Taco Tip
Mondays on Living Large in Our Little House will generally be for tips in living in a small space. Heather suggested the other day that I publish my husband’s family taco sauce recipe. We usually use store bought canned tomatoes, but I will be making several batches from fresh tomatoes in the coming month to can. Since living smaller usually means living simpler and more frugally, making your own sauce falls into the category of a small living tip.
Enjoy!
Campbell’s Taco Sauce Recipe
2–3 cans of Mexican blend tomatoes (if using fresh tomatoes, you will need to add jalapenos to taste)
1 can of original Rotel tomatoes, drained
1 large onion
1 tblsp. Taco seasoning from envelope
1–2 tblsp. Cilantro, or about ¼ chopped fresh to taste
For smooth sauce, blend the Mexican tomatoes, one can at a time in a blender, along with portions of the onion. If you like chunky salsa, use a mini-chopper or food processor. Put into a saucepan. Add drained Rotel tomatoes, taco seasoning and cilantro. Mix well and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer for about ½ hour. Allow to cool and serve at room temperature. Cover and refrigerate leftovers for up to 1 week.
I’m always looking for good recipes. If you have any, share them with us in the comments section.
Faced with an abundance of fresh, ripe tomatoes one year, we made our own sauce and canned the sauce. We blanched the tomatoes to remove the skins easily, then put them in a very large pot (actually, our extra-large pressure canner pot). We added sliced bell pepper, diced onion, carrots and celery, and some minced fresh spices. We brought it all to a boil, and let it cook while excess water was evaporated away and the sauce thickened. Then, we canned the resulting condensed sauce. The tomatoes disintegrated in the long cooking time and formed a fabulous base–but we added some additional tomato chunks for the last half hour or so of the four or five hours we had it on the fire. We used the resulting sauce as a base for tacos, as a pizza topping, and as a caserole or soup base. Because it was pressure canned, the individual jars held up for many months safely, while opened jars when refrigerated tended to last a week on those rare occasions we didn't finish the jar quickly. We must have had about a 40% reduction in volume simply by cooking away so much water. It was by far the best sauce I have ever had. Today, doing it again, I would add some jalapenos to the mix–my palate wasn't so adventuresome in those days.
That sound so great, David! I'm not sure we will have the tomato crop I expected this year. But maybe we can do that next year!
Frugal,
If you can get jalepeno peppers, you can make your own Rotel just by chopping some tomatoes, jalepenos and mixing them together and letting them sit for a couple of days in your fridge. Or, just use fresh or canned tomatoes and cook the jalepenos with the sauce as we plan to do with our fresh tomatoes for canning!
Sounds yum, but I can't get Rotel down here