Another great option for any zucchini you have that you just don’t know what to do with. Our house smelled so good when this was cooking that we had to keep one jar out of the canner so that we could immediately consume it.

INGREDIENTS

*Makes 8 pints

• 10 cups zucchini (grated or small chunks)
• 2 cups diced onion
• 2 green peppers
• 2 red peppers
• 2 cayenne peppers
• 2 anaheim peppers
• 12 cups fresh tomatoes chopped
• 3-1/2 tbs canning salt
• 10 cloves garlic crushed
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups white vinegar

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1

Grate or chop your zucchini into a large mixing bowl. Cover the zucchini with the pickling salt, ensuring you mix for a thorough coating. Let it sit in the refrigerator overnight or at least a few hours to take some of the moisture out. The more moisture you get out now, the faster it will process.

Step 2

Dice the onions, tomatoes and peppers. Adjust the type and quantities of the peppers for a milder or hotter salsa. The heat in this recipe is coming from the fresh cayenne peppers.

Step 3

Drain the zucchini and place it in a large pot with the peppers, tomatoes, garlic and onions. I ended up splitting it between two pots to ensure it didn’t boil over. Then I mixed the two pots together before canning.

Step 4

Add the turmeric, cumin, pepper, mustard seeds, sugar and vinegar. Bring to a boil over high heat.

Step 5

Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and let the mixture simmer for 45-60 minutes, depending on how much liquid is in the zucchini and tomatoes. You may have to cook longer if you want a thicker consistency.

Step 6

Get the water in your water bath canner boiling while the salsa is cooking. Prepare your jars.

Step 7

Ladle the hot salsa into jars. Wipe down the rims of the jars prior to placing the lids to ensure that there is no debris that will stop the seal.

Step 8

Process in a water bath canner for 20 minutes. Set on a wire rack with cloth to cool. Ensure all the lids have snapped down for safe storage. Enjoy!

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CHIT CHAT PORTION

I love zucchini and was determined to find more ways to use it other than roasting, grilling or baking with it. This is the second sauce I have made this year with the zucchini and I am really happy with both. I am curious to see if this salsa will get hotter once it has had a chance to sit for a bit. It smelled so good while cooking, and Kurt was sure to test out little bits here and there while it cooked.

It is nice once again to be able to use a few veggies from the garden in this recipe. Though, I was disappointed to find a few of my onions had not cured properly and were not useable. But oh well, most of them were good and a few made their way into this salsa.

I think next time I am going to try the zucchini in chunks for a more consistent “chunky” salsa consistency. The grated zucchini was just my lazy way of processing it using my food processor. Not that I am complaining. The salsa still has a great consistency, but now I am curious what it would be like with chunks. I guess we will see next year. I don’t think I will be making any more this year since I have 8 jars of it to use. Though, we do go through a lot of salsa, so maybe I will. Plus our romas are out of control and we are going to have a lot of tomatoes to do something with.

I threw a few of most of our peppers into this, with the exception of our banana peppers. The mix of peppers should bring a nice flavour to the mix. I went light with the cayenne for the first batch since a quarter of a cayenne spiced up my chowder really well. Hopefully I got a decent heat for Kurt, but nothing too hot for myself. If Kurt doesn’t find it spicy enough, I may just throw some more of the cayenne into a bowl of the salsa for him. It will get muy caliente then!

We are headed out camping for the weekend and plan to enjoy a jar of this salsa with some nachos around the propane campfire. There is a ban on campfires, and to be honest, I am done with the smell of smoke, so the propane fire will be great. No smoke, but a little heat to keep the evening chill to a minimum.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. It is another great way to use those fast growing zucchinis!