How to make and Preserve Garden Fresh Salsa
I’ve been making and preserving garden fresh salsa for years and it is a family favorite. So delicious!! We grow a salsa garden every year so we can make huge batches of homemade, homegrown fresh garden salsa and preserve it to eat throughout the year. Not only is our homemade garden salsa more delicious than store bought, it saves us so much money not having to buy salsa at the grocery store!
How to Grow a Salsa Garden
Growing a salsa garden is easy, all you have to do is grow the five plants you need to make salsa: tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and cilantro.
We have a whole article dedicated specifically to how to grow a salsa garden. It includes the best varieties of plants to grow a salsa garden and tips for when to plant seeds to time your harvest for all fresh garden grown ingredients when making homemade salsa.
Do I need to peel tomatoes and remove seeds to make salsa?
You can remove the skins and seeds of a tomato before making salsa but you don’t have to. Removing the seeds will make a chunkier, thicker salsa. The skin of some tomatoes can be more tough or bitter. I do a taste test and if the tomato is soft and delicious, it all goes into the salsa.
Honestly, I can’t tell you the last time I removed the seeds or skins from tomatoes when making garden fresh salsa. At the height of gardening season, I’m so busy with outdoor projects like beekeeping, taking care of our animals and foraging for wild edibles that I don’t have the time to stand in my hot kitchen seeding tomatoes!
The salsa will be a little thinner if you leave the seeds in, but this isn’t a big deal since you can just pour off some of the liquid in the salsa. Plus when I’m make garden fresh salsa, I make huge batches at a time to preserve so in my opinion it’s such a time saver to not seed the tomatoes.
If you have the time to peel and seed your tomatoes before making garden fresh salsa, go for it! I personally just throw everything in my favorite food processer and let the salsa magic happen.
Recipe for Homemade Garden Fresh Salsa
Gather all the ingredients when they are fresh and tomatoes ripened on the vine for the best flavored salsa. This can be the trickiest part in timing everything to be ready at the same time! (Read more about how to time your garden harvest when growing a salsa garden).
The basic recipe for Garden Fresh Salsa makes a small batch. I often make batches much lager than this depending on how many ripe tomatoes I have. Adjust the quantities as needed to make the size batch you would like.
Since garden fresh salsa is made with fresh ingredients and no preservatives, it needs to be refrigerated. It should last 5-7 days in the refrigerator, although in our house it’s a miracle if it lasts more than two or three days!
Since the ingredients for garden fresh salsa will be chopped up in the food processor or blender, you don’t need to take the time to dice the ingredients into small pieces by hand. I typically quarter or chop the tomatoes, peppers and onions into chunks.
Ingredients for Fresh Garden Salsa:
-2 cups tomatoes quartered or chopped in chunks
-1/2 cup bell pepper seeded and chopped
-1/4 cup spicy peppers such as jalapeño or whatever spice level you prefer! (seeds optional)
-1/4 cup chopped onion
-1-2 cloves of peeled garlic quartered, you may add more garlic or less depending on how garlicy you like your salsa!
-1/4-1/2 cup cilantro leaves
-2 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice
-salt
-sugar (optional depending on taste)
Directions for Making Garden Fresh Salsa:
- Place all the ingredients except the salt and lime in a food processor or blender. The key is to chop all the salsa ingredients into small enough pieces perfect for scooping onto a tortilla chip without over processing and turning it into a liquidly soup . Press the pulse button 2 times, check the salsa consistency and scrape sides of food processor bowl clean. Then pulse another 1-2 times if needed and check consistency again. Continue this process as needed until the consistency is just right.
- Pour the salsa into a large bowl. Stir in the lime juice and salt to taste.
- Allow the salsa to sit for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors meld. Taste again, add more salt as needed. If the salsa has a slightly bitter flavor, you can add sugar starting with 1 teaspoon at a time until desired flavor.
Variations to Homemade Fresh Garden Salsa
I make several variations to our homemade fresh salsa recipe:
Garden Fresh Peach Salsa:
Sometimes I love a slightly sweeter, fruitier salsa so make small batches of Garden Fresh Peach Salsa. I prefer to use local ingredients when I can so usually I add in peaches that we preserved if they aren’t fresh in season when I make salsa. To make peach salsa, peel and pit one peach. Chop the peach into small pieces about 1/4″ in size. Stir into your fresh salsa and enjoy!
Garden Fresh Mango Salsa:
Mango makes another style of delicious, sweet salsa. Mango does not grow in our cold, northern climate but I buy it when it’s in season and on sale at the grocery store since Little Brother loves mango. Peel and pit one mango. Chop mango into 1/4″ pieces and stir into your garden fresh salsa.
Roasted Pepper Fresh Garden Salsa:
Roasting adds a delicious smoky flavor to the salsa. To roast the peppers, core and seed them. Quarter the peppers, place them on a non stick cookie sheet and broil the peppers in the oven until the skins start to brown. Remove the roasted peppers from the oven and let them cool. Then add the peppers into the food processor or blender with the other garden fresh salsa ingredients in Step 1 above.
How to Thicken Garden Fresh Salsa
If your homemade salsa turned out a bit too watery to scoop with a tortilla chip, no need to worry! Carefully drain off some of the liquid.
If you’re using tomato varieties that are more juicy and fleshy, the easiest way to drain off excess liquid when making garden fresh salsa is to strain the tomatoes in a fine mesh strainer before placing them in the food processor or blender to make salsa.
If you’ve already mixed all the salsa ingredients together and find it is too runny, you can still easily drain some liquid off. If it’s a small container of salsa, I hold the lid close to the edge of the container with a miniscule crack open to allow liquid to drain out but the chunky salsa ingredients stay in the container behind the lid.
I also use that same method with a big bowl of homemade garden fresh salsa. I use a large lid or spoon to hold the salsa ingredients back in the bowl and allow the excess liquid to slowly drain out when I carefully tilt the bowl over the sink.
Don’t drain out ALL of the liquid, but enough to have a nice salsa consistency that scoops well with a tortilla chip.
How to Preserve Fresh Garden Salsa Without Canning
One of the things our family loves about our garden fresh salsa is the fresh ingredients and flavor. It is so far superior to any other salsa I’ve ever eaten and especially salsas that have been cooked in the canning process. Cooking the salsa changes the flavor and it’s not quite as delicious.
Freezing Fresh Salsa
I figured out that freezing garden fresh salsa was the way to preserve that delicious fresh flavor our family absolutely loves.
To preserve garden fresh salsa, pour it into freezer safe plastic containers or wide mouth freezer safe jars. I like to reuse plastic sour cream containers and freeze the salsa in 16 ounce serving sizes which is a good fit for our family.
Make sure you leave at least an inch of headspace in your freezer container to allow for expansion when it freezes.
When you want to eat your garden fresh salsa in the middle of winter, get a container out of the freezer and let it thaw.
The only downside of freezing garden fresh salsa is that it does get a little watery after it thaws. I simply drain off a little liquid and then it’s perfectly fine. It doesn’t affect the flavor at all, it just makes it trickier to scoop salsa with a tortilla chip until you drain off the excess liquid.
How to Can Garden Fresh Salsa
If you don’t have the freezer space to preserve your homemade garden fresh salsa, it is possible to can it.
I personally don’t can it anymore since we have the freezer space and prefer the fresher flavor of freezing garden fresh salsa.
Kris over at Attainable Sustainable has a great article on how to can garden fresh salsa so check it out if you want to give it a try!
Have you ever made garden fresh salsa? What are your favorite types of tomatoes and peppers to use? Share your tips in the comments below!
