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Home / Relish / Green Tomato Relish

Green Tomato Relish

Filed Under: Relish, Seasonal Fall, Tomatoes Tagged With: Green tomatoes, Thickeners

Green Tomato Relish 01

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.”

Contents hide
  • 1 The recipe
  • 2 Green Tomato Relish
    • 2.1 Ingredients
    • 2.2 Instructions
    • 2.3 Nutrition
  • 3 Reference information
  • 4 Recipe notes
  • 5 Recipe Source and Notes
  • 6 Safety Check
  • 7 Nutrition information
    • 7.1 Regular version
    • 7.2 Sugar-Free Version

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

Print

Green Tomato Relish

Yield: 8 x half-litre jars (1 US pint)
Course Condiments
Cuisine American
Keyword Relish, Tomatoes
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes
Servings 8 half-litre jars (1 US pint)
Calories 41kcal
Metric - US Customary

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)
Metric - US Customary

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

Serving: 2g | Calories: 41kcal | Carbohydrates: 9.9g | Protein: 0.5g | Fat: 0.2g | Sodium: 544mg | Fiber: 0.8g | Sugar: 8.8g

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 ft301 - 900 m / 1,001 - 3,000 ft901 - 1,800 m / 3,001 - 6,000 ftAbove 1,801 m / 6,000
¼ litre (½ US pint)5 min10 min10 min15 min
½ litre (US pint)5 min10 min10 min15 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?

Green Tomato Relish 03

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, tested using 25 g solids, 50 ml distilled water. Well below upper safety cut-off of 4.6 pH.

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

green-tomato-relish-nutrition-regular-version

Sugar-Free Version

Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml:

  • 15 calories, 13 mg sodium

green tomato relish nutrition

* 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.

Green Tomato Relish 02

Tagged With: Green tomatoes, Thickeners

Filed Under: Relish, Seasonal Fall, Tomatoes Tagged With: Green tomatoes, Thickeners

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Siobhan

    May 03, 2021 at 2:31 am

    5 stars
    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.

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      June 20, 2021 at 5:35 pm

      The recipe doesn’t give any option for larger jars.

      Reply
  2. Taz

    September 30, 2020 at 12:49 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 30, 2020 at 4:02 pm

      It would be safe to omit the cornstarch. We don’t have any suggestions for keto-diet substitutes.

      Reply
      • Taz

        October 01, 2020 at 10:53 am

        Thank you!

        Reply
  3. Sherry

    September 23, 2020 at 4:38 pm

    Can I use my already pint canned tomatoes in this recipe? Just curious

    Reply
  4. Tiffany

    November 12, 2018 at 6:06 pm

    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?

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 11, 2019 at 4:00 pm

      It should thicken up.

      Reply
  5. David

    October 23, 2018 at 9:07 pm

    4 stars
    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.

    Reply
  6. Tracy

    April 15, 2018 at 1:05 am

    Oh sorry, can you also decrease amounts of sugar and salt in this recipe? I assume it’s just for flavour?
    Thanks again

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      April 22, 2018 at 1:10 pm

      The sugar and the salt in that recipe are there for flavour.

      Reply
  7. Tracy

    April 15, 2018 at 1:04 am

    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

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      April 22, 2018 at 1:12 pm

      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.

      Reply
  8. Jeanette

    December 02, 2016 at 10:48 pm

    Can you decrease the recripes to 2 quarts of green tomatoes, if so how much would you decreare the rest of the ingreidents?

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      December 04, 2016 at 4:48 pm

      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.

      Reply
If you need FAST or relatively immediate canning help or answers, please try one of these Master Food Preserver groups; they are more qualified than we are and have many hands to help you. Many of them even operate telephone hotlines in season.

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