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Tomatillo sauce is an easy way to use up a bumper crop of tomatillos in season, and this simple canning recipe allows you to preserve it right on your pantry shelf.
Are you looking for a way to add some zing to your meals? Look no further than canning tomatillo sauce! This versatile condiment is essentially a salsa made with tangy tomatillos and spicy peppers, but it tastes amazing on everything from meats to chicken to veggie dishes.
This simple canning recipe for tomatillo sauce is not quite a salsa but more of a simmer sauce or enchilada sauce with hundreds of uses.
We use it to slow-braise pork shoulder in the crock pot, and I also love it as a simple home-canned green enchilada sauce.
Not only is this sauce delicious, but it’s also incredibly useful to have on hand. By canning your tomatillo sauce, you’ll always have a flavorful addition to your pantry that you can pull out at a moment’s notice to elevate any dish. Plus, by making it yourself, you can customize the spice level to your liking and avoid any unnecessary preservatives or additives.
Want to know the best part? Canning tomatillo sauce is a breeze! Simply chop up your tomatillos, peppers, onions, and garlic, blend them together with some spices and vinegar, and then boil and bottle the sauce in a water bath. Voila! You’ve got a delicious and shelf-stable sauce that will last you for months.
Ingredients for Tomatillo Sauce
This recipe is adapted from the book Preserving By the Pint: Quick Seasonal Canning Recipes for Small Spaces by Marissa McClellan. The original recipe was for a micro batch recipe, just one pint from 1 dry quart of tomatillos picked up at the farmer’s market. I’ve increase the recipe a bit, to give you a more meaningful batch size of 4 pints.
You can divide by 4 to get back to a single pint, or increase this recipe as much as you like. We often harvest tomatillos by the bucket full, so I’ve made this recipe with more than 20 lbs of tomatillos in one batch. That’s perfectly fine, and you don’t need to worry about issues with doubling the recipe, provided you have a big enough pot (and stir well to keep it from sticking to the bottom).
The ingredients for canning tomatillo sauce are quite simple. To make a canner batch of 4 pint jars, you’ll need the following:
- 4 dry quarts tomatillos, husked, washed, and finely chopped
- 1 cup yellow onion, finely chopped
- 8 garlic cloves, finely crushed
- 1/2 cup lime juice
- 4 tbsp fresh cilantro, minced
- 4 tsp ground cumin
- 4 tsp red chile flakes
- 4 tsp salt
For this recipe, you’ll need four dry quarts of tomatillos, or around 6 lbs. You can use any kind of onion you’d like, but yellow onion confers the most flavor to this recipe. Red onion or white onion work well, too, however.
Canning Tomatillo Sauce
Grab a pot of boiling water and use it to sterilize your jars. Then, take two lids and place them in a small saucepan filled with water, bringing it to a simmer. If you’d rather take a more hands-off approach to sanitizing your jars, you can do so in the dishwasher.
Place a large skillet on your stove over medium-high heat. Toss in some tomatillos, onion, garlic, cilantro, cumin, lime juice, and some chile flakes. Add half a cup of water, and then let the mixture simmer and cook while stirring often. Wait until the sauce thickens and condenses to about one-third of its original consistency. This usually takes 15 to 20 minutes.
Once the sauce has thickened to your liking, remove it from the heat and carefully pour it into a blender or food processor. Blend everything until it’s smooth and creamy, but be careful not to splash any hot sauce on yourself!
Alternatively, an immersion blender works really well and saves you the trouble of transferring the mixture to a blender.
Next, funnel your freshly blended sauce into the sterilized jars, making sure to leave 1/2 inch of headspace at the top. Wipe the rims of the jars to make sure they’re clean before applying the lids and rings.
The final step is to process the jars in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes for pints (or 20 minutes for quarts), adjusting for altitude. After the canning time is complete, take out the jars and place them on a flat surface to cool. Once they’re completely cooled off, store them in your pantry for up to one year.
Altitude Adjustments
Water boils at a lower temperature at higher altitudes, so jars need to be processed a bit longer as you go up in elevation. Here are the altitude adjustments for canning tomatillo sauce:
- For Under 1,000 Feet in Elevation – 15 minutes for pints or 20 minutes for quarts
- For 1,001 to 3,000 Feet in Elevation – 20 minutes for pints or 25 minutes for quarts
- For 3,001 to 6,000 Feet in Elevation – 25 minutes for pints or 30 minutes for quarts
- For 6,001 to 8,000 Feet in Elevation – 30 minutes for pints or 35 minutes for quarts
- For 8,001 to 10,000 Feet in Elevation – 35 minutes for pints or 40 minutes for quarts
Serving Tomatillo Sauce
This deliciously tangy sauce goes well with so many dishes, so you have plenty of options. It’s so versatile that you can use it as a dip, dressing, topping, or marinade. You can drizzle it over tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, burritos, or grilled meats.
Still not satisfied? Mix it with sour cream, yogurt, or mayo to create a creamy dipping sauce. You can also toss it with roasted vegetables, quinoa, or pasta for a zesty meal.
This tomatillo sauce is “heat and eat” ready, meaning that all you have to do is warm it up and it’s good to go. No need to add any ingredients or do any cooking. This makes it super convenient and time-saving, especially if you’re in a rush or don’t feel like cooking from scratch. Just pop it in the microwave, stove, or oven, and you’re done!
But if you want to add extra flavors and textures to your meal, feel free to customize the sauce to your liking. You can add chopped herbs, like cilantro or parsley, for freshness. You can add diced onions, garlic, or jalapenos for spiciness. You can add honey, agave, or lime juice for sweetness. The possibilities are endless, and you can get as creative as you want.
Canning Tomatillo Sauce
Tomatillo sauce is an easy way to use up a bumper crop of tomatillos in season, and this simple canning recipe allows you to preserve it right on your pantry shelf.
Ingredients
- 4 dry quarts tomatillos, husked, washed, and finely chopped
- 1 cup yellow onion, finely chopped
- 8 garlic cloves, finely crushed
- 1/2 cup lime juice
- 4 tbsp fresh cilantro, minced
- 4 tsp ground cumin
- 4 tsp red chile flakes
- 4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Sterilize your jars and lids, either by doing so in a pot of boiling water or in the dishwasher.
- Place a large skillet on your stove over medium-high heat. Add in all the ingredients, along with a half a cup of water (optional, but it helps prevent burning right at the start), and then let the mixture simmer and cook while stirring often.
- Wait until the sauce thickens and condenses to about one-third of its original consistency. This usually takes 15 to 20 minutes.
- Once the sauce has thickened to your liking, remove it from the heat and carefully pour it into a blender or food processor. Blend everything until it's smooth and creamy.
- Funnel your freshly blended sauce into the sterilized jars, making sure to leave half an inch of headspace at the top. Wipe the rims of the jars to make sure they're clean before applying the lids and rings.
- Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes for pint jars (or 20 minutes for quarts), adjusting for altitude. After the canning time have finished, take out the jars and place them on a flat surface to cool.
- Once they're completely cooled off, store them for up to one year.
Notes
This recipe is adapted from the book Preserving By the Pint: Quick Seasonal Canning Recipes for Small Spaces by Marissa McClellan. The original recipe was for a micro batch recipe, just one pint from 1 dry quart of tomatillos picked up at the farmer's market. I've increase the recipe a bit, to give you a more meaningful batch size of 4 pints.
You can divide by 4 to get back to a single pint, or increase this recipe as much as you like. We often harvest tomatillos by the bucket full, so I've made this recipe with more than 20 lbs of tomatillos in one batch. That's perfectly fine, and you don't need to worry about issues with doubling the recipe, provided you have a big enough pot (and stir well to keep it from sticking to the bottom).
Altitude Adjustments
Water boils at a lower temperature at higher altitudes, so jars need to be processed a bit longer as you go up in elevation. Here are the altitude adjustments for canning tomatillo sauce:
- For Under 1,000 Feet in Elevation - 15 minutes for pints or 20 minutes for quarts
- For 1,001 to 3,000 Feet in Elevation - 20 minutes for pints or 25 minutes for quarts
- For 3,001 to 6,000 Feet in Elevation - 25 minutes for pints or 30 minutes for quarts
- For 6,001 to 8,000 Feet in Elevation - 30 minutes for pints or 35 minutes for quarts
- For 8,001 to 10,000 Feet in Elevation - 35 minutes for pints or 40 minutes for quarts
Tomatillo Canning Recipes
Looking for more ways to preserve tomatillos?
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