My Go-To Salsa Recipe (For Canning)

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Looking for a Salsa Recipe for Canning? This one is easy and delicious, a favorite in our home and sure to be a favorite with your family too!

Looking for a Salsa Recipe for Canning? This one is easy and delicious, a favorite in our home and sure to be a favorite with your family too! #salsa #homemadesalsa #canningsalsa #salsarecipeforcanning

My Go-To Salsa Recipe for Canning

I know that there are lots and lots and lots…of recipes out there for salsa. Especially this time of year, BUT I want to share my family’s favorite salsa recipe with you! This salsa recipe has taken 10 years to perfect and is now my tried and true canned salsa recipe.

—If you just have a few tomatoes and a few minutes, you might prefer this quick, One Minute Garden Fresh Salsa Recipe

I make this easy salsa recipe for canning every year using the abundance of fresh garden produce so we can it to enjoy anytime. I hope that you will give canning salsa a try and let me know what you think!

Salsa Recipe for Canning

Ingredients:

  • 16 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes
  • 4 cups diced onion
  • 3 cups diced green bell pepper
  • 6 jalapenos, chopped finely
  • 12 cloves of garlic
  • 4 t. cumin
  • 2 t. ground black pepper
  • 1/8 cup sea salt or canning salt
  • 1/2 cup chopped up fresh cilantro
  • 1/4 cup sucanat (or white sugar)
  • 1 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 cup lime juice
  • 18 ounces of tomato paste

How to Make and Can Salsa:

Mix all the ingredients in a large stockpot.

Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.

Reduce the heat and simmer for at least 15 minutes. Try a little bit of the mixture now, before you are ready to place in the jars so you can adjust the seasonings to your preference.

Pour the hot salsa into prepared hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.

Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean paper towel, then place the sterilized lid on top of the jar. Thread the ring onto the jar and tighten until fingertip tight.

Place the jars in a hot water canner and fill the canner with just enough water to cover the lids of the jars. Bring the water to a boil and start your timer. Process the jars for 20 minutes.

After your time is up, take the jars out and let them cool. Make sure you don’t accidentally seal the lids by touching the tops of the jars.

–For more information on how to see if your jars have properly sealed and what to do if they haven’t, check out this post on Testing Jar Seals And Reprocessing Jars (Safe Home Canning)

Process for time and pressure are according to your altitude. Please check with your local extension office for any changes on times/temps/high altitude. Click over to the USDA website for guidelines and be sure to check your pressure canner’s instruction manual to follow proper procedures.

This recipe makes 12 pints.

Want to print this Easy Salsa Recipe for Canning? Grab it Below!

Salsa Recipe for Canning

Servings 12 pints

Ingredients

  • 16 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes
  • 4 cups diced onion
  • 3 cups diced green bell pepper
  • 6 jalapenos chopped finely
  • 12 cloves of garlic
  • 4 t. cumin
  • 2 t. ground black pepper
  • 1/8 cup sea salt or canning salt
  • 1/2 cup chopped up fresh cilantro
  • 1/4 cup sucanat or white sugar
  • 1 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 cup lime juice
  • 18 ounces of tomato paste

Instructions

  1. Mix all the ingredients in a large stockpot.
  2. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.
  3. Reduce the heat and simmer for at least 15 minutes. Try a little bit of the mixture now, before you are ready to place in the jars so you can adjust the seasonings to your preference.
  4. Pour the hot salsa into prepared hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
  5. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean paper towel, then place the sterilized lid on top of the jar. Thread the ring onto the jar and tighten until fingertip tight.
  6. Place the jars in a hot water canner and fill the canner with just enough water to cover the lids of the jars. Bring the water to a boil and start your timer. Process the jars for 20 minutes.
  7. After your time is up, take the jars out and let them cool. Make sure you don't accidentally seal the lids by touching the tops of the jars.

Recipe Notes

This recipe makes 12 pints.

Process for time and pressure are according to your altitude. Please check with your local extension office for any changes on times/temps/high altitude. Click over to the USDA website for guidelines and be sure to check your pressure canner’s instruction manual to follow proper procedures.

Make sure you check out all the free Canning and Preserving Recipes
we have on Little House Living!

We recommend a Presto Pressure Canner and the book Putting Food By for all your canning projects!

If you love salsa, you might also enjoy some of these delicious dips: 

Cream Cheese Taco Dip

7 Layer Taco Dip Recipe

Fresh and Easy Avocado Corn Salsa Recipe

Easy Homemade Salsa Recipe

Simple 5 Ingredient Recipe for White Cheese Dip

Jalapeno Popper Dip Recipe

This salsa (and all of the dips above) would taste amazing with some freshly baked, warm tortilla chips!

Simply brush your tortillas with oil, cut them into triangles, sprinkle with salt and bake them on a greased baking sheet at 375F until crisp, about 8-10 minutes. How to make your own tortillas:

How to Make Your Own Homemade Tortillas

Incredibly Soft Gluten Free Homemade Tortillas Recipe

Homemade Corn Tortillas Recipe

What is your favorite salsa recipe for canning?

This Salsa Recipe for Canning was originally published on Little House Living in September 2012. It has been updated as of September 2019.

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45 Comments

  1. Thank you soo much for posting this Salsa Recipe! I have 9 tomato plants that are full of fruit and starting to ripen. I was wondering if Homemade salsa cold be canned. I plan to fire roast the tomatoes and some garlic. I do need to ask. What is the shelf life of something canned that contains tomatoes?

  2. HI! This recipe sounds wonderful! Could I make it without the lime juice or tomato paste? Or do you think it really adds to the flavor? Thanks!

  3. Made this today with our over abundance of veggies from the garden. It is absolutely delicious! Thank you, for sharing.

  4. Yes, if you take out the lime juice, you will need to replace the same amount with some acid, like apple cider vinegar or plain vinegar, or you could use lemon juice, also. We like the flavor of the lime juice combination, so that is what we use. The tomato paste you could leave out. I have done that, but we prefer the small amount of thickening that it adds to the salsa, without using a cornstarch for thickening. If you like it a bit runny, you could leave it out altogether, though.

  5. I still haven’t made the jump to canning tomatoes. I’m going to have to this weekend though- someone has asked me for hot sauce.

  6. Pingback: Salsa Canning, One Dish Dinners and more!
  7. Thank-You for the wonderful Salsa recipe, I made it with everything from my garden but the lime juice lol, I have never found a good recipe but this is great ,but I tried it before I canned it and it’s hot! But good, made 10 and 1/2 half pints will have to make more in jelly jars for Christmas with homemade tortillas chips, thanks again, love you blog!

  8. I love salsa this looks like an awesome recipe, I wish my tomatoes had done better this year so I could have tried it!

  9. Wish I had seen this before last night! I just made some with a very similiar recipe, just not as many tomatoes. I only use salsa when I am cooking so I didn’t have cilantro, but I figure it’s only for cooking it should be ok. If I’m going to serve it I’ll add some to it 🙂 Will definitely keep this handy for next year!

  10. Thanks for the recipe! I will have to try canning salsa again. I used to do so, but never liked the recipe. This one sounds really good and I’ll be pinning it! We’ll have to try this one next year! Blessings, Nancy at livininthegreen.

  11. I am new to canning so, I was wondering if lime juice can replace lemon juice?

    Since there is peppers in it do you need to use a pressure canner? Or does the lime juice instead of lemon juice works as the acidity?

    Would you have to pressure can it if you used corn and beans? Or is it ok not to because of the lime juice

    1. You don’t need to pressure can it just because of the peppers although I would if you add in corn and beans. And I don’t see why you couldn’t replace the lemon juice with the lime.

  12. Did you remove the seeds? What was the process for preparing the tomatoes – did you just blanch them to remove the skin, or did you also put them through a sieve/remove the seeds? I’m planning on making this in a few days. 🙂 Thanks!

    1. No, I’ve never removed seeds from tomatoes, just added them in. No need to blanch the tomatoes or remove skin in this recipe either unless you really want to.

  13. I’m getting ready to do some major salsa canning soon and I think I’m going to use this recipe 🙂 We like our salsa hot, does this have a lot of heat? If not, can I add more jalapenos?

  14. Hi! I made a batch last night and it turned out great! I did make some changes based on my tastes: 1 c jalepenos, no sugar, no black pepper, and I didn’t have lime juice so I added 2 c vinegar plus 3T of dried lime juice (True Lime)

  15. I made a batch last night following the directions exactly. Everyone in the family liked it. It’s really sweet for salsa for my taste so next time I’ll just add half the sugar. And it has no heat at all too it, the mildest of salsas, so even my 3 yo could scoop it up with no problem. We like at least a little kick to our salsa so next time I’ll adjust that as well. Added some extra cilantro in the serving bowl for some fresh, yummy green goodness. Good all around recipe if you like to give home canned goods as gifts, nice base to build on to suit your tastes.

  16. Can you replace lime juice with pineapple and cut out the sugar? I am trying to cut out sugar completely in my diet. I want to find a good pineapple-mango salsa for canning also. All the particulars are confusing for canning. I would be willing to use coconut sugar, but don’t know if that would work!

    1. Cindy, I followed the recipe exactly except left out the sugar and added pineapple. (I also did a peach version.) It was amazing!!!! Go for it!

  17. Thank you so much for this recipe. I made it last year and it was hands down the best salsa recipe I’ve tried! I canned 15 pints of it… and it disappeared way faster than it should have. I was so disappointed to have to buy grocery store salsa halfway through the winter! Needless to say, I will try to can more of it this year as my garden pushes out the tomatoes and peppers. 😉

  18. I made this salsa last year and it was INCREDIBLE! In fact, I discovered it far too late in the “what am I going to do with all these tomatoes” stage, and only made 1 batch before the end of the season. I loved it so much that I planned my garden this year around this salsa (planting more tomatoes, even though I was overwhelmed last year), only to find out that I couldn’t find this recipe anywhere. I searched all winter: where had I put that amazing recipe?? And today, looking through some old pins, I realized I had saved it on Pinterest. Seriously, I have never had a better salsa recipe! I am so excited for this year!!!

  19. I tried your recipe and replaced the sugar with pineapple or peaches. My husband said the peach version is the best salsa he’s ever had in his life.
    Thanks for the recipe. This is what everyone in my family is getting for Christmas this year!