I think the past three blog post have been me talking about how ready I am for garden fresh tomatoes. But, that’s not the reality for just a little longer so I had to get a little creative with my “fresh” salsa.

And by creative I mean canned tomatoes. So, not creative at all I don’t guess.

I have been craving fresh salsa with more convenience than having to drive to the nearest Mexican restaurant. Hence, my latest canning escapade.

I tried to keep the ingredients as simple as possible and the key to this is to GRILL the jalepenos and bell pepper. It really elevates the flavors of both.

So, you will need:

• 5-7 cans Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes (to yield about 6-7 mason jars full)
• 2 Jalepenos, grilled
• 1 green bell pepper, grilled
• 1 1/2 fresh garlic cloves
• 1/2 c to 1 c cilantro (go with what amount suits you best. I’m a hard core cilantro lover so I did just under a cups worth)
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• salt to taste
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• juice of 3 fresh squeezed limes
• 1 yellow onion

The best thing about salsa is that nothing has to be e x a c t. You can definitely play to your preference. For example, if you don’t like cilantro don’t add any, or maybe add less. As with any other ingredients. I play around with texture and flavor to whatever I’m feeling.

I used a food processor to achieve the chunky texture.

I started by pulsing the onion, jalepeno, bell pepper, garlic, 1/2 the lime juice, and cilantro. I kept the texture very chunky as I like the various bits of flavor.

I dumped that mixture into a large bowl and filled the food processor with the tomatoes. Because the tomatoes are already diced, 2-3 pulses should achieve a thicker texture verses puree.

Once the tomatoes were done, I combined the 2 mixtures and stirred well before transferring to the mason jars and proceeding with the water bathing process.

Keep in mind that if you plan to eat the salsa right away (within the next 2 weeks) you don’t have to water bath preserve it. I made multiple jars that I plan to last us until our garden comes in which is why I went with this method.