Use up your garden produce with an easy & flavorful roasted tomatillo or green tomato salsa that you can preserve by canning or freezing.
This roasted tomatillo or green tomato salsa is SO good – I love having it on hand as another option along with our regular, favorite canned red tomato salsa for appetizers and southwestern meals. Do you grow or buy tomatillos when they’re in season? How about green tomatoes? If you grow tomatoes at all, you will have green tomatoes at the end of the season and this roasted salsa is one of the best ways I know of to make use of those unripe tomatoes. It really is equally good with either fruit!
Salsa is one of the best things you can have in your pantry for quick meals and snacks – it really has saved us many times from the drive-through. Every time we’re in a rush, or late coming home and really hungry, and I think grabbing some food along the way is a good idea, I remember that we always have chips, cheese and salsa and sometimes tortillas. It takes about 10 minutes to make nachos or quesadillas with salsa as our vegetables.
Of course it’s also great topping more involved meals like tacos, enchiladas and salads of grilled chicken, beans and guacamole. And that’s another reason to love having homemade salsa in your pantry – it works for so many things, right?
Making your own salsa of course means you can know exactly what’s in it and tailor it to you and your family’s liking. Only to a degree, though, if you’re planning to can: the only ingredients you can adjust/change when canning in a water-bath canner are the dry ingredients. All the fresh ingredient ratios must stay the same to remain safe.
This recipe was adapted from an extension service recipe, and by ‘adapted’ I mean roasting instead of boiling the vegetables initially to increase flavor (like our safe-to-can roasted tomato sauce), keeping the same pepper-onion ratio to tomatillos/tomatoes, but increasing the peppers and decreasing the onions, as well as adjusting the dry spices. If you would like a more garlic flavor, for instance, it will have to be added as dry garlic powder when canning or added as fresh when serving.
Of course if you’re just going to freeze this, you can add more garlic, cilantro, or whatever to your heart’s content. And it freezes great, so it’s really your choice!
Click the arrow for the full recipe (with print options)!
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There is no peppers in this recipe! Was that on purppose?
Did you look at the full recipe, DeeDee? (Click on the arrows to the printable recipe) There are 3 cups of peppers called for. 🙂
Im going to try this recipe for canning, i have @50# of green tomatoes to use up. I plan on roasting all my tomatoes and onion and peppers on the grill to give it a more smoky taste. Question is, do i then remove the skins from the tomatoes or blend them up, core, seeds and skins?? Thanks so much.
I always core tomatoes before roasting, so I don’t know first hand how it would be if left in. I do know I’ve had other readers tell me they don’t core. You don’t need to worry about the skins and seeds of green tomatoes – I just leave them in all the time. Maybe do a small batch first with the cores or try to remove them before roasting?
I’ve had over 50 yrs of cooking and canning but tomatillos are a more recent item for me. I would like to draw on your knowledge and experience – may I use half green tomatoes and half tomatillos as long as I follow the rest of the balance of ingredients?
Yes you can, Jan – they are interchangeable in this recipe.
I found your recipe for Green Tomato Salsa and I just wanted to let you know I linked to your recipe from my post about using green unripe tomatoes. I’m definitely going to try this recipe next year.
-Amber
Thank you Amber! I shared your article on FB. 🙂
hi Jami, is fresh lime juice ok for this recipe when canning?
Sorry, Jeff, no. The USDA says that fresh limes and lemons don’t have the standard of acidity that bottled juice does. They’ve been tested to contain 4-5% acidity, so they stress to only use bottled.
Thanks for the advice, I made this with a big bowl of tomatillos from the garden along with some habaneros and it really is amazing. Love the citrus and tart flavour. Thank you for the recipe!
Super happy it turned out for you Jeff, thanks for letting me know!
I followed the recipe and found it tasted strongly of bottled lime juice. I thought one cup seemed like a lot but figured the recipe should be followed to the letter. I think the tomatillos should have been roasted whole and not cut up as they ended up releasing all of their juices and mostly steaming. I am going to try to do more roasted tomatillos today in an effort to salvage it.
One thing that’s nice about cooking your own food is adapting it to your tastes. 🙂 Roasting the tomatillos whole may be a good option, just not one I’ve tried.
As far as the flavor from the lime juice, you can try all lemon or half lemon, but you can’t substitute vinegar since it’s less acidic than citric juices. This recipe has been tested with this ratio only by the extension office. You were right to follow it to the letter – salsa canning is a science, not an art. 🙂 Of course, this is only for canning – to freeze it you can add what you’d like.
So, if I plan on freezing the salsa I don’t need to add the lime/lemon juice? I can also add fresh garlic or whatever and it will still freeze just fine?
Yep! All the safety issues with canning are to be able to keep it at room temperature. You can freeze any combination without worry.
I too live in the northwest (Portland area) and after an unusually long cold wet spring, now am starting to enjoy ripe tomatoes—every day—alas, we leave in a week for some length of time—-so I just found this recipe for the roasted green tomatoes—-I will bring in all those two days before I travel–process and then freeze in qt zips. So happy for this. My mother used to make a green tomato relish that she canned—it was on the sour side as my family didn’t care for sweet relishes—it was a crisp green color and tasted very good on meat. I am still looking for that one. Thanks for these great recipes.
This sounds like the perfect solution for your situation, Sharon. I’m glad you found it – I think you’ll love this flavor!
Hey Jami — and Happy New Year!
Say… I made the green tomato salsa recipe back in October, and wondered at that time if I was reading correctly: Is it really TABLEspoons of salt and cumin? I used TABLEspoon as printed, and ended up adding 2 more pans (triple volume veggies) to balance the salt + cumin. At least to my and my husband’s (love-spicy-food-guy) taste.
ANYHOW, I got rave reviews from several folks, so Kudos and thanks! I’ll be makin’ it again next fall!
Ha, it’s actually 2 Tablespoons salt! 🙂 And we don’t find it salty or too cumin-y with the 1 TB cumin. But that’s what’s great about making things yourself, right – you get to tailor it to your own tastes! Happy New Year to you, too!!
I made this and doubled the recipe. I did not get the 8 pints I was planning on. When I was making it, it seemed really thick and like not enough, so I added 3 cups of water to get a better consistency and volume. Then I added the lime juice, and boy, it tasted sour at first, but mellowed a bit as it simmered. In the end, I only got six pints. I think my tomatillos didn’t give off enough juice or something? I’ll have to try this again, but I’m thinking I may need more tomatillos for this recipe next time.
Hmm, maybe so, Lani. I’ve made this many times and while I just barely get the 4 pints, I do get them and I’ve never added water. Maybe adding more would work for you!
Never even thought about freezing. Probably make some w/the volunteer toms which are just setting fruit. What a summer it has been for the garden.