Restaurant-Style Salsa (for Canning!)
This classic restaurant style salsa is so tasty! It is great canned to keep on hand in your pantry for any time the craving strikes, or to use as gifting!
★★★★★
Marilyn says –
“Thank you! This was amazing. I normally make fresh salsa and this was my first time trying water bath canning. Total success! I’ve given some jars to my friends and family and they loved it! Very impressed with the recipe.”
My Go-To Salsa Recipe for Canning
If you’ve been searching for a super quick, easy, no-fuss Mexican salsa recipe that’s good for canning — you found it!
This is a variation of my popular Restaurant-Style Salsa recipe. That recipe never fails me, and I love to make a big batch for canning so I can pop open a bottle when a salsa craving hits.
✔ Quick Blender Recipe: Making the salsa is as simple as blitzing the ingredients in a blender or food processor. That’s it!
✔ Simple Water Bath Method: I prefer following the water bath canning method when processing this salsa recipe, because it’s straightforward and requires no special equipment.
✔ Restaurant Quality: Sometimes canned salsas can taste “flat” or have a weirdly mushy texture. Not this one! By blending up the salsa, its texture isn’t affected by the canning process.
Happy canning! Katie
The Main Ingredients
This is such an easy salsa recipe that works great for canning. It’s a blender salsa that starts with canned tomatoes. Scroll to the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients — but here’s an overview.
- Canned Tomatoes (3 Kinds!): I prefer using a blend of whole canned tomatoes and two types of Rotel to achieve a more nuanced flavor. Mix and match your canned tomatoes however you like!
- Tomato Paste: Adds a deep tomato flavor, minus the acidity that fresh or canned tomatoes add.
- Garlic and Onion: Fresh aromatics are essential when making homemade salsa.
- Jalapeños: Feel free to substitute the spicy jalapeños for another favorite pepper (just make sure to substitute an equal amount and do not add any more than the recipe calls for).
- Sugar and Salt: Just a little of both balances out the flavors going on in this Mexican salsa.
- Herbs: I used a blend of ground cumin and fresh cilantro.
- Lime Juice: Use the exact amount the recipe calls for! When water bath canning salsa, you have to be very mindful of the amount of low-acid vs high-acid ingredients.
A Quick Overview of the Canning Process
Detailed instructions can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post. Below is just a broad overview of what canning homemade salsa looks like to give you an idea of what you’re signing up for.
- Make the salsa. This is a quick blender salsa recipe that’s as easy as dumping everything in and blending until smooth!
- Simmer the salsa for 15 minutes. This step is essential for thickening the salsa and killing any bacteria lingering on the fresh or canned ingredients.
- Transfer to clean jar. I walk you through how to wipe the rims, adjust the headspace, and so on in the recipe card below.
- Process in a water bath canner. Pint jar need to process for 20 minutes, then the canner lid is removed and the jars need to hang out for another 5 minutes before being taken out.
Katie’s Tip: My Favorite Canning Resources
I highly recommend that you get a copy of the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving if you’re serious about learning how to can.
And if you’re new to canning, I recommend investing in this Ball Canning Utensil Set. The set includes a funnel, jar lifter, lid lifer, and head-space measuring tool.
Want to Make Changes to This Recipe? Please Don’t!
I don’t recommend making any substitutions for this recipe if you plan to water bath can this Mexican salsa unless it is adjusting the amount of seasoning.
Altering the sugar content, the amount of tomatoes, or the acidity (by omitting or substituting the lime juice) would affect the ability to water bath can the recipe.
If you are eating this within a week, or storing it in the freezer, you can make any substitutions that you would like.
More Easy Salsa Recipes
Note that not all of the salsas below can be canned … but they’re all delicious!
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Mexican Salsa Recipe for Canning
This classic restaurant style salsa is so tasty! It is great canned to keep on hand in your pantry for any time the craving strikes, or to use as gifting!
Ingredients
- 2 - 28 ounce can Whole Tomatoes With Juice
- 2 - 10 ounce can Rotel Original (diced Tomatoes And Green Chilies)
- 2 - 10 ounce cans Rotel Mexican (diced Tomatoes with Lime and Cilantro)
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 2 cups Yellow Onion
- 3 cloves Garlic
- 2-4 whole Jalapenos, halved (seeds removed for milder salsa)
- 1/2 teaspoon Sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 2 teaspoons Ground Cumin
- 1 cup Fresh Cilantro Leaves
- 1/2 cup lime juice (do not use less than this if you are water bath canning; use more if you like)
Instructions
- Prepare canner, jars, and lids according to canning guide.
- Combine whole tomatoes, Rotel, paste, onion, jalapeno, garlic, sugar, salt, cumin, lime juice, and cilantro in a blender or food processor.
- Pulse until you get the salsa to the consistency you’d like—about 10 to 15 pulses.
- Test seasonings with a tortilla chip and adjust as needed.
- Add all ingredients to a stock pot. Bring to a boil over medium high heat.
- Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.
- Ladle hot salsa into clean, warm jars, leaving about 1/2 inch headspace.
- Remove any air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding additional hot salsa.
- Wipe rim with a clean towel.
- Center the sterilized lid on jar.
- Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.
- Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.
- Bring to a boil and process pint jars for 20 minutes.
- Remove canner lid.
- Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.
Notes
Salsa Canning Tips:
- Do not reduce the amount of lime juice or tomatoes.
- Do not add extra peppers, onion, or garlic. You can reduce the amount of peppers, onion, or garlic.
- Canned chilies may be used in place of fresh.
- You can substitute one type of pepper for another. For example, hot jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, yellow peppers, banana peppers, chili peppers may all be substituted 1:1.
- The key is not increasing the amount of low acid ingredients in relation to the amount of high acid ingredients
- Wear gloves while handling jalapenos and peppers. Don't touch your face until you have washed your hands.
Want to pressure can this recipe? You can typically pressure can anything that you can water bath can. Make sure you have the right tools and that you consult reputable sources for salsa pressure canning instructions, as I personally am not an expert at pressure canning. Some tools you might need are: Pressure Cooker Canner, The Complete Guide to Pressure Canning, and of course – canning jars.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 32 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 154Total Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 0mgCarbohydrates: 36gFiber: 5gSugar: 18gProtein: 6g
GoodLifeEats.com offers recipe nutritional information as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although GoodLifeEats.com makes every effort to provide accurate information, these figures are only estimates.
★★★★★
Kathryn says –
“Thanks for the awesome recipe. I’ve tried almost a dozen salsa recipes looking for a restaurant style salsa that I like and this is it! So easy to make and tastes great! Recipe made 7 pints and a bit left over to snack on. Perfect!”
Kathryn Barnes says
Thanks for the awesome recipe. I’ve tried almost a dozen salsa recipes looking for a restaurant style salsa that I like and this is it! So easy to make and tastes great! Recipe made 7 pints and a bit left over to snack on. Perfect!
Katie says
Glad you liked it!
Ann says
I just used this recipe with fresh garden tomatoes. I just converted the ounces of can tomatoes into ounces of skinned, cored tomatoes that was chopped in a food processor. That was 11 Cups. This recipe made 7 pints for me. Jars all sealed and taste GREAT!
Thanks for the recipe
Katie says
you’re welcome! enjoy!
Brenda Schoffstall says
I canned this recipe today. I used fresh limes to make 1/2 cup. Was fresh ok in this recipe?
Katie says
Sounds great, hope you enjoyed it!
deb h says
Did anyone try using the fresh tomatoes? I just picked a bushel and would love to do with this recipe
I’ve been canning for a long time but never tried salsa
Jennie says
This looks great. I’m trying it out tomorrow . Just want to be sure…is the lime juice fresh squeezed or concentrate from a bottle? I bought limes to squeeze…
Katie Goodman says
fresh
Kerry says
What I need is a recipe for a ‘pressure cooker canner’. I’ve been looking everywhere for a ‘salsa’ recipe for this machine and can’t find one…I can’t find a table that converts time from water bath to pressure cooker either. (Also please could you put your recipe with fresh tomatoes!
Alyson says
That is because products either get water bath canned or pressure canned, based on the acidity of the product… They are not interchangeable is my understanding. It is way less difficult to water bath can than to pressure can.
You are unable to find a conversion chart because they aren’t able to be converted. What I mean is, if a recipe calls for pressure canning, there’s no formula for converting it to water bath and vice versa.
JR says
Kerry, pay no mind to the “it’s not possible” statements. Many of the folks that read something somewhere simply don’t understand what they’ve just read or they are simply of the know-it-all types that perpetuate false information via re-posts without thoroughly comprehending the science behind their craft. In any case, YES you can pressure can almost any recipe, including this one for salsa. However, what you cannot do is water bath can recipes that are designed for pressure canning only – this is due to the PH requirements for preservation. Pressure canning does not require PH targets for preservation because heat does the job that PH does for water bath canning.
The reason you would CHOOSE to water bath (or pickle) a food over pressure canning is mostly due to the texture of the food being turned to mush when pressure canned, such as peppers, certain greens, onions, etc. However, this option is not reversible. In other words, you cannot CHOOSE to water bath (or pickle) a food that is a “pressure can only” type of food (such as meats for instance), but you can pressure can a food that is designed for the water bath. The trick to safe pressure canning this salsa recipe would be to find the recipe ingredient with the longest pressure canning time and use that longer time as your base time for the salsa and jar size. You can pretty much apply this principle safely to any food you want to pressure can with the exception of foods with dairy, flour, eggs, and lard ingredients (never can these). But like I said before, some foods you will not want to pressure can if you have the option of water bath canning simply due to the texture being destroyed.
Hopefully I’ve cleared up some confusion (not made it worse).
Denise says
If I were to use fresh tomatoes how many would I use for this recipe to substitute for the regular tomatoes and the rotel? I have a garden and plenty of fresh tomatoes and jalepeno’s on hand.
Katie says
Sorry, I can’t comment on that because I have not tried those substitutions before. I recommend consulting Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving for canning recipes using garden fresh tomatoes.
Jessalyn says
Hi, Katie! We love PW’s restaurant salsa and I am planning to can this recipe to give out for Christmas gifts. Is it ok to substitute a white onion for the yellow? We generally use the white when we make it. Thanks!
Katie says
Yes, that is fine!
HolleyV says
I love your fresh recipe so I definitely want to try this! Do you know if I can substitute with making my own Rotel-type tomatoes with fresh tomatoes?
Katie says
I don’t see why not, but if you have a canning book such as Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving I would refer to that just to double check.
Jenna says
I just made this salsa tonight! I am a beginning canner and I followed your directions exactly. Thanks for the inspiration! All the jars sealed and I can’t wait to give this out for holiday gifts this year. I’m also excited to share this recipe/tutorial with the other ladies of my church!
Amanda says
Is it okay to re-can tomatoes since they have already been canned once when you buy them? Thanks!
Deidra says
I’m a bit obsessed with canning and have this cookbook, but started with the Ball Blue Book of Canning first. Our local extension office sells them for pretty cheap. It’s a good way to get into canning with a thorough introduction, but not quite as overwhelming as the Complete Book. And it’s always smart to can tested recipes so you know your food is safe!
Robyn says
Love homemade salsa and can’t wait to try this recipe. I’m sure it is delicious!
Melody says
And no vinegar! I’m so trying this! Thanks for doing all the “tweaking” because I love the original too.
Aimee @ Simple Bites says
Way to get your can on, Katie! I sure would feel better about having a few jars of this stashed on my pantry!
deb says
I’ve been looking for a good salsa recipe. Thanks for sharing 🙂