Cooking and Canning Tomatoes, Onions, & Green Peppers (Fajita Vegetables)

Our family goes through a lot of sautéed tomatoes, onions, and green peppers. It is the base for a lot of my husband's favorite Tanzanian dishes, but also is a great way to have fajitas ready in a hurry. I searched the internet high and low, but couldn't come up with any recipes that said that this was an ok combination to safely water bath can. So, after doing some research with a few canning pros, I was urged to give it a shot. And they turned out fantastic! Now I can take advantage of sales on these vegetables in the summer months and still enjoy them even when the price on them sky rockets in the colder months. 

Ingredients:

Equal amounts of tomatoes, onions, and any color bell peppers 

A splash of olive oil

Garlic salt (optional)

Lemon juice

I like to do giant batches of these whenever I find the produce on sale. This was 10 bell peppers, 12 yellow onions, and 32 Roma tomatoes (about 4 lbs). The veggies are chopped just a bit bigger than I would have liked, but the kids helped chop and anytime I don't have to do all the work by myself, it's a good day, so I'm not complaining.

I throw them all in pans in evenish amounts, drizzle a generous amount of olive oil over them, sprinkle on some garlic salt and cook them over medium until they're dry and the onions and peppers are translucent. They will get wetter before they get dry though as the tomatoes cook down. 

When they are done, in freshly sanitized jars (either run them through the dishwasher or boil them), add lemon juice (2 TBS for quart jars, 1 TBS for pint jars, 2 tsp for 8 oz jelly jars) to the bottom of the jars. Then fill the jars up with the sautéed fajita veggies,  leaving 1/2 in headspace. 

Then I put the same amount/size of jars that I want to process on my rack or on top of some extra rings in my waterbath canner (empty, with the lids on). Add water. You want to cover the top of the jars by at least a couple of inches. Remove your empty jars. Put canner full of water on to boil. Remove the lids from jars. Put the disc shaped lids in a small pot of boiling water for 5 mins. Remove them one at a time with a magnetic lid lifter and put on the jars of fajita veggies without touching the underside of the lids. Add the rings. Start another pot of water to boil (empty with nothing in it) Once your water is boiling, in your waterbath canner, add the jars and lower them into the water. Start a timer. I process mine for 1 hour and 15 mins. This could vary slightly depending on your altitude. (I'm in Missouri.) Throughout this time, keep an eye on the pot. If the water ever starts to boil down where it's not covering the jars anymore, add water to the canner from the pot of boiling water and add more water to the pot for the next time. 

After 75 mins, turn off the burner to your canner, raise your rack (if using one), and remove the jars using a jar lifter. Place them on a towel on the counter. Let them sit until cool. You will hear a popping noise as the jars seal. After they are completely cool, feel to see if the lids are firm. If they have some give to them and you can "pop" them up and down, that means that the lids didn't seal and you will need to stick that jar in the fridge and use it within the next few days. For all of the jar lids that are firm, you will need to remove the rings, wipe down the jar and the rings carefully to make sure there is no remaining food/juice outside the jar that might spoil. Now these are good to store in your pantry!