If you’re staring at a pile of green tomatoes, trying to figure out what to do with them, rest easy my friend. You’ve just landed on the ultimate recipe to turn your green tomatoes into the most delicious salsa you’ve ever tasted!
What Makes This Salsa Verde Different?
As you may know, salsa verde is typically made with tomatillos. To my delight, I recently discovered that it can also be made with green tomatoes!
It’s also more of a mild salsa, so you can certainly kick up the heat with some jalapenos if you like your salsa spicy.
Tips for Making Green Tomato Salsa
We recommend making this green tomato salsa for canning. That’s why we’ve provided canning instructions in the recipe box below. It’s an excellent recipe for beginner canners because you just chop, mix, cook, and load into jars.
When you see the recipe, you’ll notice we recommend “lime or pineapple juice.” If you prefer the traditional flavors of salsa, you may want to stick to lime juice.
Another variation of this recipe that’s fantastic is roasted green tomato salsa. You don’t have to change any ingredients—simply roast your green tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers before adding them to your stockpot.
Also, feel free to add ripe tomatoes if you have them. If you notice the pictures in this post, you’ll see that my salsa is more red than traditional tomato verde. That’s because I had a handful of red tomatoes that I didn’t want to waste.
If you prefer video, there is a video tutorial at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!
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Green Tomato Salsa Verde
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 5 pints 1x
Ingredients
- 6 cups green tomatoes
- 4 cups onions
- 4 bell peppers
- 6 cloves of garlic (or 6 Tbs minced)
- 1 cup fresh cilantro
- 1 cup lime or pineapple juice
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1 Tbs salt
- 1 Tbs oregano
- 2 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp sugar
Instructions
- Chop green tomatoes, onions, and peppers (or use a food processor) to the consistency you prefer for salsa.
- Place in large cooking pot.
- Add all other ingredients.
- Bring to a rolling boil, then lower to a simmer and cook for 40 minutes.
- Pour into clean, hot canning jars, leaving a 1/2 inch headspace.
- Debubble.
- Wipe rims with damp towel.
- Place lid and ring on, finger tight.
- Load into your water bath canner and process for 20 minutes.
- Remove jars from the canner, and let them sit untouched for 12-24 hours.
Notes
Remember: Don't start your canning time until the canner water is at a full rolling boil.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Water Bath Canning Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Canning
May I use a jalapeño to spice this? Will it affect the PH value?
Yes, actually, the original recipe called for jalapenos. For every 7 cups of tomatoes, you can safely add up to 10 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped.
Hello!
When you say salt is that table salt or pickling salt? I have both and ready to go with this recipe.
Thanks!
You can use any salt that doesn’t have additives like iodide or anti-caking agents. (So you wouldn’t want to use iodized table salt.)
I use sea salt. Pickling salt is good, too.
What size jars? Pint?
Yes, pints. 🙂
Can you do quarts? I’ve done quarts for 4 years and someone told me you are not supposed to, only half pints or pints.
That’s debatable. It’s not deemed “safe” simply because the NCHFP & USDA haven’t tested salsa recipes in quarts. However, it’s our belief that just because the USDA hasn’t tested something … doesn’t mean it’s automatically unsafe. In this case, you need to ensure the acidity of your salsa is high enough to safely water bath can, and you need to process quarts longer than pints.
That’s where the uncertainty comes in. We don’t know for sure how long quarts need to process in order to kill all bacteria.
Can you omit the cilantro? What can you add in its place?
Yes! I’d just omit it and not put anything in its place, but if you really want a substitute, I think parsley would work well. 🙂