lifter, and canning funnel aside. Wash the canning lids and rings.
- In a large pot combine tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic, lime juice and white vinegar. Bring to a boil
- Stir in cilantro, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper while you reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Use the jar lift, pour the water out of one jar in the water bath and place it on a towel or cutting board near the salsa pot. Place the canning funnel in the jar and ladle in salsa leaving 1/2 inch of headspace.
- Remove any air bubbles and add 1 T. lemon juice to the top of the salsa. Remove the funnel, wipe the rim of the jar, center the lid on the jar, screw on the ring and place it back in the water bath. Continue for all the jars.
- Turn the water bath up to boiling, again insuring water is over the tops of the jars, put the lid on and boil for 20 minutes.
- Turn the heat off and remove the lid. Wait 5 minutes and then remove the jars and cool, undistrurbed, for 12-24 hours on a towel or wooden cutting board.
- Check the lids for seal after cooling. They shouldn't flex when pressed. If they have a good seal, label them with the name and date. Hope you enjoy!!
Notes
- Blanching takes longer with green tomatoes than it does with ripe ones. Cut an X on the top of the tomatoes and put them in the boiling water until you see the skin start to peel off. Place immediately in ice-cold water then you can peel, core, remove the seeds and rough cut them.
- I prefer my salsa smooth so I run them through a food processor but if you like yours chunky you can just chop them now.
- When adding hot pepper the sky and your taste buds are the limit. I don’t like hot salsa so this recipe is mild.