Dilled Green Tomato Relish

Dilled green tomato relish is a classic dill pickle relish made with green tomatoes in place of the cucumbers. It’s sour, salty, and full of dill, with a tang that only comes from unripe tomatoes. It belongs on hot dogs and burgers, and it turns the last of the garden into jars you’ll use all year.

Green tomatoes are firm and tart, and they hold their shape in the pot instead of falling apart. Chopped fine, they make a relish with more tang and more complexity than cucumbers give you on their own.

Old cookbooks treated them a lot like cucumbers. One early 1900s cookbook in my collection says to make dill pickles the usual way, just with small green tomatoes in place of the cucumbers. That’s exactly what my dill pickled green tomatoes are.

Most of the old green tomato relishes are sweet, though, like southern chow chow and New England piccalilli. This one is the sour member of the family. I season it like my cucumber dill relish, with dill seed, a turmeric soak for color, and barely any sugar.

Think of a tart hamburger dill pickle, chopped fine. It’s a relish for serious dill lovers.

I built it on the pickled green tomato relish in the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, then traded its sweet mustard brine for a dill pickle brine.

It’s one of a long list of green tomato canning recipes I’ve been working through. If you’d rather have something sweet, I have plenty more relish recipes for canning to choose from.

Other Green Tomato Relishes

Green tomatoes have always been a relish vegetable. Southern chow chow adds cabbage and gets its bite from dry mustard. Canadian green tomato chow chow keeps things simple with green tomatoes and onions, and New England piccalilli is chunkier, with brown sugar and warm spices.

There are even more regional styles in my chow chow and piccalilli roundup. I also make a sweet classic green tomato relish with mustard seed and celery seed, plus a green tomato hot dog relish. All three are in my list of green tomato pickling recipes.

If it’s the dill flavor you’re after, there are cucumber versions too. My dill relish is the classic, and classic pickle relish is another old standby. For the same flavors in a whole pickle, try dill pickled green tomatoes.

Choosing Green Tomatoes for Dill Relish

Use tomatoes that are still fully green and hard, with no blush of color. Small ones are ideal, since they’re firm all the way through. Some heirloom varieties stay green when they’re ripe, and those are too soft for this.

Don’t peel them. Green tomatoes are close to impossible to peel, and the skins stay tender in a finely diced relish. Just core them and trim off any bruises or soft spots before you dice.

If you have more than this recipe takes, you can also can green tomato slices to fry later in the year.

Ingredients for Dilled Green Tomato Relish

The ingredient list is short, and most of it is vegetables plus the dill brine they cook in.

• Green Tomatoes: Small, hard, fully green tomatoes, diced about 1/4 inch. They’re the base of the relish, and they hold their shape through the soak and the simmer.
• Green Bell Peppers: Diced to match the tomatoes. They add a little sweetness and keep the relish green.
• Onions: Yellow or white onions, diced the same size as everything else.
• Canning Salt: For the soak only. Use pickling or canning salt rather than table salt, since the anti-caking agents in table salt cloud the brine. Morton canning and pickling salt is easy to find.
• Ground Turmeric: It goes in the soak, and it gives the relish that classic yellow-green dill relish color.
• Water: Cold water for the soak. You drain it off, and it never goes in the jars.
• Vinegar: White vinegar or cider vinegar at 5 percent acidity. It’s the safety control and most of the flavor, so don’t cut it. White vinegar keeps the color a little brighter.
• Dill Seed: This is where the dill flavor comes from, the same as in a classic dill pickle relish.
• Sugar: Just a little, to take the edge off the vinegar. It won’t make the relish sweet.

The salt doesn’t all stay in the jars. You rinse most of it back off after the soak, though this is still a salty, sour relish, the way a dill pickle is.

How to Make Dilled Green Tomato Relish

This is a one-day relish. The vegetables soak for 2 hours, and once you drain them, the cooking only takes a few minutes.

Most of the work is the dicing, so get that done first. The canner can heat up while the vegetables soak.

Dice the Vegetables

Core the green tomatoes, then dice the tomatoes, peppers, and onions small and even, about 1/4 inch.

For most of my relishes, I use a Breville food processor with a dicing kit. The vegetables go in whole and come out in an even dice, which saves a lot of time at the cutting board. A regular food processor works too, but pulse it in short bursts, or the tomatoes turn to mush.

Soak in Salt and Turmeric

Put the diced vegetables in a large glass or stainless steel bowl. Sprinkle the salt and turmeric over them, pour in the cold water, and stir to coat everything.

Let it stand for 2 hours. The salt pulls water out of the vegetables so the relish isn’t soggy, and the vegetables pick up the turmeric’s color while they sit.

Rinse and Press

Drain the vegetables in a colander, rinse them well with cold water, and drain again.

Then press out as much liquid as you can. I work in batches and press down hard, and you can also squeeze them out by the handful.

Simmer in the Dill Brine

Combine the vinegar, dill seed, and sugar in a large stainless steel or enameled pot, and bring it to a boil.

Add the drained vegetables and stir. Once the pot is back to a simmer, let it simmer for 5 minutes, stirring to coat everything in the brine. This is a quick simmer, not a long cook-down like chow chow.

Fill the Jars

Ladle the hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. A wide-mouth canning funnel keeps the rims clean, since chopped relish goes everywhere.

Run a bubble tool around the inside of each jar, top up the relish if the level drops, wipe the rims, and put on two-part canning lids.

Canning Dilled Green Tomato Relish

Get your water bath canner heating while the vegetables soak, so it’s hot by the time the jars are full. If you’re new to this part, 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 15 minutes, starting the timer once the water is back to a full rolling boil, and adjust for altitude using the chart below.

When the time’s up, turn off the heat and let the jars sit in the canner for 5 minutes. Then lift them out with a jar lifter, and leave them on a towel, undisturbed, for 12 to 24 hours.

Ways to Use Dilled Green Tomato Relish

Use it anywhere you’d use dill pickle relish. Hot dogs and burgers are the obvious places, and it’s good stirred into tuna salad, egg salad, potato salad, or deviled eggs.

It also makes a quick tartar sauce stirred into mayonnaise with a squeeze of lemon. Since there’s almost no sugar in it, it won’t sweeten whatever you add it to.

When I had all three of my green tomato relishes open at once, I lined them up on hot dogs, and this was the sharp, salty one of the bunch.

If you’re still buried in green tomatoes, I have a long list of green tomato recipes for fresh eating, too.

Storage and Shelf Life

After 12 to 24 hours, press the center of each lid. A sealed lid is firm and won’t flex. Take the bands off so a failed seal can’t hide, then wipe and label the jars.

Store sealed jars in a cool, dark place, and use them within 12 to 18 months. Once a jar is open, keep it in the fridge.

Any jar that didn’t seal goes in the fridge to use first, or you can reprocess it with a new lid within 24 hours.

Wait about two weeks before you open the first jar. The dill and vinegar need time to work their way into the vegetables.

You don’t have to can it, either. A jar of this relish keeps a couple of months in the refrigerator.

Dilled Green Tomato Relish FAQs

A few quick answers on the vinegar, peeling, sweetness, and jar sizes.

Green Tomato Canning Recipes

Green tomatoes go a lot further than relish.

Southern Chow Chow (Traditional Green Tomato Relish)

Old-Fashioned Green Tomato Jam

Pickled Green Tomatoes (Old Fashioned Canning Recipe)

Relish Canning Recipes

Need another relish for the pantry? Here are a few more.

Caramelized Onion Jam

Canning Three Bean Salad

Zucchini Relish Recipe for Canning