Recipes Using Jar Salsa

Turn your windfall of tomatoes into salsa! We'll teach you everything about canning salsa, plus share our family favorite zesty salsa recipe for canning.

We go through a lot of salsa in our house. We mix it into mashed avocado for quick guacamole, we spoon it into tacos, we use it in chili, and, of course, we make chips and salsa a regular snack, too!

With how much salsa we plow through in a year, it’s a good thing that canning salsa is stupendously easy to do. Before the end of summer, I like to have at least three dozen pints of my go-to salsa stashed away in our pantry. Canning salsa is a wonderful beginner canning project, and we’re going to show you everything you need to know to have your own stockpile of salsa.

Easy Homemade Salsa

We’ve tried multiple different salsa recipes over the years, and we keep coming back to the standard Ball® Canning salsa recipe—Zesty Salsa. It’s easy to make, the flavor is spot on, and you can customize the spice level by changing the chile peppers you use. It’s the recipe we’ll use in this post!

Tomatoes need to have the correct amount of acid added to be safe for water bath canning, so make sure to follow a tested recipe whenever canning salsa (or anytime!).

Tomatoes are right on the border between high-acid foods (which can be safely water bath canned) and low-acid foods (which need to be pressure canned for safety). Because of this, it is vitally important to follow only tested salsa recipes when you want to water bath can—and follow them closely. The recipe we have listed out below is a tested recipe courtesy of Ball® Canning for water bath canning.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde Canning Recipe

Vinegar works as an acidifier and it adds a wonderful tang to your salsa. Without vinegar, your salsa would not be acidic enough to safely water bath can.

Because vinegar and lime juice do not have the same pH (acid) levels, they are not interchangeable in equal amounts in this recipe.

Salsa is pretty flexible on what jar it wants to live in! Here, we’re canning in Ball® Regular Mouth Pint Canning Jars. I find that the pint size is really good for salsa—it’s enough to have for a family snack or two without having so much that it gets lost in the back of the fridge. It’s also similar to the size of store-bought salsa jars, which make it easy to swap in for recipes.

Easy And Delicious Dinner Recipes Using Jarred Salsa

I’ve also done salsa in the Ball® Collection Elite Pint in the past. Regular mouth, wide mouth, straight sided, jars with shoulders—they all work for salsa!

A lot of people will answer this question saying that Roma or paste tomatoes are your best bet because of their low amount of seeds and thick flesh, but we have a different philosophy—the best tomatoes to use for canning salsa are the tomatoes you have!

I’ve mixed cherry tomatoes, Romas, heirlooms, beefsteaks—everything—into salsa with great results! Canning salsa is a great way to use up a hodgepodge of tomatoes.

The Best Homemade Salsa Recipe (video)

You don’t have to, but we recommend it. Depending on the tomato variety, sometimes the skins can become very tough during the canning process. We figure, better safe than sorry, and recommend peeling tomatoes first. Our method for peeling tomatoes outlined in our canning diced tomatoes post makes quick work of it!

Sure can! Although you will see slight reduction in the quality of texture. Make sure to use freezer-safe Ball® Jars though, and only freeze up to the line identified on the jar. We recommend Ball® Wide Mouth Pint Jars for freezing.

Properly canned and sealed salsa will easily store for 18 months in a cool and dark spot. After that time, you might see a slight degradation of quality (taste, color, or texture), but as long as it is sealed well, it’s still perfectly safe to eat.

Quick And Easy Mason Jar Salsa

Feel free to multiply or divide the recipe below—but I’ll warn you, no matter how much salsa you put up, you’ll wish you had put up more! It’s amazing how quickly these jars seem to disappear in our house. Happy canning!

At , we believe that good nutrition is about much more than just the numbers on the nutrition facts panel. Please use the above information as only a small part of what helps you decide what foods are nourishing for you.

Cassie is the founder and CEO of . She's a home cook and wellness junkie with a love of all things healthy living. She lives on a small hobby farm in Southern Indiana with her husband, daughter, two dogs, two cats, and 15 chickens.

Recipes Using A Jar Of Salsa

I'm a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, and I've been developing healthy recipes professionally for over 15 years. Food is my love language, and my kitchen tips and nourishing recipes are my love letter to you!Use this easy home canning recipe for Basic Salsa with fresh tomatoes, onions, and peppers to keep fresh summer flavors in your pantry all year round.

Use this easy home canning recipe for Basic Salsa with fresh tomatoes, onions, and peppers to keep fresh summer flavors in your pantry all year round. You can make it as mild or spicy as you like and add it to all your southwest recipes!

I’m on a canning kick around here. How can I not be with all the great produce that’s available this time of year?

Homemade Salsa And How To Can It

Today I’m sharing my basic canning recipe for salsa. The tomatoes are still coming in and peppers are ready, too, so it was time to go ahead and put up a few jars of this deliciousness to keep on hand for the winter.

It’s so nice to open a jar of homemade salsa when it’s cold out and be able to taste those fresh summer tomatoes once more. Mmmmm. A jar of this in my Salsa Chicken recipe in the middle of winter…well, I have to say it’s just fabulous.

This recipe makes five pints. That’s just about right for our household. If you want to make more, you can double or triple the recipe. Just make sure that you keep the same proportions to guarantee that it’s safe for canning.

Best Salsa Recipe For Canning

Be sure to can enough to use in all your favorite southwest recipes! Of course, it’s great as a dip with tortilla chips, but it’s also fantastic added to tacos and burrito bowls, or even in chili.

This post contains affiliate links. Lana’s Cooking is reader supported and earns a tiny commission at no extra cost to you when you shop from our links.

Before you start, get everything you need together. All your jars, lids, kitchen towels, produce, knives, water bath canner, funnel. Everything. It’s so much easier than having to run around looking for something while you’re in the middle of a canning session.

Homemade Chunky Salsa Recipe

Prepare the jars, lids, and rings as usual. You can review how I manage this part of the process in my Favorite Kosher Dills post. Fill the canner about 2/3 to 3/4 with water, bring it to the boil and hold it there until ready to fill the jars. Add your empty clean jars into the canner and let them sterilize while you prepare the salsa.

There is a good bit of prep work involved in this recipe. It’s not difficult at all, just peeling and chopping. And you begin by preparing your tomatoes.

I prefer Roma tomatoes for salsa but I also had a few yellow tomatoes on hand, so I included them as well. You can use any combination and type of tomatoes you like.

Easiest Blender Vitamix Salsa

To make peeling the tomatoes easy, simply drop them into boiling water for one minute. Then drain them and put them into cold water for a few minutes.

I debated about whether to include all the chopping and mincing photos here for illustration purposes.After thinking it over, I decided that if you cook at all you certainly know how to dice peppers and onions, so I’m sparing you having to scroll past 15 photos of chopped vegetables!

Chop the tomatoes, onions, green pepper, and jalapenos. I used three medium sized jalapenos for this amount of salsa because we like ours fairly mild. You can add up to nine jalapenos if you like it hotter. You could also substitute a hotter pepper such as serrano if you like, but don’t add more than the equivalent of about nine medium size jalapenos so you don’t upset the pH balance of the recipe and make it unsafe for canning!

Serious Heat: 30 Things To Do With Leftover Salsa

Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and boil gently, uncovered, for 25 minutes or until desired consistency, stirring frequently.Your house will smell like the most delicious Mexican eatery by the time this finishes cooking!

Working with one jar at a time, carefully remove a jar from the canner and ladle in the hot salsa to within 1/2 inch of the rim (headspace). Wipe the jar rim with a moist paper towel and apply a lid and ring (just finger tight).

Note: These jars have been filled and are now being lowered into the canner. They will be completely covered with boiling water for processing.

Restaurant Style Salsa Recipe

Return the filled jars