We had tomatillos all the way into the last weekend of October this year, when I finally just pulled them out of the ground even though they were still heavy with fruit. With 30 lbs of tomatillos on hand, I figured I’d better start canning! This recipe is almost straight from the Ball canning recipes website, except that I roast my veggies a good 30-40 minutes longer, and use 3-4 times the amount of cilantro and twice the garlic. It’s absolutely mouth-watering – if you taste it from the jar, you won’t be able to stop eating it by the spoonful, so here goes!

• 15 lbs tomatillos, dehusked, washed, and cut in half for the larger ones.
• 3 Extra large sweet onion, peeled and wedged
• 4.5 lbs mild or hot peppers like serrano, pasilla, jalepeno or wax – I use mild peppers for my salsa verde so that it’s kid-friendly
• 3 heads of garlic, separated and peeled
• 3/4 c. lime juice
• 3-4 LARGE fresh bunches of cilantro, cleaned and roughly chopped, stems and all

Heat oven to 425 degrees, then clean and prep your vegetables. I de-seed the peppers and leave them in large chunks. If you don’t remove the inner veins and seeds, you salsa will be MUCH hotter. Spread your onions, peppers and tomatillos into 3 LARGE pyrex baking dishes (here’s a link to the right size one). Place into the oven and bake at 425 degrees for 40 minutes. Add the garlic cloves evenly throughout the 3 dishes and continue baking another 20 minutes at 425.  While your veggies are baking, Prepare 10 pint jars by washing and then placing onto a baking sheet. When your veggies are nicely charred, you can remove them from the oven, turn the oven down to 220 degrees F, and slide the jars right in for 20 minutes. In the meanwhile, you’ll need to place your lids and bands into a sauce pot and turn it on to boil.  Here is a picture of some of the tools I ALWAYS use from my Ball Canning kit. It comes with more items, but the canning funnels and the magnetic lifter are indispensable.

With your jars in the oven to sterilize, and your lids and bands set to boil, you can combine all of the hot roasted veggies into a very large, deep pan along with the cilantro. Deeper is better so that you don’t have splashing – and be careful – you should process and pour your jars while the mixture is still as hot as possible. Use a hand immersion blender to blend all of it into a very thick sauce. Add the 3/4 c. of lime juice, and blend one more time, checking that you’ve thoroughly broken down all chunks of vegetables into a thick sauce-like consistency. As soon as your jars are ready, fill the hot jars immediately to within 1/2″ of the rim, and use the magnetic lifter to transfer the sterile lids and bands into place on top of the jars. Tighten the bands just to seal and immediately place the hot jars into a large water canning bath. Make sure the jars are completely submerged and then cover the pan and process the jars for 20 minutes.  When processing is complete, lift the jars using the canner rack and allow to cool for 5 minutes on the rack. Then place onto a counter or space where they can be left undisturbed. Loosen the lid rings slightly so that if any jars did not form a tight pressure seal, you’ll know because the lids will be loose. You should check all jars after 24 hours to be sure the lid button is fully flat and not raised. Any jars not fully sealed should be stored in the refrigerator and used within two weeks. I’ll be posting a couple of recipes that use this thick jam in breakfast burritos and in chicken salsa verde burritos in a few days. Hope you enjoy this super easy to make (it looks complicated at first, but it’s really VERY EASY) canning recipe.