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. [easyazon_link identifier=”098774741X” locale=”US” tag=”cooksinfo06-20″]The Complete Preserving Book[/easyazon_link]. 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.