10/17/2022
Bell Peppers - Onions - Celery:
A couple of years ago I had a huge harvest of bell peppers. I decided to dice them - add some diced onion and diced celery and then can all three.
We use this as a 'starter' for a lot of recipes, such as, spaghetti sauce, soup, stew, etc... It's so convenient to have these in our pantry ready to use whenever we need them!
Ingredients: I don't have exact amounts - I used the peppers I had and then just decided how much of the other things I wanted to add. There is less celery than peppers and onions.
Bell Peppers - I used green, red, yellow, and orange. You can use whatever color you have.
Onion - I used sweet onions (that's just my preference but, use whatever you have available or that you like)
Celery
Canning salt - 1/2 teaspoon in each jar
Boiling water
Directions:
Put the correct amount of water in your pressure canner - check the manual that came with your canner to find out how much that is. For my canner it's around 3 inches. Some manuals say 3 quarts. Follow your canner's directions.
Put a splash of white vinegar in the water in your canner - this helps keep your jars from getting cloudy.
Now put your clean jars (filled with water) in the canner.
Turn on burner and begin to warm up the canner and jars.
When you're ready to fill the jars - take them out of the canner and empty the water that is in the jars into your sink.
Put 1/2 teaspoon canning salt in each jar,
Fill the hot jars with diced veggies
Add boiling water to 1 inch headspace
Wipe rim of jar with paper towel that has a bit of vinegar on it.
Put on lid and band to finger tight,
Put your jars in the pressure canner.
When the jars are all in the canner, put the lid on the canner and secure it.
Turn up the heat and when the canner starts to vent a steady stream of steam time the venting for 10 minutes.
When the 10 minutes is up, put on your weight.
When the canner is up to pressure begin timing.
Process in the pressure canner for 40 minutes at 10 pounds pressure (for my altitude, check to see how many pounds of pressure you need to set your canner at for your altitude).
When the time is up, turn off your burner.
Let the pressure come to zero on its own.
When it's at zero remove the canner lid - opening away from you to avoid a face full of hot steam.
Using your canning tongs/jar lifter take the jars out of the canner and put them on a clean towel.
You will start to hear the lovely 'ping' sound letting you know your jars are sealing!
Allow the jars to cool completely without disturbing them.
When the jars are sealed and cool, remove bands, wipe the jars clean, label with contents and date.
Enjoy!
