The 14 Best Tomato Canning Recipes for Summer Garden Tomatoes
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I get it. Sometimes it’s overwhelming to find the best tomato canning recipes in the heat of tomato canning season!
You planted 57 tomato plants thinking you’d not have enough and now you’re drowning. I do it every year. And then I’m like… well, what do I can first?! Especially since I have tomatoes coming out of my ears now and I refuse to freeze them. (OH MY GOODNESS frozen tomatoes are awful…. and I forget about them until February… not worth it).
The Best of My Tomato Canning Recipes in a Convenient List
Thankfully, I’ve been around the block with canning a time or two and have narrowed down my staples and those that I enjoy. They may not be your thing, but alas, it’s my website and my page and I’m sharing MY recipes :D
I’ve not organized this list into any type of sections or priority, but I do make sure I prioritize preserving the things I will use the most, and then will start canning the fun things. Those must haves are things like roasted sauce, pizza sauce, enchilada sauces, ketchup, and diced tomatoes. We use around 40 pints or pizza sauce EVERY YEAR. Every single Sunday is pizza day in our house, and then there’s other fun meals that utilize it too.
If all else fails, simply cooking your tomatoes down into an unseasoned sauce, or even juice, is better than freezing them. You can then pop the jars and transform them further into one of these delish tomato canning recipes!
Sort through these delicious and creative recipes canning tomatoes and find something that will work for you :)
My $0.02 On Dumping Off The Tomato Water
I gotta start here. Chances are you’re going to see a reel, or a tiktok, or a short of someone showing you a “shortcut” on how to make a thick sauce without all the cook time. Simply puree the tomatoes, let the pulp separate from the “water” and then dump the water off.
Lemme tell you somethin’. That ain’t the way for the best tomato canning recipes!
Ok. Fine. If you want to do that, go for it. BUT. You will be left with a less flavorful sauce than if you took the time to simmer that sauce down. I know. I’ve tested it and compared and the sauce that I dumped the tomato water off of was not good. Not when I make a roasted and then slow simmered sauce. Nope. No sir.
Second. Flavor aside, that tomato water or tomato juice, the yellowish-orange liquid, is the acidity of the tomato. That water contains most of the acid in the tomatoes. And the flavor. But now, you’re dumping the natural acid off, and then having to re-acidify it with an unnatural flavor, like lemon juice, vinegar, or citric acid, when you could have just left it well enough alone.
The recommendation for home canned tomatoes is to acidify them anyway, but you’re really going to have to follow the rules if you’re tossing the natural juices.
So, you’re rebel canning. And for what? A sad flavorless tomato paste that you’re going to have to add tons of stuff to to get a food flavor? Nah. You will see in a recipe or two of mine that to maintain the integrity of the tomato chunks, that I will strain out the water and reduce it separately and then add it back to the sauce or soup or salsa. That’s the closest you’ll see me get to draining the water and I’ll never recommend you toss it. Evah.
I guess if you must, at least save that tomato water and can it to cook rice in or something. Better than dumping it!
Onto the tomato canning recipes you were looking for!
Roasted Tomato Sauce
We’re starting with one of my high priority sauces to get on the shelf made with those fresh garden tomatoes. This one is easy to work through by roasting the tomatoes off, running through your food mill, and then simmering down until it mounds on a spoon.
Yeah, it takes some time and patience. But all good things do. It’s less watching than making no added pectin jam. I simply get this sauce to a good simmer and stir it when I walk past it. No big deal and you don’t have to be staring at the pot the entire day.
Use fresh herbs, onions, and bell peppers from your garden and you will get the freshest and most flavorful sauce you’ve ever had! You can preserve this sauce via water bath or steam canning!
Making a sauce like this can serve as a base to be made into different recipes from here as well later on when the snow is flying and it’s resting season.
Homemade Pizza Sauce
My pizza sauce recipes is simple and loved by many! I love recipes tomatoes are roasted first as it really just enhances the depth of flavor, so consider roasting them prior to making this sauce as well.
I like to make small batches of this recipes in a slow cooker and let it go overnight uncovered and have it ready to can in the morning. Super easy and low maintenance! Slather this sauce on my easy bread machine fresh milled pizza dough recipe :)
Green Tomato Enchilada Sauce
We LOVE enchiladas in our house and it’s such an easy meal when you have a canning pantry well stocked. Simply whip together some homemade fresh milled tortillas (here’s my favorite recipe), fill them with home canned chicken & black beans or sweet corn, smother in this delicious sauce, and bake to perfection.
Make green tomato enchilada sauce in the early summer when you’re itching to preserve something and the tomatoes just aren’t turning fast enough, or in the fall like I do, when frost is headed your way so you just pick the plants clean.
Roast them first along with all the other veggies and you’ll have yourself a delicious and unique enchilada sauce without having to grow tomatillos.
Homemade Tomato Salsa
I think when we start getting tons of tomatoes canning comes on quick. And sometimes it’s hard to focus and find the perfect recipe.
Well, this one is because it encourages you to make it BY YOUR TASTE and keep it simple and fresh. So many times, I see an overcomplicated salsa recipe that is NOT good. Keep the flavors fresh and simple and TASTE IT as you go.
That’s the best way.
Along with roasting the tomatoes, slipping off the skins, and keeping it chunky. This salsa is very pretty in the jar and wonderful for gifting.
Homemade Tomato Ketchup
I’m picking when it comes to canning ketchup. Not many recipes will do. I need a good texture AND good dippability, meaning it’s gotta stick to my french fry perfectly.
Enter this recipe that utilizes fresh tomatoes AND tomato paste (either homemade or from the can…. you do you), and then is thickened with a little bit of clear jel. It gives the most AMAZING texture to ketchup and is finally one my kids to complain about eating.
Before, it was hard to get them to eat homemade because the store bought was so much better, but they’ll choose this recipe over Heinz or the Aldi organic brand (which is really good) any day!
Plus, this ketchup is good to can in larger amounts, like quarts, to save for other recipes down the road you can can in the winter when you have more time, like my honey barbecue sauce or sloppy joe sauce just to name a couple.
If I get everything else stocked in my pantry, I usually make a lot of tomato paste and then ketchup because it’s so versatile!
Rustic Tomato Basil Soup
Everyone like tomato basil soup. I hope.
I like it chonky. Not smooth like baby food. So in many of my canning recipes tomatoes are chunky! Case in point.
Roast the tomatoes and chop them up and add tons of fresh picked basil. This soup is amazingly flavorful and wonderful alongside some grilled cheeses made with homemade fresh milled bread. Super easy and super filling!
Canning Diced Tomatoes
This may be “illegal” canning activity in some circles over density and all that nonsense, but I’m still canning them. I don’t want crushed tomatoes. I don’t want whole tomatoes. I want DICED tomatoes.
I like to use my food chopper to dice up tomatoes uniformly and work through tons really quickly. I had lots of dried herbs to make these diced tomatoes a flavorful addition to many recipes and casseroles!
Dehydrated Tomato Powder
Saving the tomato skins and guts after running them through a food mill and then dehydrating leaves you with a really flavorful powder.
I know some folks have big opinions on using the seeds and skins, but it’s my kitchen and I enjoy the powder, so I’m going to keep doing it. I will add this powder to crackers, dips, and even back to sauces to add flavor and natural thickening. It’s just another layer of utilizing what you have instead of throwing it out.
Of course, I will give some to my chickens because I don’t always feel like dragging my dehydrator out, but especially if you’re purchasing your produce, this helps you get another bit of bang for your buck out of your purchase.
Canned Chili Mix
This may be a weird one, but it started as a chili base and I began calling it chili mix. It’s basically tomatoes, bell peppers, and onions. It’s a lovely starter for many different soups and casseroles and is very flavorful!
I can a couple canners worth of this every year and we use it pretty quickly.
Pickled Balsamic and Basil Cherry Tomatoes
This recipe stemmed off the Ball recipe for bruschetta I didn’t really care for to become a “lazy girl syrup” recipe, meaning I’m not making the pickling liquid separate, but rather adding all the ingredients to the jar and letting the canning process heat and mix the pickling liquid for me.
I use a variety of vinegars to create a depth of flavor you didn’t know you were looking for. We enjoy these in pasta salad, on pizza, in stromboli, and more!
Homemade Sloppy Joe Sauce
This is a pretty unique recipe and is super delicious. I normally use canned tomato sauce and canned ketchup to throw this sauce together in the off season when canning isn’t so insane.
It’s very easy to mix together and let it cook in your slow cooker until it’s done! Add some dehydrated mushrooms to help thicken the sauce quickly and give an extra depth of flavor.
Honey Barbecue Sauce
This is another of those recipes I’ll can in the off season and toss together in the dead of winter. I LOVE BARBECUE SAUCE.
A Sweet Baby Ray’s dupe but without the trash ingredients that make my stomach hurt. It starts with a bit of homemade ketchup and we work from there.
Fermented Salsa
This is canning, obviously, but I had to add it because fermented salsa is one of those things I have to have percolating on my counter at all times in the summer once the tomatoes are one.
IT IS SO GOOD. AND SO GOOD FOR YOU!
Roasted Red Tomato Enchilada Sauce Recipe
Yeah, I know I have TWO enchilada sauce recipes… but they difffffff. This one utilizes ripe tomatoes and are roasted til they are delicious and sweet. I make both, making the green tomato style at the end of the season when a frost is coming (or I’m over the garden) and use the remaining tomatoes before I rip plants out.
This sauce is so delicious and easy to throw together. I will sometimes make a small batch and allow it to cook down in a slow cooker. Slowly reducing sauces like this one pays off in a big way with flavor development. SO GOOD!
