Canning Tomato Salsa

By cindygwest

Ingredients

• Tomatoes - about 15 lbs (yes, quite a few - you remove the skins, seeds and a lot of the water, so it takes a lot to start.) You'll need about 3 quarts of prepared chopped tomatoes. This makes about 8 pints of salsa!
• Salsa mix or your own seasonings. The Ball salsa mix sells for about $2.00 to $4.00 per packet. A packet will make about a 7 pint jars. See step 7 below for seasonings.
• 2 cups Lemon juice (if you make your own seasoning) or vinegar (if you use the Ball or Mrs. Wages mixes)
• 3 cups chopped onions
• 6 jalapeño peppers, seeded, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 12-ounce cans tomato paste (adds body)
• 2 cups bottled lemon or lime juice (if you are using a mix, be sure to follow their recipe; the packet mixes often use vinegar instead of lemon juice)
• 1 tablespoon salt (optional)
• 1 tablespoon sugar (optional - you use Stevia, my preference (or if you prefer, Splenda) if you are on a sugar-restricted diet, or simply omit the sugar)
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin (optional)
• 2 tablespoons oregano leaves or chopped cilantro (optional)

Preparation

Step 1

After you have peeled the skins off the tomatoes, cut the tomatoes in half. Now we need to remove the seeds and excess wateToss the squeezed (Squozen? :) tomatoes into a colander or drainer, while you work on others. This helps more of the water to drain off. You may want to save the liquid: if you then pass it through a sieve, screen or cheesecloth, you have fresh tomato juice; great to drink cold or use in cooking!

Next chop them up - I like 1/2 inch size cubes. You'll need about 3 quarts of peeled, cored, chopped tomatoes
I use an electric chopper (food processor) to dice the seasonings fairly fine, about 1/8 inch cubes.