Tomatillo Green Salsa

This salsa recipe appears both in So Easy to Preserve put out by the University of Georgia, and in the USDA Complete Guide. The two versions vary slightly in the options they give you, so it’s nice to compare the two to make sure  you’re getting the full slate of choices available for you.

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: 5 x half-litre (US pint) jars

Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)

Processing time: 15 minutes

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Tomatillo Green Salsa

This is a Tomatillo Green Salsa recipe for home canning from the USDA Guide.

Course Condiments

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword Jalapeno Peppers, Salsa, Tomatillos

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Yield 5 half-litre (US pint) jars

Calories 18 kcal

Ingredients

• 1 kg tomatillos (chopped. 5 cups / 2.25 lbs. Measured after prep)
• 200 g green chiles (stemmed, seeded and finely chopped. 1 ½ cups / 5 oz. Measured after prep)
• 75 g jalapeno peppers (stemmed, seeded and finely chopped. ½ cup / 2 oz. Measured after prep. 3 jalapenos)
• 700 g onion (finely chopped. 4 cups / 25 oz. Measured after prep)
• 6 cloves garlic (washed, peeled and finely chopped)
• 250 ml lime juice (bottled. 1 cup / 8 oz. OR same amount of bottled lemon juice.)
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin (optional)
• 3 tablespoons oregano (dried. optional)
• 1 tablespoon salt (OR non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

1. Husk the tomatillos, wash well. Add to a pot.
2. Stem, seed and chop the peppers; add to the pot.
3. Peel, wash and chop the onion. Add to pot.
4. Peel and chop the garlic, add to pot.
5. Put pot on stove burner over high heat.
6. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
7. Lower to a simmer and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring periodically.
8. Ladle hot salsa into hot jars.
9. Leave 2 cm (½ inch) headspace.
10. Debubble, adjust headspace.
11. Wipe jar rims.
12. Put lids on.
13. Process in a water bath or steam canner.
14. Process jars for 15 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.

Reference information

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 salt substitute, Herbamare Sodium-Free was used as it is non-bitter and non-clouding.

Recipe notes

• Instead of tomatillos, the USDA Complete says you can use green tomatoes. You could also use therefore a mixture of both.
• To be clear, you don’t peel or seed the tomatillos (or green tomatoes, if using).
• The recipe says “long green chiles”, which would be the medium-hot cultivars marketed as “New Mexico Chiles” — you may want to peel those if you use them as the skins can be tough. You can use other largish green chiles, and you won’t need to peel them. If you use poblano for the green chile, you’ll want three good sized fresh ones.
• You don’t need to peel the jalapenos.
• You can actually use any colour of chile, if you don’t care about keeping the salsa all green.
• For handling this quantity of chile, you should wear plastic gloves.
• Instead of 6 cloves of garlic, you can use 3 teaspoons of minced garlic from an oil-free bottle of minced garlic.
• You could use a blend of the bottled lemon and bottled lime juice if you wished. Do not use vinegar instead — it’s not as acidic.
• Don’t change the proportion of veg to acid. The only safe changes you can make are the dry seasonings. Don’t add any fresh cilantro; use instead one of the many other salsa recipes that do call for it.

Recipe source

• Tomatillo Green Salsa. In: Andress, Elizabeth L. and Judy A. Harrison. So Easy to Preserve. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Bulletin 989. Sixth Edition. 2014. Page 75.
• Tomatillo Green Salsa. In:  United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Complete guide to home canning. Agriculture information bulletin No. 539. 2015. Page 3-22.

Note two slight differences:

• The USDA Complete adds the option of green tomatoes.
• So Easy to Preserve adds the option of lemon OR lime juice.

Modifications:

• None

Nutrition information

Regular version

Per 2 tablespoons

• 18 calories, 91 mg sodium
• Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 0 points (4 tablespoons are 1 point)
• Weight Watchers SmartPoints®: 0 points (4 tablespoons are 1 point)

Salt-free

Per 2 tablespoons

• 18 calories, 2 mg sodium

* 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.