Pickled Green Tomato Relish is a classic made from those end of summer jewels, green tomatoes.
The recipe is easily cut in half for a smaller batch, but bear in mind that small jars of this also make welcomed hostess gifts, etc.
This is a recipe from So Easy to Preserve.
Yes, cornstarch is fine in lab-tested recipes such as this that call for it, regardless of what the self-appointed safe canning police might say.
“So I merely slammed the door behind me and went down and made some green-tomato pickle. Somebody had to do it.” — Eudora Welty, “Why I Live at the P.O.”
The recipe
Jar size choices: Quarter-litre (½ US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz) OR half-litre (1 US pint / 500 ml/ 16 oz)
Processing method: Water bath or steam canning
Yield: 8 x half-litre (US pint) jars
Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)
Processing time: 5 minutes either jar size
Green Tomato Relish
Ingredients
- 5 kg green tomatoes (washed but not peeled. Finely chopped. 5 US quarts / 5 litres / 10 lbs)
- 750 g onion (washed, peeled, finely chopped. 6 cups / 1.5 lbs. Measured after prep.)
- 1.25 kg bell peppers (mixed colours. e.g. red and green), washed, cored, seeded and finely chopped. (measured after prepping. 8 cups. 2 ¾ lbs. Measured after prep.)
- 175 g pickling salt (½ cup / 6 oz. OR non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub)
- 1 litre water (1 US quart / 32 oz)
- 1 litre vinegar (5% acidity or higher. 1 US quart / 32 oz)
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 800 g sugar (white. 4 cups / 32 oz)
- 100 ml prepared mustard (⅓ cup / 3 oz)
Instructions
- Put the prepped veg (tomato, onion, pepper) in a large pot.
- Add the water and the salt OR salt sub to the veg; bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes, drain, return back to pan.
- Take a portion of the vinegar (about 100 ml / ⅓ cup / 3 oz) and whisk into it the cornstarch.
- To the veg mixture in the pot, add the cornstarch mixture, and the rest of the ingredients.
- Bring to a boil; let simmer uncovered 5 minutes.
- Pack hot into quarter-litre (½ US pint) jars or half-litre (US pint) jars.
- Leave 2 cm (½ inch) headspace for either size jar.
- Debubble, adjust headspace.
- Wipe jar rims.
- Put lids on.
- Process in a water bath or steam canner.
- Process either size jar for 5 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
- Best after at least a month of jar time.
Nutrition
Processing guideline times below differ slightly from the usual altitude changes. The times apply equally to water-bath canners or steam canners.
| Required processing time in minutes per altitude | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jar Size | 0 - 300 m / 0 - 1,000 ft | 301 - 900 m / 1,001 - 3,000 ft | 901 - 1,800 m / 3,001 - 6,000 ft | Above 1,801 m / 6,000 |
| ¼ litre (½ US pint) | 5 min | 10 min | 10 min | 15 min |
| ½ litre (US pint) | 5 min | 10 min | 10 min | 15 min |
Reference information
How to water bath process.
How to steam can.
When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude (follow the table above.)
For salt substitute if desired, we recommend a non-bitter, non-clouding one such as Herbamare Sodium-Free.
More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.
Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.
What is the shelf life of home canned goods?
Recipe notes
To be clear, the tomato is not peeled.
For the peppers, you want about 6 to 7 (1.5 kg / 3 lbs.) whole peppers before starting prep on them.
For the onions, you’ll want about 8 x 7 cm (3 inch) onions, (900 g / 2 lbs.), before starting.
It is fine to reduce the amounts of salt and sugar in the recipe. Do not, however, reduce the amount of vinegar, or increase the amounts of low-acid ingredients such as the bell pepper, onion or water.
Instead of the white sugar, you could use the same volume amount of Splenda®, OR 4 teaspoons liquid stevia (we recommend Better Stevia liquid stevia )
Recipe Source and Notes
Pickled Green Tomato Relish. In: Andress, Elizabeth L. and Judy A. Harrison. So Easy to Preserve. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Bulletin 989. Sixth Edition. 2014. Page 165.
Modifications made:
- Noted option for the smaller jars (same processing times);
- Offered sugar and salt free options.
Safety Check
Pickled Green Tomato Relish has a pH of 3.86. Well below upper safety cut-off of 4.6 pH.
Nutrition information
Regular version
Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml:
- 41 calories, 544 mg sodium
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: per 2 tablespoons, 1 point
Sugar-Free Version
Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml:
- 15 calories, 13 mg sodium
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.
* Herbamare ® is a registered trademark of the A. Vogel Corporation.
Leslie
I used a “chopper” for my peppers and onions. It produced a very fine , somewhat juicy chop. I measured the peppers and onions by cup but it took more like 8 peppers and almost 3 pounds onions to get the “cup” quantity. Am I ok?
Susan
Why cook it down, drain it, then cook it a bit more? Is it because cooking it with less water + vinegar will result in decreased acidity?
I really appreciate your time and experience.
Siobhan
Firstly, I use your website all the time. It’s fantastic! Question, how long would you process quart jars for? I’m planning to use it in meatloaf etc, so I can accomodate preserving in larger jars.
Healthy Canning
The recipe doesn’t give any option for larger jars.
Taz
Hi, is it possible to omit the corn starch from this recipe or use something like xantham gum/guar gum as the thickner (I follow the keto diet and do not use corn starch). Thank you.
Healthy Canning
It would be safe to omit the cornstarch. We don’t have any suggestions for keto-diet substitutes.
Taz
Thank you!
Sherry
Can I use my already pint canned tomatoes in this recipe? Just curious
Tiffany
I just made this and am beginning to water bath it. It is still very runny, though I followed the directions exactly. Should I thicken it in some way, or will it thicken over time?
Healthy Canning
It should thicken up.
David
good tasting relish, but for me the texture was a bit off. I omitted the water and cornstarch, increasted the viniger by 1 cup and only used i cup of sugar.
Tracy
Oh sorry, can you also decrease amounts of sugar and salt in this recipe? I assume it’s just for flavour?
Thanks again
Healthy Canning
The sugar and the salt in that recipe are there for flavour.
Tracy
Can you decrease the amounts of bell peppers and onions and substitute higher amounts of green tomatoes?
Also, can you substitute mustard powder for prepared mustard?
Thanks
Healthy Canning
Green tomatoes are very highly acidic, so increasing the amount of them in the recipe would be safe. Yes, you could use mustard powder instead of prepared.
Jeanette
Can you decrease the recripes to 2 quarts of green tomatoes, if so how much would you decreare the rest of the ingreidents?
Healthy Canning
Hi Jeanette, for that recipe where you want to adjust the base ingredient of 5 kg / quarts down to 2 kg / quarts, you would divide all ingredient quantities by 5, then multiply that result by 2, to get you two-fifths. Do your calculations first on a piece of paper, and then work in the kitchen from that, so you aren’t try to do mental gymnastics in the midst of everything else :} You should end up with around 3 pints of product at the end.