50+ Tomato Canning Recipes

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Tomato canning recipes are one of the best ways to turn summer abundance into a pantry full of real convenience food. A few baskets of ripe tomatoes can become shelf-stable jars of sauce, salsa, juice, ketchup, jam, and plain canned tomatoes ready for soups, stews, pasta nights, and quick meals all winter long.

Acidifying Tomatoes for Home Canning
Plain Tomatoes for the Pantry
Tomato Juice (& Foods Canned in Tomato Juice)
Tomato Sauce (Plain and Seasoned)
Pasta Sauce Recipes
Tomato Salsa Recipes
Tomato Soup
Tomato Meal in a Jar Recipes
Tomato Paste
Ketchup, BBQ Sauce and Tomato-Based Condiments
Mexican Style Tomato Sauces
Tomato Simmer Sauces
Tomato Relish, Chutney & Bruschetta
Tomato Jam, Butter and Preserves
Cherry Tomato Canning Recipes
Green Tomato Canning Recipes
Canning Recipe Lists

If you grow your own tomatoes, you already know how fast the harvest can pile up.

One day you’re slicing a few for sandwiches, and the next day the counter is covered in bowls of romas, slicers, cherry tomatoes, and a few green ones you picked ahead of frost. That’s exactly why I love tomato canning so much. There are so many ways to preserve them, and each one gives you a different kind of pantry staple.

Many of these recipes are pantry staples, the kind you’ll make every year without thinking twice, like crushed tomatoes or sauce. Others are the fun extras that make the pantry feel special, like pizza sauce, tomato jam, pickled cherry tomatoes, or green tomato chutney.

Acidifying Tomatoes for Home Canning

Tomatoes are right on the edge between high-acid and low-acid foods, which is why modern canning recipes usually call for added acid even when you’re working with fully ripe tomatoes. In tested recipes, that means adding the acid directly to each jar before filling so the finished product is acidic enough for safe processing.

It’s a small step, but it matters, and it applies to many recipes for whole, crushed, juiced, and sauced tomatoes. Other tested tomato canning recipes, like sauce and salsa, have acidification built into the recipe, sometimes in different forms. Tested pasta sauce recipes, for example, may include wine or balsamic vinegar. Tested salsa recipes use vinegar, of course, but they also sometimes use lime juice or pineapple juice for added acidity.

Be sure you’re using a tested recipe, and if you’re canning plain tomatoes (whole, crushed, etc), use one of these tomato acidification options per jar:

Bottled lemon juice: 1 tablespoon per pint or 2 tablespoons per quart. Use bottled lemon juice, not fresh, since the acidity is standardized for canning.
Citric acid: 1/4 teaspoon per pint or 1/2 teaspoon per quart. This is a great choice if you want reliable acidification with less flavor change.
5% acidity vinegar: 2 tablespoons per pint or 4 tablespoons per quart. This works too, but it can give the tomatoes a noticeably stronger flavor.

Once the acid is in the jar, fill with the tomato product called for in the recipe, leave the proper headspace, and process exactly as directed. If the finished tomatoes taste a little sharper, you can always balance that with a bit of sugar when you open the jar, but you should never reduce or skip the acid in the canning recipe itself.

Plain Tomatoes for the Pantry

This is where most people start, and for good reason. Plain canned tomatoes are one of the most flexible things you can put on the shelf. Whole tomatoes, halves, diced tomatoes, and crushed tomatoes can all be turned into dinner later, which makes them a great choice when you want to preserve the harvest without deciding exactly how you’ll use it yet.

I always think of these as the building blocks. A jar of whole tomatoes can become soup, sauce, chili, or braised meat. Crushed tomatoes are especially handy because they’re already partway to sauce, but still chunky enough for recipes where you want texture. If you want a pantry staple you’ll use constantly, start here.

Tomatoes in Wine — Whole Canned Tomatoes in Red Wine

Tomato Juice (& Foods Canned in Tomato Juice)

Tomato juice doesn’t always get the same attention as sauce, but it’s incredibly useful to have on hand. A good jar of tomato juice works as a soup starter, a braising liquid, or the base for chili and stews. It’s also nice to have for homemade Bloody Marys or just to sip straight if that’s your thing.

Compared to sauce, tomato juice is thinner and more refined, usually strained so you end up with a smoother liquid and less pulp. It’s a smart choice if you want to preserve tomatoes in a form that’s easy to turn into all kinds of other recipes later.

Canning Foods in Tomato Juice

Like broth and stock, tomato juice is used as the canning liquid in quite a few pressure canning recipes. With meat, it keeps it tender and flavorful and enhances the flavor rather than washing it out like water does.

With dry beans, the beans absorb some of the juice, adding flavor and turning the “juice” into tomato sauce for baked bean style dishes.

Meatballs in Tomato Juice
Ground Meat in Tomato Juice
Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce (actually juice)
Beans with Pork and Tomato Sauce (actually juice)

Tomato Sauce (Plain and Seasoned)

If there’s one tomato canning project I come back to again and again, it’s sauce. Homemade tomato sauce is one of those pantry staples that saves dinner on busy nights. Once it’s on the shelf, you’re halfway to pasta sauce, soup, curry, casseroles, and all kinds of skillet meals.

I also like that sauce can be made to suit your kitchen. You can keep it plain and simple for maximum flexibility, or cook it down thicker if you want something that feels closer to a ready-to-use pasta base. A smooth, well-strained sauce is especially nice if you want a polished texture without seeds or peels.

Pasta Sauce Recipes

Spaghetti sauce is where plain sauce starts turning into dinner in a jar. These recipes are wonderful because they do more of the work ahead of time. Instead of opening a jar of plain sauce and building flavor from scratch, you already have something seasoned and ready to heat.

Depending on the recipe, spaghetti sauce may need to be pressure canned, especially if it includes extra vegetables or meat, but there are plenty of tested recipes for waterbath canning too.

Waterbath Canning Sauce Recipes

Pressure Canning Sauce Recipes

Spaghetti Sauce with Meat
Spaghetti Sauce without Meat (with mushrooms, peppers and more)

Pressure Canning Pasta Sauce — Our own home canned pasta sauce.

Tomato Salsa Recipes

Tomato salsa is one of the first jars to disappear from the pantry around here. It’s easy to think of it as just a dip for chips, but canned salsa ends up doing a lot more than that. I use it spooned over eggs, tucked into burritos, added to taco soup, or stirred into rice for a quick side dish.

This is also one of those categories where it really matters to stick with tested recipes. Once you start adding onions, peppers, garlic, and herbs, the balance of low-acid and high-acid ingredients matters quite a bit. I have a whole list of more than fifty tested salsa canning recipes, and I’m not going to list them all here, but here are some of my favorite tomato salsas.

Tomato Soup

Tomato soup canning recipes are some of the coziest jars you can put on the shelf. Unlike plain sauce or juice, it’s made with soup in mind from the start, so it’s easy to turn into lunch or dinner with very little extra work. On a cold day, there’s nothing quite like opening a jar, heating it up, and serving it with a grilled cheese sandwich or a slice of crusty bread.

I like having a few jars of tomato soup in the pantry because it’s both practical and comforting. You can keep it simple and serve it just as it is, or dress it up with cream, basil, roasted red peppers, or a little grated cheese. It also makes a nice starter for other meals, since a jar can be used as the base for casseroles, rice dishes, or quick soups with extra vegetables added in. If you want a tomato preserve that feels especially ready to use, tomato soup is a great one to include.

Tomato Meal in a Jar Recipes

Tomato-based meal in a jar recipes are some of the most practical things you can keep on the pantry shelf. These are the jars that go beyond basic sauce and turn tomatoes into real dinner starters, with seasoned meat, vegetables, and enough flavor already built in that all you have to do is heat, serve, and maybe add a simple side.

These recipes are usually pressure canned because they combine tomatoes with meat and other low-acid ingredients, but the payoff is a shelf full of real meal components that can become sandwiches, pasta dinners, baked potatoes, rice bowls, or quick skillet meals with almost no prep.

Sloppy Joe Filling
Chili Con Carne
American Goulash-Style Tomato Meat Sauce

Jar lifter for canning chili — Canning Chili Con Carne

Tomato Paste

Tomato paste takes patience, but I always feel like it’s worth it. It’s basically tomato sauce cooked down until it becomes thick, rich, and concentrated. A small spoonful adds a surprising amount of flavor to soups, stews, braises, and skillet sauces.

This is also one of the best ways to deal with a big batch of paste tomatoes, especially roma types that are naturally meatier and less watery. It takes longer than most tomato canning projects, but the payoff is those deeply flavored little jars that make everything else taste better.

Ketchup, BBQ Sauce and Tomato-Based Condiments

Tomato-based condiments are some of the most satisfying jars to make because they turn a pile of fresh tomatoes into something rich, bold, and immediately useful. These are the jars you pull out when dinner needs a little help at the table, whether that means homemade ketchup for fries and burgers, barbecue sauce for grilled meat, or a spoonful of something thick and tangy to add extra flavor to sandwiches and quick meals.

It’s a great way to use tomatoes when you want something a little more special than plain sauce.

Mexican Style Tomato Sauces

Mexican-style tomato sauces are some of the most useful jars to keep in the pantry because they do so much more than one job. This category includes things like chili sauce, taco sauce, enchilada-style sauces, and other seasoned tomato-based preserves that bring a lot of flavor to a meal without much extra work. They’re especially handy on busy nights, since a single jar can help turn simple meat, beans, rice, or tortillas into dinner.

These recipes sit somewhere between a basic pantry staple and a ready-to-use meal starter. They’re more seasoned and specific than plain tomato sauce, but still flexible enough to use in all kinds of ways. A good chili sauce can be spooned over eggs or burgers, taco sauce is perfect for tacos, burritos, and layered dips, and enchilada-style sauces make it easy to pull together a quick casserole or skillet meal.

Tomato Simmer Sauces

Tomato simmer sauces are easy to make and they’re already halfway to dinner. Instead of starting with plain tomato sauce and building flavor from scratch, you open a jar with the seasonings and character of the finished dish already built in.

These sauces are more flexible than a fully finished meal, but much more useful on a busy night than plain sauce. A jar of cacciatore sauce can become a quick chicken dinner, tikka masala sauce makes an easy curry base, and seasoned tomato sauces work beautifully for pasta, skillet meals, rice bowls, and braised dishes.

Tomato Relish, Chutney & Bruschetta

Tomato relish and chutney are a great way to use up red tomatoes when you want something a little chunkier, sweeter, and more boldly seasoned than plain sauce. These recipes usually combine tomatoes with onions, vinegar, sugar, and spices, creating a preserve that lands somewhere between a condiment and a side dish. They’re especially nice if you want to turn extra ripe tomatoes into something with a lot of personality instead of just another batch of sauce.

Tomato relish is wonderful on burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, and sausages, while tomato chutney pairs beautifully with roast meats, sharp cheese, and simple grain dishes.

Tomato Jam, Butter and Preserves

Sweet tomato preserves are old fashioned pantry staples, and they bridge the gap between sweet and savory. Once cooked down with sugar, acid, and warm spices, tomatoes take on a rich, deep flavor that fits somewhere between fruit preserves and old-fashioned sweet-savory condiments.

I like these recipes because they feel a little more special than the usual tomato canning staples. Tomato jam is still probably the best-known version, with its glossy texture and sweet-tangy finish, but tomato butter and other preserves are just as worth trying if you have plenty of fruit to work with. They’re wonderful spread on bread, served with cheddar and crackers, tucked into sandwiches, or spooned onto burgers and roasted meats for a little contrast.

Cherry Tomato Canning Recipes

Cherry tomatoes are easy to underestimate because they’re so often treated as salad tomatoes, but they can be excellent for canning. Their natural sweetness works beautifully in preserves, pickles, and sauces, and they’re often easier to prep because there’s less cutting involved.

These recipes are great for small-batch canning too. If you’ve got a bowl or two of sungolds, grapes, or mixed cherry tomatoes coming in every day, you can turn them into something useful without waiting until you have a mountain of full-sized tomatoes.

Green Tomato Canning Recipes

When frost is coming and the vines are still full of hard green fruit, green tomato canning recipes are such a gift. Instead of watching all that end-of-season fruit go to waste, you can turn it into pickles, chutney, salsa verde, pie filling, and jams that have a completely different flavor than ripe tomato recipes.

Green tomatoes have a firmer texture and a tangy flavor that works especially well in relishes, savory sauces, and old-fashioned preserves. Green tomatoes are more acidic than ripe ones and hold their texture well during longer cooking, which is part of why they’re so useful in this kind of preserving.

Canning Green Tomatoes (sliced, for frying)
Green Tomato Salsa Verde
Green Tomato Pie Filling
Green Tomato Enchilada Sauce
Green Tomato Chutney
Old-Fashioned Green Tomato Jam
Pickled Green Tomatoes
Dill Pickled Green Tomatoes
Sweet Pickled Green Tomatoes
Spicy Pickled Green Tomatoes
Green Tomato Piccalilli (New England Style)
Southern Chow Chow (traditional green tomato relish)
Green Tomato Chow Chow (Canadian Style)
Green Tomato Ketchup

If you only make one tomato preserve this year, make something you know you’ll actually use. For some people that’s plain crushed tomatoes. For others it’s salsa, spaghetti sauce, or ketchup. The best tomato canning recipe is the one that fits the way you really cook.

That said, I always like to put up a mix. A few jars of basics, a few jars of ready-to-use sauces, and at least one fun preserve make the pantry feel both practical and abundant. Tomatoes are one of the most generous things in the garden, and canning them is still one of the most satisfying ways I know to carry summer into winter.