Favorite Canned Tomato Recipes: Roasted Salsa

I'm in love with this salsa. It's similar to the double roasted salsa at Trader Joes but much cheaper to make! I upicked tomatoes for 50 cents a pound this year (otherwise I typically purchase at the farmer's market for $1.50 a pound, unless my garden goes gangbusters).

Made 11.5 pints last year and forecasted I'd need at least 15 pints this year; we eat a lot of this stuff!

Jar size: Half pints are too small for our usage but make good taster/gifts. I  prefer the pint size as we got through lots of salsa.  Tip: when giving out canned goods to friends and family, ask for the jars back! Start training them early and you won't have to purchase too many jars each season :)

My favorite uses are to mix this with black beans (great vegan bodybuilding food) or drizzle it on fried eggs for a nutritious vegetarian breakfast.  Or we put it on tamales. It's of course also delicious on chips or anything else you typically use salsa for.

No peeling necessary.  The roasting does take an extra step but is totally worth it.

Canning notes: sterilize at least 5 pint jars (cook in boiling water for 10 minutes to sterilize).  I like to heat up 6 pints and a half pint (my canner fits 7 jars) just in case. Yield is between 5 and 6.5 pints.


Method:
Roast under the broiler in the oven (500 F) until blackened in spots. I do this in 2 or 3 batches on rimmed baking sheets (the will be 5-15 minutes depending on your oven and the ingredients:

5 pounds tomatoes, cored and cut in half
1 pound 6 oz yellow or white onion, peeled and cut into half
8 oz chiles (approx 10 red jalapenos; good with any medium to spicy chile or mixture of chiles)
2 oz garlic (1-2 heads), peeled

Puree all of this in the blender. Once mostly smooth, then add 1/4 C washed cilantro and blend for just a few seconds to make it into small flecks (you don't want to overblend the cilantro in otherwise it will muddy the color instead of being nice little green flecks).

Pour the liquid into large (6 quart) saucepan.  Bring up to boiling and add:
1/2 C apple cider vinegar (5% acidity)
1 TB salt
1 TB sugar

Following standard canning procedure, pour the hot salsa into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Wipe rims so they are clean, put lids (which have been soaking in hot water) on, screw on bands. Process in boiling water bath canner for 40 minutes.