Dill Sistas: Mango Salsa

This was a delicious joint effort between Paige and I. I had recently gotten into canning this fall, after realizing that canning doesn't have to mean making a bajillion cans of something at once. Small scale canning exists, and it is perfect for both of us. We enjoy making an afternoon out of canning, so this is something we are trying to get together to accomplish on a somewhat regular basis. This mango salsa isn't too spicy, and is great with tortilla chips, or thrown onto some chicken or fish before being baked in the oven.

Canning is one of those things I found incredibly intimidating until I did it myself, and realized there's not too much to it. It's fun! There's nothing quite like that satisfying pop! of the canning lids sealing after all of your hard work. The only unfortunate aspect of canning is that it does require some extra equipment - canning pot, jar holder, probably a wide mouth funnel, and well, mason jars of course. But once you get started it's easy to want to can everything in sight. (For me, anyways.)

Note: the written instructions are tailored to our altitude, which is an important factor in canning. You can find a handy reference for your altitude and canning times here.

Mango Salsa

Author: adapted from Food in Jars
Difficulty: easy
Makes approximately 6 500mL jars

Ingredients

6 cups chopped mango
1 red onion
1 red bell pepper
1.5 cups white vinegar
3/4 cup white sugar
3 Thai chilies
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 lime
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Directions
Fill canning pot with enough water to cover jars, place empty jars without lids or rings into the pot, and bring to a boil. Place jar lids in a small pot or saucepan and simmer on low heat. Ensure mango is diced small, and dice the red onion and bell pepper. Mince the garlic, chilies, and cilantro, discarding cilantro stems. Zest and juice the lime, and bring all ingredients to a boil in a large pot. Lower heat to a simmer for approximately 10 minutes. Remove jars from the hot water bath, and quickly work to ladle hot salsa into the hot jars, leaving approximately 1/2 inch headspace in the jars. Wipe the rims, apple the lids and rings, and boil in the hot water bath for 10 minutes + 10 minutes for altitude. After the processing time is complete, remove the pot from the heat and remove the lid, allowing the jars to sit for an additional 5 minutes before removing, to prevent salsa from bubbling out of the jars (reacting to a rapid temperature change). Remove the jars from the pot and place on kitchen towels until cool.

Step-by-Step Photos

Place canning jars into a canning pot and bring to a boil, and simmer lids on low heat. Dice the mango, onion, and bell pepper. Zest the lime. Mince the garlic, cilantro leaves, and Thai chilies. We used a large bag of frozen mango chunks that we allowed to thaw and then diced a little smaller. Initially we thought we would need more bell pepper and onion, but it turns out one of each was sufficient.

Throw all of those ingredients into a large pot and add the sugar, lime juice, and vinegar. Also add the cumin.

Bring the salsa to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 10 minutes. It should look relatively thick and not watery. You can also adjust the spice and vinegar here if desired.

Remove the jars from the water bath (dumping the water in the jars out, of course), and place on two layers of kitchen towel to mutually protect the jars and the counter top. Working quickly, add the hot salsa to the jars, leaving about 1/2 inch of room so that the jars don't crack.