Papa's Zalsa

Basically salsa with zucchini -- "zalsa"!

If you're like us and you've found yourself with way too many tomatoes in your garden, here's the recipe for you! A new family friend gave this "zalsa" recipe to us and we have been making it in the farmhouse by the litres. It has fresh zucchini, onions, peppers, garlic -- and of course it calls for a lot of tomatoes. (If you want some organic tomatoes, we currently sell them at our farm store!) Most importantly, though, it tastes wonderful and makes a great snack when paired with your favourite chips. (Though we wouldn't judge if you ate it right off the spoon, either!)

The Recipe

Ingredients: STEP ONE

• 10 cups zucchini, unpeeled diced medium-fine

• 4 large white sweet onions (= 10 cups diced medium fine)

• 3 large green bulls horn peppers, diced medium fine

• 2 large orange bell peppers, diced medium fine

• 2 large yellow bell peppers, diced medium fine

• 6 large jalapeno peppers (= 2 cups diced medium fine)

• 1/4 cup picking salt

  
  

  Ingredients: STEP TWO

• 2 tbsp dry mustard

• 2 large heads garlic, grated

• 3/4 cup brown sugar

• 2 cups vinegar

• 1 tsp black pepper

• 2 156 ml cans tomato paste

• 1 pinch red pepper flakes

• 10 cups ripe tomatoes, chopped

Note: You may substitute some of the jalapenos with Anaheim peppers. It also can be a good idea to sometimes do STEP TWO the day ahead of processing by combining the next 7 ingredients and storing them in the fridge as well as chopping the tomatoes and storing them separately in the fridge till the next day for processing. That way the mess is over and you just need to cook and process them.

Instructions

1.Chop zucchinis, peppers and onions and put in large bowl with 1/4 cup pickling salt. Let sit overnight in fridge.

2. Drain in colander and rinse well with cold water then squeeze out all the excess water while in colander.

3. Place zucchini/pepper mixture in a large stock pot.

4. Add rest of ingredients to stockpot.

5.Cook for 30 minutes on medium heat.

6. Dip out 2 pints of mixture in stockpot and blend, then pour back into stockpot.

7.Process for 25 minutes at 10lbs for pint jars.

This recipe yields 12-16 pints.

And, that's it! Happy zalsa-making from all of us at Promise Valley!