Green salsa?

Zeedman

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With frost expected, DW & I harvested all of the near-ripe & large green tomatoes, and many green peppers. Our intent was to allow as many of the tomatoes as possible to ripen slowly in our unheated garage. But with so many large green paste romatoes, I was wondering... has anybody ever made salsa with green tomatoes? An all-green salsa, with green peppers and cilantro, might be something really different. Would the firmness of the green tomatoes hold up through the canning process? The flavor would undoubtedly be very different as well, probably far less sweet - which might make the flavor of hot peppers stand out.
 

Pulsegleaner

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Yes there is such a thing as greens salsa (or as it is called Salsa Verde) it's done with green tomatillos, or green when ripe tomatoes, or not tomatoes at all (salsa after all, is just "sauce" in Spanish)

That being said, making it from unripened tomatoes is probably a bad idea. Those still have their full compliment of solanine in them, which is poisonous. You can get away with eating fried green tomatoes or green tomato jam because those things are COOKED, which destroys most of the solanine. But a raw salsa........I wouldn't try it.
 

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Yes there is such a thing as greens salsa (or as it is called Salsa Verde) it's done with green tomatillos, or green when ripe tomatoes, or not tomatoes at all (salsa after all, is just "sauce" in Spanish)

That being said, making it from unripened tomatoes is probably a bad idea. Those still have their full compliment of solanine in them, which is poisonous. You can get away with eating fried green tomatoes or green tomato jam because those things are COOKED, which destroys most of the solanine. But a raw salsa........I wouldn't try it.

in reading up on this it seems that cooking does not really remove the solanine, but i was mostly reading the wiki article on it which talks mostly about potatoes. it mentions that tomatoes may not have the same chemical, but i'm not really clear on this yet.

no worry as i don't eat green tomatoes, but i used to eat fried green tomato sandwiches and i also did make some green tomato pickles here or there, but not a huge amount. no idea if any of that really ever bothered me. i don't recall it ever being a problem.

raw potatoes on the other hand... eek! i don't eat those ever and will have bad reactions to them even if they're not green and peeled. just not a good idea for me. i don't really eat a lot of potatoes anyways, i much prefer sweet potatoes instead.
 

Zeedman

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Would the firmness of the green tomatoes hold up through the canning process?
Yes there is such a thing as greens salsa (or as it is called Salsa Verde) it's done with green tomatillos, or green when ripe tomatoes, or not tomatoes at all (salsa after all, is just "sauce" in Spanish)

That being said, making it from unripened tomatoes is probably a bad idea. Those still have their full compliment of solanine in them, which is poisonous. You can get away with eating fried green tomatoes or green tomato jam because those things are COOKED, which destroys most of the solanine. But a raw salsa........I wouldn't try it.
The salsa would be canned. I've made Salsa Verde before, and might have even made it again this year - had I not mowed the volunteer tomatillos along with the weeds. Omelets, eggs, some breaking required.

If cooked green tomatoes can be eaten without causing problems, I'm sure the much smaller portion that would be consumed as cooked salsa would be safe as well. Not having eaten fried/cooked green tomatoes in any form though, I am wondering how much of their firmness would be preserved during the canning process, and what to expect in flavor. Maybe there's only one way to find out?
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flowerbug

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The salsa would be canned. I've made Salsa Verde before, and might have even made it again this year - had I not mowed the volunteer tomatillos along with the weeds. Omelets, eggs, some breaking required.

If cooked green tomatoes can be eaten without causing problems, I'm sure the much smaller portion that would be consumed as cooked salsa would be safe as well. Not having eaten fried/cooked green tomatoes in any form though, I am wondering how much of their firmness would be preserved during the canning process, and what to expect in flavor. Maybe there's only one way to find out? View attachment 37192

pickled green tomatoes are quite a different thing than fried green tomatoes. if i had my choice i'd eat them fried. :) they're pretty good. i don't recall ever getting sick off them aside from perhaps eating too many...

i think you should try some fried. :) tons of recipes on-line. we never bothered breading them or using deep oil to fry them in, but instead just put some butter in a pan and fried them directly. within a few moments you know if you like them or not. we just fried them until they started getting softer and were hot all the way through - a bit of char on them of course would be to my taste.
 

Zeedman

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After researching a lot of recipes, I decided to make piccalilli (green tomato relish). This was the recipe in the Ball canning book. The directions said to peel & core the tomatoes, but peeling proved to be impossible - and maybe unnecessary. The skin of the tomatoes (Czechoslovakian) was so thin & fragile that it was almost indistinguishable from the flesh, so after cleaning out the seeds, I chopped them skin-on. I made a few changes; dill seed instead of celery seed, but added a little celery salt, and powdered mustard instead of mustard seed.

IMO it turned out pretty good; OK flavor, and good consistency. I ended up with 10 pints, so there's enough to share with the family. Now I've got a craving for hot dogs, to give it a test ride. ;)
 

flowerbug

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After researching a lot of recipes, I decided to make piccalilli (green tomato relish). This was the recipe in the Ball canning book. The directions said to peel & core the tomatoes, but peeling proved to be impossible - and maybe unnecessary. The skin of the tomatoes (Czechoslovakian) was so thin & fragile that it was almost indistinguishable from the flesh, so after cleaning out the seeds, I chopped them skin-on. I made a few changes; dill seed instead of celery seed, but added a little celery salt, and powdered mustard instead of mustard seed.

IMO it turned out pretty good; OK flavor, and good consistency. I ended up with 10 pints, so there's enough to share with the family. Now I've got a craving for hot dogs, to give it a test ride. ;)

sounds good to me! :)

when i made garlic relish ages ago i found out that it was a really great topping for hotdogs, mustard and saurkraut, green tomato relish would fit right in. :)
 

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