Classic Green Tomato Relish

Green tomato relish is an old-fashioned sweet relish made with chopped green tomatoes, peppers, and onions, with whole mustard seed and celery seed in the brine.

This classic version tastes a lot like sweet pickle relish, with more flavor from the green tomatoes. It’s ready to spoon onto hot dogs and burgers all year.

Here in Vermont, frost always comes before the tomatoes finish ripening, and most of the last ones are still hard and green. Green tomatoes are tart and firm, and they hold their shape in a jar, which is what makes them so good in relish.

Old cookbooks are full of green tomato relishes, and once you start looking, you see them everywhere. Many mix green tomatoes, peppers, onions, vinegar, and sugar, and many use mustard seed and celery seed for spice.

It’s a simple one-day recipe that uses up a lot of tomatoes at once. If you have more to work through, there’s a whole list of green tomato canning recipes to try.

I make a half batch of the pickled green tomato relish from the University of Georgia Extension pamphlet Canning Relishes (FDNS-E-43-18). The original recipe stirs prepared yellow mustard and cornstarch into the brine. Both are optional, and I skip them in favor of whole mustard seed and celery seed.

I made three different green tomato relishes: a hot dog relish, a dilled relish, and this classic sweet one. The classic tastes a lot like sweet pickle relish, with plenty of onion and sugar. The green tomatoes give it more complexity than cucumbers do.

If you’d like cabbage in your relish, try southern chow chow. And once you’ve canned all you can, there are lots more green tomato recipes for dinner and baking.

Types of Green Tomato Relish

Green tomato relish comes in a lot of regional styles, and they’re different enough that it helps to know which one you’re making. This classic version has a fine chop, white sugar, and whole mustard seed and celery seed. Bell peppers and onions go in alongside the tomatoes.

Southern chow chow is its closest cousin. It has the same fine chop, but it adds cabbage, and dry mustard and turmeric give it a yellow mustard brine.

Canadian green tomato chow chow is almost all green tomatoes and onions, and it simmers for about two hours, until it’s thick and jammy. New England piccalilli keeps the cabbage, cuts everything in bigger chunks, and sweetens it with brown sugar and warm spices.

As for the other two relishes I made with this one, the hot dog relish has a strong mustard flavor and isn’t too sweet. The dilled relish is sour and very dilly, with no sugar taste at all. This classic version is the sweet one.

All three are in my list of green tomato pickling recipes. There are more regional styles in my chow chow and piccalilli roundup. You’ll also find lots of other relish recipes made with cucumbers, zucchini, corn, and peppers.

Choosing Green Tomatoes for Relish

Use small, hard green tomatoes. That’s what the University of Georgia recipe calls for, and they’re tart and firm, so they hold their texture in the brine.

Set aside any that have started to blush or soften, and let those ripen on the counter. Some varieties, like Green Zebra, stay green when they’re ripe. Those are ripe tomatoes, so leave them out of this recipe.

Don’t bother peeling them, either. Green tomato skins soften right along with the rest of the relish, and they’re nearly impossible to get off an unripe tomato anyway. Core them, cut out any bruises, and they’re ready to chop.

Ingredients for Classic Green Tomato Relish

It’s a short list. There are three vegetables, a salt brine to pull water out of them, and a sweet vinegar brine to cook them in.

• Green Tomatoes: Small, hard, and fully green, chopped fine. They’re the base of the relish, and they give it a tartness and complexity that cucumbers don’t have.
• Bell Peppers: Equal amounts of red and green. In my batch, the red peppers turned the whole relish a warm orange, like there was turmeric in it, without any turmeric flavor.
• Onions: Yellow onions, chopped as fine as the tomatoes. It’s a lot of onion, and that’s part of what makes it taste like a classic sweet relish.

The rest goes into the two brines. You only use the salt water for the first boil, and you drain it off before the vinegar goes in.

• Canning Salt and Water: For the salt boil only. Use pickling or canning salt, which is what the recipe calls for. I use Morton canning and pickling salt. Most of it goes down the drain with the water, so the finished relish doesn’t taste salty.
• Vinegar: Distilled white or cider vinegar, as long as it’s 5 percent acidity. It’s what makes the relish safe to can, so measure it carefully. I buy white vinegar and cider vinegar in glass bottles.
• Sugar: Plain granulated sugar. It’s a sweet relish, and the sugar balances out all that vinegar.
• Mustard Seed and Celery Seed: Whole seeds, not ground. My first jars tasted heavy on celery seed, with hardly any mustard, so I shifted the balance toward mustard seed. If you love celery seed, use equal amounts of both.

How to Make Classic Green Tomato Relish

This is a one-day relish with no overnight soak. The vegetables get a quick boil in salt water, then a short simmer in the sweet brine, and then they go straight into jars.

Most of the work is the chopping, so it’s worth getting out the food processor. After the chopping, the cooking takes well under an hour.

Chop the Vegetables

Core the tomatoes, seed the peppers, and peel the onions. Then chop everything fine, about 1/4 inch, and keep the pieces as even as you can.

I chop most of my relishes in my Breville Sous Chef food processor. It paid for itself the first season on the time it saved me. With a regular food processor, pulse in short bursts and work in small batches, or the tomatoes turn to slush.

Boil the Vegetables in Salt Water

Put the chopped vegetables in a large stainless steel or enameled pot. Stir the salt into the water until it dissolves, pour it over the vegetables, and bring everything to a boil. Then turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Don’t worry if the pot foams up. Mine frothed quite a bit as the vegetables let go of their liquid, and all of it goes down the drain.

Pour everything into a colander and let it drain well. Give it a few minutes, so the salty liquid runs off before the vinegar goes in.

Cook the Relish

Put the drained vegetables back in the pot with the vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, and celery seed. Stir well, bring it back to a boil, and then simmer for 5 minutes, stirring often.

This isn’t a long cook-down relish like some chow chows. Five minutes is the tested simmer time, and it’s enough to dissolve the sugar and heat everything through.

Fill the Jars

Ladle the hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. A wide-mouth canning funnel keeps the relish off the rims.

Run a bubble tool around the inside of each jar, and top it off if the level drops. Wipe the rims, set the lids on, and screw the bands on fingertip tight.

Canning Classic Green Tomato Relish

Put your water bath canner on to heat before you start the salt boil, so it’s hot by the time the jars are full. If you’re new to this, my guide to water bath canning for beginners covers the whole setup.

Lower the jars into the canner, and make sure at least an inch of water covers them. Process quarter pints, half pints, and pints for 10 minutes, starting the timer once the water returns to a full rolling boil. Adjust the time for your altitude with the chart below.

When the time is up, turn off the heat, take the lid off the canner, and let the jars sit 5 minutes. Then lift them out with a jar lifter, set them on a towel, and leave them alone for 12 to 24 hours.

Ways to Use Classic Green Tomato Relish

Hot dogs are the obvious place to start, and it’s just as good on burgers and brats. It’s thick enough that I serve it with a fork, and it stays put on a hot dog. Use it anywhere you’d use sweet pickle relish.

Stir it into tuna salad, egg salad, or potato salad, or mix it with mayonnaise for a quick tartar sauce. A spoonful in deviled egg filling works too.

More Ways to Preserve Green Tomatoes

If you’d rather keep your green tomatoes in bigger pieces, pickled green tomatoes are the classic. There are also dill pickled green tomatoes and sweet pickled green tomatoes.

For something savory, green tomato salsa verde and green tomato enchilada sauce use up a big batch at once. Green tomato chutney is sweet and sour.

On the sweet side, there’s green tomato jam, green tomato marmalade, and green tomato pie filling, which bakes up a lot like apple pie.

Storage and Shelf Life

After 12 to 24 hours, check the seals by pressing the center of each lid. A sealed lid won’t flex or pop back. Take the bands off, wipe the jars, and label them.

Store sealed jars in a cool, dark place, and use them within 12 to 18 months. Refrigerate a jar once you open it.

If a jar didn’t seal, put it in the fridge and eat it first. I like to give relish a couple of weeks in the jar before I open it, so the flavors have time to come together.

Classic Green Tomato Relish FAQs

Here are quick answers on taste, safe changes, peeling, jar sizes, and why the vegetables boil in salt water first.

Green Tomato Canning Recipes

Green tomatoes can go into a lot more than relish.

Southern Chow Chow (Traditional Green Tomato Relish)

Old-Fashioned Green Tomato Jam

Pickled Green Tomatoes (Old Fashioned Canning Recipe)

Relish Canning Recipes

Here are more relishes to make while the garden’s still producing.

Caramelized Onion Jam

Canning Three Bean Salad

Zucchini Relish Recipe for Canning