Hello friends! I am so excited to share with you a delightful recipe. It is a lovely way to celebrate summer: Roasted Tomato Chipotle Salsa. This deep red condiment is the perfect finishing salsa for so many dishes. It’s made from toasted chipotle chili peppers, roasted tomatoes and tomatillos, garlic and onion, and a zippy amount of lime juice and vinegar. It’s spicy, bright and the perfect way to preserve peak summer produce at its ripest form. I love drizzling this salsa on top of mushroom tacos (like you see in the image above!), guacamole, tofu scramble, or to use it as a marinade for sautéed or roasted veggies. The recipe makes a couple of jars. You can enjoy the flavor of summer all year round and also share some with your friends and family.
Today I am teaming up with the makers of Ball® home canning products to showcase one of their very own recipes. As the leaders in home canning, I am honored to be working with Ball® to showcase this beautiful technique of preserving food. Water bath canning is a great way to create shelf-stable condiments that can preserve produce at its peak freshness. I highly recommend Ball® products as I have been using them ever since I started cooking and I absolutely adore them! In today’s recipe, we will be using their classic pint jars which you can get here. Also, check out this handy starter set to get you going if you are new to canning.
One of my favorite summer vegetables are tomatillos. Peel the papery skin. Now you have a bright green fruit that is tangy, juicy, and the perfect foundation of flavor for a sauce or salsa. Being a nightshade, they are related to tomatoes which makes them perfect companions in a recipe like this.
The process for this recipe is very simple and straightforward. The first step is toasting dry chili peppers in a skillet until they are fragrant. This really wakes up their flavor and makes them taste their best. Then you soak them in some warm water until soft. While they soak, you can broil the veggies.
In regards to the heat level for this salsa, I’m not gonna lie- this stuff has a KICK. On a scale of 1-5, I would say this is a 4. This means a little goes a long way. Just a drizzle can add a beautiful amount of heat to any recipe. I personally love some spiciness, so it’s right up my alley. If you are not someone who likes spicy, this recipe might not be your cup of tea. But if you’d like to try make something similar, check out my Tuscan Tomato Jam which is equally delicious and acts as another versatile condiment.
Broiling vegetables is a great way to concentrate their flavor while also offering a lovely smokiness. For this recipe, simply throw whole tomatillos, tomatoes, whole onions, and garlic cloves (with the skins on) onto a large parchment-lined baking sheet and place them under the broiler until blistered and charred. Once they cool you can easily remove the skins and use them for the next steps.
Once the chilies are soaked, they are blended up with the soaking liquid until smooth. Then you throw in the tomatoes and tomatillos, continue to blend, and transfer that mixture to a pot. Then you will peel the roasted garlic and onion, give them a chop, and add them to the pureed mixture. This offers not only flavor but texture as well. The final additions are lime juice, vinegar, salt, and sugar. Once it comes to a boil and thickens up, you are ready to can!
An important step here is to prepare the canning station. Check out one of my previous blog posts where I go through some of the process of water bath canning. The basic idea is to bring a very large pot of water to just simmering to sterilize and heat the jars. Then, one by one, you will fill each jar with the salsa, measure the headspace, wipe the rim, center the lid on top of the jar, apply the band and twist it shut. Transfer the jar back into the pot of water, and repeat this step until all the jars are full. Then you will bring the water to a boil and process the jars for 15 minutes. Once done, you will transfer them to a wooden cutting board to cool for 24 hours.
And that’s it! You have a beautiful salsa that is bursting with flavor and ready for so many of your dishes. I especially like to add this smoky condiment to some tacos. For the image below, all I did was sauté some sliced cremini mushrooms with olive oil, salt, pepper, tamari, and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast. I cooked them down until nice and browned. To layer the tacos, I grilled corn tortillas over an open flame to warm them up. I like to layer them in two and I added shredded purple cabbage, fresh cilantro, sliced avocado, the mushrooms, and a drizzling of the salsa. To seal the deal, a big squeeze of fresh lime juice. Absolutely delicious!
Well there you have it folks! Another recipe to try out and enjoy. I hope that this blog post has inspired you to try something new and to have fun in the kitchen. And I hope you are all having a fabulous summer. Until next time, happy cooking!
Timothy
12 dried chipotle chili peppers, stemmed 1. Toast chipotle and cascabel chilies in a large dry skillet, over medium heat, about 30 seconds per side, until they release their aroma and are pliable. Transfer to a large glass or stainless steel bowl. When all chilies have been toasted, add 2 cups hot water. Weigh chilies down with a bowl or a weight to ensure they remain submerged, and soak until softened, about 15 minutes. Transfer chilies and soaking liquid to a blender and purée until smooth. Leave in blender and set aside. 2. Pre-heat oven to broil and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Place whole tomatillos, tomatoes, onions and garlic cloves under the broiler. Roast until tomatillos and tomatoes are blistered, blackened and softened, and onions and garlic are blackened in spots. Remove from oven, flip, and continue to roast until blistered again. Once done, set onions and garlic aside until cool. Place tomatillos and tomatoes in a covered bowl. Set aside until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. 3. Once cooled, peel the tomatoes and add them to the blender with the pureed chilies. Then add the tomatillos. Blend this mixture until smooth and set aside. Peel the onions and garlic. Finely chop them and set aside. 4. Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Wash lids in warm soapy water and set bands aside. 5. Combine tomatillo-tomato purée, chopped onion and garlic, vinegar, lime juice, sugar and salt in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened. 6. Ladle hot salsa into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and re-measure headspace. If needed, add more salsa to meet recommended headspace. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight. 7. Process filled jars in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.
Ingredients
12 ounces dried cascabel chili peppers, stemmed
2 lbs. husked tomatillos
2 lbs. Italian plum tomatoes
2 small onions
1 head garlic, broken into cloves
½ cup vinegar
½ cup bottled lime juice
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon saltInstructions
*Disclosure: This is a sponsored post that is part of an ongoing partnership with the Fresh Preserving Division of Newell Brands. They have provided jars, equipment and monetary compensation. All thoughts and opinions expressed remain my own.
2 comments
Just made this salsa and it is a home run! Soooo delicious. I discarded most of the seeds from the cascabel peppers, so not sure if that took a bit of heat out, but it is pretty spicy and, we think, it’s perfect!!!!
Unfortunately, I didn’t have canning equipment so will have to store in the refrigerator. Do you know if I could freeze the salsa in the jars?
I will be buying the equipment soon and making this again.
I am so happy you like the recipe!! As for freezing, I have read that you can but I would be too nervous to and would just put it in a quart container. Happy canning!