If you have a lot of green tomatoes in your garden, this green tomato salsa verde recipe is for you! It has the subtle tang of green tomatoes with a hint of lime. This green salsa is perfect paired with chips, as a taco topper, or on grilled meats or fish. Can your own homemade salsa with homegrown ingredients!
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Green Tomato Salsa Verde Recipe
Now for this amazing green tomato salsa verde recipe! This green salsa is easy to make and is a great way to use up any green tomatoes you might have in your garden. It’s an easy canning recipe that is perfect for beginners!
The first thing you want to do is prepare your boiling water canner. Heat 4 pint jars or 8 half pint jars in simmering water until ready to use, but do not boil. Wash the lids in warm soapy water and set aside with the bands.
Related: Green Tomato Recipes
You’ll need 7 cups of cored, peeled, and chopped green tomatoes (about 12 medium).
The easiest way to peel them is to score the bottoms with an X then drop them in boiling water for a few minutes or until the skins start to peel off. They take a bit longer than ripe tomatoes for the skin to release.
Then you can either chop them well with a knife if you like chunky salsa, or run them through a food processor for a smoother salsa.
Once your tomatoes are prepared, combine them with the hot peppers, onion, garlic, and lime juice in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, then stir in the cilantro, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Using a jar lifter, grab one canning jar, place on a towel or wooden cutting board, then ladle hot salsa into a hot jar leaving a 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles (this headspace tool is perfect for this). Wipe jar rim.
Center lid on jar and apply band, adjust to fingertip tight. Place jar in boiling water canner. Repeat until all jars are filled.
Once the water is boiling, process the jars for 20 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Turn off the heat, remove lid, and let jars stand in the water for 5 minutes.
Remove the jars and let them cool undisturbed on a towel or wooden cutting board for 12-24 hours. Check lids for seal, they should not flex when the center is pressed.
Get more recipes for canning, fermenting, quick pickling, dehydrating, and freezing so that you can enjoy your summer produce year-round in my ebook Preserving the Garden Harvest!
How to Use Green Tomato Salsa Verde
This green tomato salsa verde is so delicious! I don’t know about you, but I love green salsa even more than red salsa. There’s just something about the slightly more tart flavor that green tomatoes add that really makes this salsa special!
Serve it with grilled fish, over enchiladas, on top of tacos, or go classic with chips and salsa! Another great way to use this salsa is to blend it with some avocados for amazing avo-salsa.
I absolutely love preserving my own homemade food! Not only does it mean that I know exactly what’s in it, but it also tastes better than what you can buy at the store.
I love how this green salsa tastes and I feel good about serving it to my family. Even my toddler loves it! We kept it on the mild side for him, but you can make it as spicy as you like.
If you want to do more canning this summer, check out this delicious strawberry honey butter for another easy recipe!
If you have a lot of unripe tomatoes you can also make these fermented green tomatoes or pickled green tomatoes. If you are swimming in cherry tomatoes try these fermented cherry tomatoes (they’re amazing)!
Have you done any preserving this year? Tell me what you’ve made!
Green Tomato Salsa Verde
Equipment
- 8 half pint or 4 pint Ball® Jars with lids
Ingredients
- 7 cups chopped, cored, and peeled green tomatoes about 12 medium
- 5-10 jalapeno, habenero, or scotch bonnet peppers seeded and finely chopped
- 2 cups chopped red onion about 2 large
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup lime juice
- 1/2 cup loosely packed finely chopped cilantro
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Prepare your boiling water canner. Heat 8 half pint jars or 4 pint jars in simmering water until ready to use, but do not boil. Wash lids in warm soapy water and set aside with bands.
- Combine the tomatoes, hot peppers, onion, garlic, and lime juice in a
large saucepan. Bring to a boil, then stir in the cilantro, cumin,
oregano, salt, and pepper. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. - Using a jar lifter, grab one canning jar, place on a towel or wooden cutting board, then ladle salsa into a hot jar leaving a 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles (this headspace tool is perfect for this). Wipe jar rim.
- Center lid on jar and apply band, adjust to fingertip tight. Place jar in boiling water canner. Repeat until all jars are filled.
- Once the water is boiling, process the jars for 20 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Turn off the heat, remove lid, and let jars stand in the water for 5 minutes. Remove the jars and let them cool undisturbed on a towel or wooden cutting board for 12-24 hours. Check lids for seal, they should not flex when the center is pressed.
Notes
- The easiest way to peel the green tomatoes is to score the bottoms with an X then drop them in boiling water for a few minutes or until the skins start to peel off. They take a bit longer than ripe tomatoes for the skin to release.
- You can either chop the green tomatoes well with a knife if you like chunky salsa, or run them through a food processor for a smoother salsa.
- Use 5-10 hot peppers (or less if you prefer) depending on how spicy you like your salsa. Wear rubber gloves when cutting and seeding hot peppers to avoid your hands from getting burned.
I’ve got (too) many tomatillos in my garden: can I use this recipe replacing them for green tomatoes? Thanks.
Hi Jules. If you aren’t planning on canning your salsa, yes, you can totally swap the two ingredients. However, if you want to can it, it would be safer to find a tested canning recipe for salsa verde with tomatillos like this one: https://creativecanning.com/tomatillo-salsa/