Garden Salsa

Today I made a batch of my favorite salsa again. We were out of the bottles I had made in the fall, and I still had jalapeños and zucchini in the freezer and cans of tomatoes were on sale so I went for it! It might not be as fresh as straight from the garden, but it is still good. Here is the recipe:

Garden Salsa
6 tomatoes, peeled and diced (or a 796ml can)
4 jalapeño peppers, seeded and minced
2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1/4 tsp powdered garlic)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup shredded carrot
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chopped sweet green pepper
1/2 cup chopped sweet yellow pepper
1/2 cup chopped parsley (I use less because we do not love parsley)
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano (1 Tbsp. dried)
1/2 tsp. pickling salt

1. Place all ingredients in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until thickened.
2. Remove hot jars from canner and ladle salsa into jars to within 1/2 inch (1 cm) of rim (head space). Process 20 minutes for half-pint (250 ml) and pint (500ml) jars.

Makes 5 1/2 to 6 cups. Enjoy!

Thanks to my friend, Carmen for requesting the recipe. It comes from the book Small-Batch Preserving by Topp &  Howard.