Sweet Green Tomato Relish Recipe

4.75 from 4 votes

Sweet Green Tomato Relish Recipe

Homemade sweet green tomato relish that rivals traditional relish! It's a delicious condiment that pairs well with cheese, cured meats, pasta salads, or slathered on a hot dog. It takes two hours to make, start to finish, and the jars have a shelf-life of two years. Green tomato relish tastes great freshly made but is even better after a couple of months of infusing in the jar.

Course Preserves

Cuisine American, British

Keyword condiment, green tomatoes, tomatoes

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 30

Draining time 1

Total Time 2

Servings Pint jars

Calories 19.5kcal

Author Tanya Anderson

Cost $10

Equipment

Ingredients

Vegetables Prep

3.4 lb green tomatoes 1542 g / 54.4 oz
5 small yellow onions, quartered 515 g / 18.2 oz
1 large red bell pepper, quartered and cleaned 155 g / 5.47 oz
3.5 tsp pickling salt canning salt, sea salt, or kosher salt

Seasonings

1.75 cups white sugar 365 g
7 tsp plain flour (multi purpose) 27 g
1.25 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp celery seed optional

Relish brine

3.5 tsp dijon mustard or 1.25 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1.75 cups apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar | 370 g
1/2 cup tomato juice reserved from the tomatoes | 120 g
pinch red pepper flakes optional - adds heat

Instructions

Vegetable Prep

Prepare the vegetables beginning with the green tomatoes. Quarter them and scoop their seeds and insides into a bowl. You'll be left with a very wet bowl of tomato innards and a bowl of quartered green tomato flesh.
After being cleaned, you should have just over 2.2 lb (1000 g) tomato flesh that goes into the recipe.
Place the tomato innards in a mesh strainer over a large bowl. Allow the liquid to filter down, and give it a bit of a squeeze with your fingers/fist. You want to reserve 1/2 cup of the green liquid to use later.
The green tomato flesh now needs to be chopped up. You can do this by hand, with a knife, with the large holes of a cheese grater, or with a food processor. I've used the latter and broken them down to a rough mince by careful pulsing. You want texture here, not a puree, so be careful. You can also cut your pieces a little larger than I have if you wish. After chopping, you'll have/need 4.5 cups green tomatoes by volume,
Chop the red pepper and yellow onions up to the same size as the green tomatoes. We use yellow onion or light fleshed onions so the relish color isn't affected. After chopping, you'll get/need 2.25 cups onions and just over 1/2 cup red pepper.
Place all of the chopped vegetables in a bowl together and sprinkle over the salt. Stir it in well.
Spoon the mixture into another mesh strainer over a bowl, and allow the mixture to drain for one hour.
At the end of this time, squeeze the vegetables down with your fist and fingers to try to remove as much moisture as possible. After this, discard the salty liquid (there should be about 3 cups of it!). The vegetables will be much reduced in size.

Seasonings and Jar Prep

In a bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients including the sugar, flour, and spices. Set aside.
Warm your clean jars and lids in the oven. Set the oven to 200°F (100°C) and place the jars inside. Keep them there until they are called for. Warming glass jars stop them from cracking when hot contents are poured inside.

Make the Brine

In a large stainless steel pan, combine the vinegar, dijon (if using it), and the reserved tomato liquid from the seeds. The latter adds a little greenness to the relish, tomato flavor, but no salt as the seeds were not salted. Bring to a boil.
While whisking, slowly add the dry ingredient mix to the boiling liquid. Mix thoroughly until completely incorporated.

Make the Sweet Green Tomato Relish

Once the brine is mixed, add the drained vegetable mix of green tomatoes, onion, and red pepper. Stir it all together, bring the pan back to a boil, then lower it to medium heat. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring constantly. The green tomato relish is ready when it looks like the photo below. If yours looks more watery than this, keep boiling it until that excess moisture evaporates.
Take the jars out of the oven carefully, and place them on a towel on the kitchen work surface. Ladle the green tomato relish inside, filling them with a 1/4 (0.5 cm) inch headspace. A metal preserving funnel helps stop any mess.
There will be air bubbles between the glass and the green tomato relish. Run a thin silicone spatula or butter knife around the edge of each pot to release them. Fix the lids on and screw them (or the rings) on so that they're firmly closed but not overly tight.

Water Bath the Jars

Water-bath* the jars to ensure that they're fully sterilized and won't go off during storage. Fill a tall pan with water and place a rack at the bottom if you have one. If not, a potholder or folded dish towel will do. This is to protect your jars from direct heat. Bring to a boil then lower your jars in so that they're not touching and that there's at least an inch of water above.
Bring back to a rolling boil and leave the jars in the boiling water for ten minutes. Lift them out vertically (not tilted) with a jar lifter and set them on a towel placed on the kitchen work surface to cool. If you've made a lot of jars and they don't all fit in your pan, you can water bath the jars in batches.
The lids will seal as the relish cools to room temperature. You may hear a pop, and you may not. The important thing is that the lid does not push down and up again if pressed. They should appear slightly convex since water bathing creates a vacuum inside the jars as well as kills mold and yeasts.
Label the jars when cool and store them in a dark cupboard for up to two years. I'd highly recommend keeping them bottled for at least a month or two before opening to allow the flavor to develop. Refrigerate the jars once opened, and try to use the relish within nine months of opening.

Notes

*In Britain, it's not common for people to water-bath high-acid preserves like this green tomato relish. It's a cultural thing. However, if you do water-bath, you can ensure a seal and that any remaining microbes will be killed. There's nothing worse than opening a jar of homemade preserves and being greeted with mold.

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