How to make and can THE BEST Green Tomato Relish. This simple canning recipe is made with green tomatoes, onions and bell peppers. It’s a great recipe to save for unripe garden green tomatoes!
Unripe Green Tomato Relish
The end of garden season brings some high fives. Look at you with all your canned roma tomato sauce, half sour pickles and candied jalapenos! It also often brings a lot of unripe green tomatoes!
I have lots of green tomato recipes that I make that I’ll soon be sharing, like green tomato jam, pickled green tomatoes, fried green tomatoes, green tomato salsa, and green tomato cake, but one of my favorite ones is green tomato relish because it uses up so much of our green tomato harvest! It’s also an amazing recipe to share with family and neighbors, or add on top of your hot dog casserole.
This will make (12) 1-pint jars or (6) 1 quart jars of relish.
How Many Tomatoes Should I use?
I know many recipes call for an amount of tomatoes (example: 20 tomatoes), but I know the size of a tomato is subjective. To make it easier, I weighed mine for a more exact amount. You will need 11 pounds of tomatoes for this recipe.
How to Make Green Tomato Relish
Using a food processor or blender, chop up the tomatoes, onions and peppers until they are “relish” texture. Do each separately, first the tomatoes, then the onions, then the peppers. This always gets a little messy for me. 🙂
Place cheesecloth over a large colander in the sink and add all of the chopped tomatoes, onions and peppers, allowing it to sit on the cheesecloth to drain. I like to press down with my hands and then let it sit for 30 minutes to make sure all the extra water drains out.
In a large pot, add tomato relish mixture and the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil for a few minutes. Note: the recipe card is at the bottom of the post with full ingredients/instructions.
Now let’s move on to the next step for a full canning walk through!
How to Can Relish
Sterilize jars. This will make (12) 1-pint jars or (6) 1 quart jars of relish.
Add relish to the jars, filling to the top, removing any air bubbles. Screw the lids on top.
Carefully place jars in a large pot, filled with boiling water. Make sure the jars are covered by 2 inches of water. At full boil, cover pot with a lid and process for 30 minutes.
Carefully remove jars from the pot, using canning tongs and place on a towel covered table, making sure they aren’t touching. Allow to cool completely.
Once cool, press down each top to make sure they were properly processed. The lid shouldn’t pop up and down.
How long will canned relish last for?
If properly stored in a cool dark pantry or cabinet, unopened jars of relish will last for about 2 years.
Hope you like this green tomato relish! Enjoy those end of season green tomatoes! 🙂
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Green Tomato Relish (canning option)
PrintIngredients
- 11 pounds green tomatoes
- 8 cups onions equals about 8 large onions
- 3 red bell peppers halved, seeds removed
- 3 green bell peppers halved, seeds removed
- 3 cups white sugar
- 2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons celery seed
- 3 tablespoons mustard seed
- 1 tablespoon salt
Instructions
How to Make
- Place tomatoes, onions, green peppers and red peppers in a food processor and pulse until "relish" texture. You can do the tomatoes first, then the onions, and then the peppers. You will probably need to do this in batches and it might get a little messy.
- Place cheesecloth over a large colander in the sink and add all of the relish, allowing it to sit on the cheesecloth to drain. I like to press down with my hands and then let it sit for 30 minutes to get out all of the extra water.
- In a large pot add tomato relish mixture, sugar, apple cider vinegar, celery seed, mustard seed and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, and then reduce to a simmer, stirring often for 5 minutes.
How to Can:
- Sterilize jars. This will make (12) 1-pint jars or (6) 1-quart jars. I always recommend wide-mouth jars as they're easier to fill.
- Add relish to the jars, filling to the top, and use a butter knife to press down to remove all air pockets from the sides. Add lids on top and then screw the bands on.
- Place a canning rack in the bottom of a large pot, filling it halfway with boiling water. Carefully (!) lower the jars into the pot using a lifter, leaving about 2 inches between each jar. If your pot isn't big enough you might need to do this in batches. If needed, pour additional boiling water into the pot so all the jars are covered by 2 inches of water.
- At full boil, cover with a lid and process for 30 minutes.
- Carefully remove jars from the pot and place on towel covered table, making sure jars aren't touching and are a few inches apart from each other. Allow to cool completely.
- Once cool, press down each top to make sure they were properly processed (the lid shouldn't pop up and down).
- Store your canned relish in a cool dark cabinet or pantry. If stored properly, unopened relish will last for about 2 years.
Gary Jones says
I want to save and reuse this recipe.