Green Tomato Relish features garden fresh heirloom tomatoes and peppers along with a few splashes of vinegar and other ingredients It's great for topping steaks, burgers or other grillers.
Green Tomato Relish
I love having my own little backyard garden for a lot of reasons. One of those big reasons is because I LOVE having fresh green tomatoes! Of course fried green tomatoes comes to mind, but a good relish is always nice to have on hand.
I enjoy it for topping all sorts of grilled, pan seared or baked meats, particularly pork of any kind, chicken breast, as well as Indian dishes. This quick and easy relish recipe comes together in no time and stays good for a full month. I've also included instructions for hot packing the relish if you'd like to keep it longer.
Ingredients in Green Tomato Relish
- Green tomatoes
- Jalapeño peppers
- White onion
- Garlic cloves
- Grated ginger
- Yellow mustard seeds
- Celery seeds
- White wine vinegar
- Sugar
- Salt
How to Make Green Tomato Relish
Gather your ingredients. Get your green tomatoes, green peppers of any sort (optional), onion, garlic, fresh ginger, mustard seeds, celery seeds, white wine vinegar, sugar and salt ready to go!
Blend it up! Add all of the ingredients to a food processor. Process the entire mixture until it is nicely chunky.
Process the entire mixture until it is nicely chunky. You don't want to over-process the ingredients, or it will turn into more of a puree, which we don't want.
Boil, then simmer. Pour the mixture into a pot and bring to a quick boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
How to Preserve Green Tomato Relish
If you'd like to preserve your relish longer, you can use the water bath method.
The National Center for Home Food Preservation provides home canning instructions and many recipes that have been tested for food safety. NCHFP.uga.edu.
Wash jars, lids and rings in hot soapy water, or run jars and rings through the dishwasher. If a recipe calls for 10 minutes or more processing time, you do not need to sterilize jars by boiling.
Scoop the relish into the jars, leaving a ½ inch space. A canning funnel is very useful. Use a wooden or plastic chop stick to release any air bubbles. Wipe the rims clean with a wet paper towel. Place lids and rings onto the jars, gently twist the rings until they stop, then tighten just once more inch. Air must be allowed to escape. The canner should have warm water in it about a quarter filled. (Don’t place cool or cold jars into hot water.) Place the jars on the rack and add more water to cover the jars with 1” of water. Bring water to a rolling boil and start the timer for 15 minutes.
Turn off heat and wait 5 minutes. Then lift the jars out and put on a dish towel on a cutting board. Do not put hot jars on a cold surface. A canning jar lifter is almost essential, as you do not want to tilt the jars. (The water on top will evaporate and does not need to be removed). Don’t touch the jars or rings for 12-24 hours. The lids with pop tight as they cool, rather quickly. If a lid doesn’t seal within an hour, replace the lid and reprocess, or put in the refrigerator.
Remove the rings and wash the jars thoroughly. Store jars in a cool, dry place without the rings. Label with contents and date.
NOTE: The processing time is for altitudes of 1,000 feet or less. For altitudes up to 3,000 feet, add 5 minutes; 6,000 feet, add 10 minutes; 8,000 feet, add 15 minutes; 10,000 feet, add 20 minutes.
Recipe Tips & Notes
- Learn how to ripen tomatoes! Now that you know what to do with all of those green tomatoes you have on hand, let's learn How to Ripen Unripe Peppers (and Tomatoes) for when you're craving something riper.
- The consistency should be chunky. You don't want to over-process the ingredients, or it will turn into more of a puree, which we don't want.
- Make sure your jars are clean. Before you try to store the relish, make sure your jars are spotless! Any bacteria could spoil the relish.
Storage
Once the green tomato relish has cooled to room temperature, you can transfer it to clean jars and keep it stored in the fridge for 1 month. Check out my instructions for how to preserve relish to keep it fresh for even longer!
Check Out These Other Popular Pepper Relish Recipes
If you enjoy this recipe, I hope you’ll leave a comment with some STARS. Also, please share it on social media. Don’t forget to tag us at #ChiliPepperMadness. I’ll be sure to share! Thanks! — Mike H.
Green Tomato Relish – Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound green tomatoes roughly chopped
- 2 jalapeno peppers roughly chopped (or use peppers of choice)
- 1 medium white onion roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon celery seeds
- 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and process until the mixture is nice and chunky. Do not overprocess or you’ll turn it into a puree.
- Pour the mixture into a pot and bring to a quick boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Cool, then transfer to cleaned jars. Seal and refrigerate. Should last a month or longer.
FOR CANNING
- First, clean your jars and lids using a steamer rack in a 16-quart pot. Place the jars on the rack and fill the pot with water, enough to cover the jars. Do not let the jars touch the bottom of the pot, as the heat can cause the glass to crack.
- Bring the water to a boil and boil the jars for 10 minutes. Remove the jars with tongs when you’re ready to use them.
- When the relish is ready, scoop the relish into the jars, leaving ¼ inch head space.
- Clean the lids with soap and hot water, then place them onto the jars. Secure them with cleaned canning rings. Wipe the rims clean.
- Place the filled jars back into the hot water bath, onto the steamer rack, ensuring the jars are covered with 3 inches of water.
- Return the water to a boil and process them for 15 minutes. Remove the jars with tongs and tighten the screw caps.
- The jar lids should make a popping sound as they seal. If a lid doesn't seal for some reason, you can reprocess it, or store the jar in the refrigerator.
- Invert the jars to test for leaks. Flip them upright after 10 minutes and allow to cool. Once cooled, press the top of each lid to make sure you have a tight seal (the lid will not move up or down).
- Store the jars in a cool, dry place. They will last a year this way. Once you open them, however, keep the jars in the refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Cat says
This was a great quick relish to make. I ended up putting in a 1/4 cup of white wine vinegar and an 1/8 cup of sugar
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Glad you enjoyed it, Cat.
Denise says
Thanks for the inspiration!
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Thanks, Denise! Great stuff for sure!
Janice c. says
RE; Christina Biscontin, Did you make this recipe, and add cabbage? how did it go? i'm wanting to make a chow chow and this sounds pretty close. Thanks
Patricia Oneal says
Is this a sweet relish like you would use on a hot dog?
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Patricia, it is pretty similar.
Avery says
Just made the relish this afternoon.
So simple! I think I just winged it on the pound of tomatoes- I may have put in more. With that in mind, I think I should have added more vinegar? Either way, it was yum.
Thanks!
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Thanks, Avery. I appreciate it. You can easily add in more vinegar at this point to get it to where you like it. Enjoy.
Mabel says
I'm growing tomatoes again this year just for this recipe. Wonderful.
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Great, Mabel! Me too.
Christina M Biscontin says
Your recipe isn't far off from Southern Chow Chow, which for northerners is a green tomato, cabbage, Onions, and pepper relish. my grandmothers recipe also uses bread and butter pickle seasoning. and since I'm disabled, so I don't have a garden anymore. and up here in the Northwest it's almost impossible to get green tomatoes, so I use tomatillo's, I find the flavor is pretty much the same. I'm not a big fan of Jalapeno peppers(I feel their flavor dominates the dish instead of just giving it a little heat) So since I love hot food, I was searching for the best type of pepper to use to kick up the heat on my next batch when I found your site. me and my sons love Chow Chow, HOT! and we put it on Ham and beans with corn bread, hot dogs, hot links on a bun, but it can be used on all sorts of things. I'm thinking Tabasco chili peppers, hot but not unbearably hot, like using scorpions or ghost peppers. I think 10 years ago I used Habaneros and the heat was over the top a little, made it just a little to hot so you couldn't enjoy the rest of the flavors. But if you have any Ideas I'd love to hear them.
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Thanks, Christina. Pretty much any pepper would work as you mention, but if you're looking to keep it hot but not TOO hot, habaneros or Scotch bonnets would be nice at the high end of that range. Cayenne peppers are usually readily available and have a nice level of heat, as do tabasco peppers. Let me know if you wind up making it again with any of these peppers. Enjoy!