Canning tomatillos at home is a quick and easy way to preserve whole tomatillos for use all year long. Most tomatillo recipes start by simmering the tomatillos, and canning them ahead of time will save effort and allow you to get dinner on the table faster on a busy weeknight.
Every year we grow tomatillos in our garden, and we often harvest 40 to 50 pounds of fruit from just a few plants. They’re exceptionally productive, without any care or tending. Just one or two forgotten fruits and you’ll have tomatillo volunteers for years to come.
It’s been two years since I actually planted tomatillos in my garden, but the volunteers keep coming up. The seeds will sprout up and produce in sections of lawn, or in the compacted area right next to the gravel driveway. There’s really no stopping them.
Most years, I preserve tomatillos in a home-canned green sauce for enchiladas and marinades. My recipe is adapted from a ball canning recipe and has a lot of added lime juice. The lime juice adds great flavor to the sauce, but I also assumed that the additional acidity was required to safely water bath can tomatillos.
I recently learned that tomatillos can be water bath canned without added acidity. Canning tomatillos whole is a lot more versatile than a pre-seasoned green sauce, and they’re perfect for winter soups.
Since tomatillos need to be hot packed, the fruits must be cooked before they go into the canning jars. A quick simmer in boiling water is sufficient, but you can also roast the tomatillos in the oven for more flavor. Many recipes call for roasted tomatillos anyway, and that extra dry heat before canning will add a smokey, caramelized flavor to the canned tomatillos.
The fruits lose a substantial amount of their volume in the initial pre-cook before hot packing, and a full pound of tomatillos can fit into a single pint mason jar, or two pounds per quart jar.
Since the fruits have a tough skin, it’s helpful to pierce each one with a needle or fork before pre-cooking. This will keep them from popping, and result in cleaner jars of canned tomatillos with more intact whole fruits.
The tomatillos don’t need to be chopped or peeled of their inner skin before canning, just remove the papery outer husk, and parboil or roast before packing them into canning jars. Though studies have shown that tomatillos are generally more acidic than tomatoes, and well below the safe cutoff for canning without added acid, the National Center for Home Food Preservation still calls for adding lemon juice to the canning liquid at a rate of one tablespoon per pint.
While it may not be strictly necessary to add acid, the lemon juice adds extra flavor to the canned tomatillos and better safe than sorry. Either way, acid or not, the tomatillos are canned in a water bath canner with 1/2 inch headspace for 40 minutes for pints and 45 minutes for quarts.
Canning Whole Tomatillos
Simple canned whole tomatillos are versatile in recipes, and can be quickly put up using a water bath canner.
Ingredients
- 9 lbs Tomatillos, fresh
- 9 tbsp lemon juice
- boiling water
Instructions
- Remove the papery outer husks from the tomatillos and pierce each one with a needle or fork (optional).
- Simmer tomatillos in boiling water for about 5 minutes, until they lose their bright green color.
- Add one tablespoon of lemon juice to each pint canning jar (or 2 tbsp for quarts). Pack whole tomatillos into canning jars and cover with boiling water, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
- Seal with 2 part lids and process in a water bath canner for 40 minutes (pints) or 45 minutes (quarts) adjusting for altitude.
- If you prefer, tomatillos can be pressure canned at 10 pounds pressure for 10 minutes instead, but pressure canning is not strictly required as they are a high acid food.
Notes
The recipe makes 9 pints.
Summer Canning Recipes
Looking for more easy summer canning recipes?
Amy Chidester
Thanks for this great information. Could I use lime juice in place of the lemon juice?
Ashley Adamant
Yes, definitely! Lime juice sounds lovely and would be a good substitution in this recipe. The acid isn’t strictly required for canning safety, it’s just a flavor enhancer, so lime juice would be perfect.
Amy Chidester
Thank you!
Christina
Hi! I think I would prefer to roast the tomatillos instead of simmering in boiling water. How long do you think I should roast them for before canning? I can’t wait to try this. I have so many tomatillos I don’t know what to do with them!
Katie
At what temperature and duration would you roast them in the oven for? (before canning)
Darrell Fluman
Re: The added acid in the green tomatillo salsa.
The added lime juice is needed to cover the potential of C. botulinum risk in the onions.
Typically onions and recipes containing onions would have to be canned in a pressure canner.
Otherwise, onions would have to be pickled to safely can them in a hot water bath.
Most tomato and tomato sauce recipes w/o onion can be water bath canned. When you add onion, you have to process it in a pressure canner.
Diane
What kind of recipes do you use whole tomatillos in?
Admin
Tomatillos are just easy to can whole. I don’t typically use them whole but will puree them for salsa, soups, and stews.
Phyllis Sinclair
What do you mean by ‘process in a water bath canner’? Does that mean ‘immerse in boiling water’? or what? Thank you very much. I’m new to this and have a lot of tomatillos
Cece
Can I put tomatillos in food processor and purée them and then can the purées tomatillos?
Admin
Yes, you can. There are many tomatillo salsa canning recipes out there if you decide to go that route.
Brianna St Clair
Is there anyway to not add the water? Like cut them in half and roast them, then can like that without the water? Or are they just not juicy enough?
Ashley Adamant
They’re not juicy enough for that, but I believe you can also process them as a sauce instead and that might be a better option if you’re looking to avoid diluting them with water.
Barbara Whetzel
Thank you so much for info on canning tomatillos . First year growing and I know next year I will have plenty too,,,,,
Thank you Barbara
Heather Stites
I used the whole tomatillos to make chile verde. It’s amazing! I brown chunks of pork in a little oil in my dutch oven and then add onions and Brown until soft. Then add a little garlic for a minute. Add some chicken stock, your tomatillos, and a good bunch of chopped, roasted Anaheim chiles. Add a couple tablespoons of cumin and let simmer on low for a couple hours. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice with some tortillas on the side. I love to add some white beans too sometimes for a little extra bulk. Phenomenal. Sorry I don’t use measurements. I just throw things in the pot lol. It works!