Black Bean & Corn Salsa

Adapted from: http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/2268883-Great-Black-bean-and-corn-salsa-Canning

Courtesy of: Tom Schultz at TasteBook

Made on: 8/22/14

Yield: 4 pints

INGREDIENTS:

4 C Tomatoes – in our case, we used 4 cups of roasted tomatoes, most of which had been peeled

1 ½ Onions, chopped

1 Large green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 Large purple bell pepper, seeded and chopped (or any other sweet pepper you prefer)

½ C Jalapenos, chopped (seeded if you like, but we left it all in)

1 Thai hot pepper (or any other hot pepper you prefer)

1 Habanero pepper (or any other hot pepper you prefer)

5 Garlic cloves, minced

½ T Cumin

½ T Black pepper

1 T Canning Salt

3 T Vinegar

½ C Tomato Seasoning/Powder – we used our homemade tomato powder, which consists of dehydrated tomato skins as an alternative to adding tomato sauce/paste, but you can substitute sauce and/or paste as desired

1 C Black beans

1 C Corn

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix all ingredients together and bring to a slow boil for 10 minutes.

2. Seal in sterilized jars and cook in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Adjustments I made: We cut the original recipe in half to try it out. We added a purple bell pepper because we happened to have one. The original recipe called for a cubanelle pepper, which we didn’t have, so I substituted a thai hot and a habanero pepper. I also added our tomato seasoning as an alternative to the tomato sauce and paste called for.

Adjustments I would like to make: I’m always up for trying out different peppers and seasonings and playing with the ratio. Next time, I would probably add more corn and beans to separate it further from our standard salsa.

Overall Satisfaction: Very, very good. Brandon really liked the sweetness the corn added, so I would like to try adding more of that next time. It has a very good bite to it without being unbearable, which is my favorite level of heat!

Would I Make it Again? I intend to!

The chopped purple pepper

Adding the chopped green pepper

Adding the chopped onion

Adding the chopped thai hot and habanero peppers

Adding the chopped jalapenos

Adding the tomatoes

Adding the seasonings

Adding the black beans and corn (both frozen) -- the corn was fresh, local sweet corn from a relative that Brandon's parents were kind enough to freeze for us!

The mixture after stirring all the ingredients together and boiling for about 10 minutes -- looks good, doesn't it?

The finished product -- four pints of pure deliciousness!