Spanish Salsa

This home-canned Spanish salsa brings together the Iberian tastes of roasted red peppers, tomatoes, Spanish onion, smoked paprika, rosemary and sherry vinegar, with just a hint of summer heat.

The recipe comes from the Canadian Living home canning book (2012) and has been lab-tested by them to meet Bernardin / USDA safety standards.

Canadian Living says, “This is good on hearty sandwiches and with tortilla chips.”

The recipe writers suggest letting this mellow in the jars for at least a week before sampling.

The recipe

Jar size choices: Quarter-litre (½ US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz) OR half-litre (US pint / 500 ml / 16 oz)

Processing method: Water bath or steam canning

Yield: 4 x half-litre (US pint) jars

Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)

Processing time: 20 minutes

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Spanish Salsa

This Spanish salsa brings together the Iberian tastes of roasted red peppers, tomatoes, Spanish onion, smoked paprika, rosemary and sherry vinegar, with just a hint of summer heat. Home canning directions included.

Course Condiments

Cuisine American

Keyword Salsa

Prep Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4 x half-litre (US pint) jars

Calories 9kcal

Metric - US Customary

Ingredients

• 400 g roasted red pepper (1 ¾ cups / 14 oz. Measurements after prep.)
• 1.5 kg tomato (peeled, seeded, chopped. 8 cups / 3 ⅓ lbs. Measurements after prep.)
• 350 g onion (medium-chopped 2 ½ cups / 12 oz)
• 4 New Mexico chiles (dried)
• 2 cloves garlic (peeled and minced)
• 1 sprig rosemary (fresh)
• 100 ml sherry vinegar 5% or higher (⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon / 3 oz)
• 1 tablespoon salt ( or non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

• Prep the roasted peppers (see Reference below); put in a large saucepan.
• Prep the tomatoes (see Reference below); add to pot.
• Prep the onion; add to pot.
• Toast the chiles in an ungreased pan until they darken a bit. Then remove, let cool. When cool, remove stems and seeds, then grind to a powder. Add to pot.
• Add to pot all ingredients down to and including the cumin (but NOT the lemon juice.)
• Put pot over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
• Reduce heat to medium.
• Let simmer uncovered for about 30 to 45 minutes or until no longer watery. Stir frequently. (Bear in mind salsas are always thicker when they cool.)
• Remove sprig of rosemary if using.
• Add lemon juice, let mixture simmer for another 2 minutes.
• Ladle hot salsa into hot jars.
• Leave 2 cm (½ inch) headspace.
• Debubble, adjust headspace.
• Wipe jar rims.
• Put lids on.
• Process in a water bath or steam canner.
• Process jars for 20 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.

Nutrition

Serving: 2g | Calories: 9kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Sodium: 237mg | Sugar: 1g

Reference information

Roasting peppers for home food preservation.

Peeling tomatoes

How to water bath process.

How to steam can.

When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.

For those who wish to reduce salt in their canning, Herbamare is an example of a salt-sub that is both non-bitter and non-clouding.

Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.

Recipe notes

• You need to buy about 700 g (1 ½ lbs) of fresh pepper to end up with the desired quantity after roasting
• You need about 3.5 kg (7.7 lbs) of fresh tomato to end up with the desired quantity after prep.
• They suggest using sweet or Spanish onion.
• New Mexico chiles (aka green chiles) are known for mild heat but lots of flavour. Instead of them, you can use 4 guajillo chiles, or 4 teaspoons ancho powder, or 4 teaspoons of a hotter-style paprika such as Hungarian.
• If you don’t have fresh rosemary, omit, or use 1 teaspoon dried ground (not the dried “twigs” kind unless you put them in a piece of cheesecloth that can be removed and discarded.)
• Instead of fresh lemon juice, you can use bottled. The lemon juice is there to freshen up the taste, so the usual requirement for strictly bottled doesn’t apply.
• Let jars stand for at least a week before sampling.
• Tip! You could prep the roasted red pepper the day before and just refrigerate it overnight, to save time on canning day.

Recipe source

Canadian Living Test Kitchen. The Complete Preserving Book. Montreal, Canada: Transcontinental Books. 2012. Page 204.

Modifications

• None

Safety check

This had a pH of 4.19 about a month after first canning, well below the upper safety limit of 4.6.

Nutrition information

Per 2 tablespoons

• 9 calories, 91 mg sodium
• Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 1 to 4 tablespoons 0 points, 6 tablespoons 1 point
• Weight Watchers SmartPoints®: 2 tablespoons 0 points, 3 to 6 tablespoons 1 point.

* Nutrition info provided by MyFitnessPal

* PointsPlus™ and SmartPoints™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® registered trademarks.