The Best Homemade Salsa for Canning

The BEST homemade salsa for canning. Have fresh tomatoes? Then you'll want to make this salsa, either hot or mild. It's so delicious and inexpensive to make!

Recipe by Alexandra Caspero on July 3, 2019

Prep time: PT45M

Cook time: PT60M

Total time: PT105M

Rating

4.98 stars (444 reviews)

Keywords

canning, glutenfree, salsa, tomatoes, vegan

Ingredients

9 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes
2 1/2 cups chopped green bell peppers
2 1/2 cups chopped white onion
4 medium jalapeños (chopped (see notes))
8 large cloves garlic (chopped)
6 teaspoons canning salt
1 cup white vinegar
1 12-ounce can tomato paste

Cuisine

American
Mexican Inspired

Steps

Remove the skins from the tomatoes
- To do this, make an "X" in the bottom of the tomatoes, then place in boiling water for 60 seconds. Then, remove the tomatoes from the water and place directly into a bowl if iced water to shock. The skins should slip right off. (I use my spider to transfer the tomatoes from the boiling water to the ice water without getting splashed.)
Make the salsa
- Place all of the ingredients in a large pot (you will need a 10qt. saucepan for this batch, or split the ingredients among 2 saucepans) and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until thickened and cooked.
Prepare cans to be sealed
- Ladle the cooked salsa into clean, sterile jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe rims of jars with a damp, clean, paper towel, then place lids on top. To make filling easy, I highly recommend a funnel.
Process using a water bath
- To do this, bring a large saucepan filled with water to a boil. Your saucepan needs to be tall enough to have the water cover the jars by 2 inches- though the jars will displace some of the water as they are added.
Add the jars to the water bath and cover with a lid
- Process for 30 minutes, then remove. I use these canning tongs to make things easy.
Let the jars sit for 24 hours
- The salsa will remain good in the jar for up to 18 months… if you can keep yourself from eating it all before then!

Nutitrion

Serving Size: 2 tablespoons
Calories: 23 kcal
Carbohydrates: 5.2 g
Protein: 1.1 g
Fat: 0.2 g
Sodium: 161 mg

Reviews

Scott on 2025-10-05 (5 stars):
I've now done 3 batches of this within 3 weeks, producing just over 50 pints. Everyone just loves it! I can't thank you enough for this recipe, not completely sure what makes this one superior to the others, I think it might be the vinegar. This will be my go-to recipe each year!
Jan on 2025-10-04 (5 stars):
I love this salsa recipe and make more every year - but if you can prep all the ingredients in half an hour, I’m astonished! It takes me at least 3 hours from starting the prep to getting the jars into a canner. The tomato prep takes the majority of the time. If someone has a magic tip for washing, scoring, hot water bathing, chilling, peeling and chopping 9 cups of tomatoes in 20 minutes or less, PLEASE SHARE! 😁😁
Khris on 2025-10-03 (5 stars):
definately the best salsa i have ever made!!
Jaimie on 2025-10-03 (5 stars):
I made this recipe and it was fantastic. In fact, I tried to find another recipe with corn and it was a dud. I won’t deviate again. I cut out the onion because I loathe onion, unfortunately. Since peppers are a little more acidic than onion, would it be safe to use more pepper in this situation as long as the total amount of pepper does not exceed the combined amount of the allotted pepper+onion?
George on 2025-09-30 (5 stars):
Simple and delicious. I use this recipe every year at harvest time. I always make at least one batch with all jalapeno peppers and add 1/4 c. of the hottest peppers in the garden, usually some variety of Thai chili peppers.
Scott on 2025-09-28 (5 stars):
Followed the recipe exactly as written. Delicious! Will definitely be making this again.