I’ve been waiting all year to have fresh red tomatoes in my backyard, but this green tomato relish recipe is SO incredibly delicious that I didn’t even think twice about plucking some off the vines before they could even ripen.
I occasionally get obsessed with certain recipes, and my friends – this is one of them! I don’t think it’s a secret that I am also slightly obsessed with the crock-pot refried bean recipe and let me tell you those beans are suddenly reinvented when topped with this relish (in addition to the standard melted cheese and sour cream of course). Not that I haven’t been caught just eating this relish by the spoonful. :) Can you tell I am smitten?
Anyway due to all the chopping and simmering this recipe will require several hours of your time from start to finish, which isn’t a common theme with my recipes so I wanted to be sure to point that out. If you aren’t into the “canning” thing you can easily shave off some time by simply freezing the end results. Either way you won’t regret it…yum!
Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I was introduced to this recipe at my canning class with Ashley Eller earlier this year. Thank you Ashley!
Canning Basics
If you are new to canning be sure to check out my honey strawberry jam tutorial for some detailed instructions, but in short you will need:
- Canning pot with or without a rack (a dish towel can also be used to separate jars from bottom)
- Canning jars with either new or reusable lids (we like the freezable kind with no “shoulders”)
- Canning utensils including a jar lifter, funnel, bubble remover/headspace tool, and magnetic lid lifter
- Clean dish towels
- Sterilized tongs and ladle
- A digital or analog scale
- Optional: Thermometer and dissolvable canning labels (I love these labels…no more peeling off old masking tape!)
Also, please note it’s imperative that the rules of canning are always followed to a “T” in order to prevent spoilage or harmful bacteria in your end product!
Green Tomato Relish (without sugar)
Ingredients
- 4 pounds green tomatoes
- 2 pounds onions (white or yellow)
- 1 ½ pounds red bell peppers
- 1 pound apples (like Granny Smith)
- 12 cloves garlic
- 2 cups apple cider vinegar (unpasteurized)
- 1 ½ tablespoons salt
- 8 jalapeños
- 4 tablespoons cilantro
- 2 teaspoons cumin
Instructions
- Make Relish: Remove stem and core from green tomatoes and roughly chop into ½ inch or 1 inch pieces. Add to a large pot with heat turned off while you prepare rest of ingredients.
- Peel, roughly chop and add onions to pot. Remove stem and seeds from red bell peppers and roughly chop as well. Remove core from apples, discard, and roughly chop (including peel). Mince garlic and add to pot along with onions, red bell peppers, and apples.
- Add apple cider vinegar and salt to pot and set over high heat. When vinegar comes to a boil turn down to low and simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes while stirring occasionally.
- While relish is simmering finely chop jalapenos (only remove/discard seeds for half of them), chop cilantro, and set aside. I highly recommend wearing latex or rubber gloves while chopping the jalapenos otherwise your hands could sting for a few hours…I know this from experience!
- To Can Recipe: Fill canning pot three-quarters full with water, cover, and set over high heat until it comes to a boil. You can either sterilize your jars in this pot of boiling water for 10 minutes or by using the heated drying cycle in your dishwasher. It’s important to keep the jars hot and sterilized until ready for use. Be sure all canning utensils have been sterilized in hot soapy water as well. Also fill a small pot with water to sterilized lids and bands. Water for lids/bands should be hot at about 180 degrees F, but not boiling. Leave them in hot water (on simmer) until ready for use. If water gets cold remove lids/bands and heat up water to 180 degrees F again before adding them back in.
- After the 1 hour and 15 minutes is up the relish should have boiled down a bit. Add the jalapenos, cilantro and cumin to pot and simmer for 5 more minutes.
- Use either an immersion blender or potato masher to process the mixture into a small dice, but not a puree. I highly recommending owning an immersion blender if you don’t have one already…it’s perfect for pureeing soups and other recipes like this relish without having transfer batches back and forth between a blender, which makes a mess!
- To Freeze Recipe: At this point divvy up relish among freezer safe containers and once cool transfer to freezer. If using glass jars be sure to leave enough room at the top for the relish to expand during freezing. You can skip the last two steps.
- To Fill Jars for Canning: Turn relish back up to a boil. Remove jars from hot water, shake out excess water, and set near pot. Using a sterilized ladle and funnel, fill the jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace at the top. Slide a non-metallic utensil into jar to remove any air bubbles. Wipe off rim of jar with a clean cloth. Using sterilized tongs (or magnetic lid lifter) carefully place lids onto filled jars. You can touch top of lids once they are on jar, but do not touch underneath or on inside of jar to keep everything sterilized. Screw on bands by only touching the outside, although bands should not be too tight.
- To Process Jars: Bring water in canning pot back up to a boil. Using jar lifter carefully transfer jars to canning pot. Jars should not directly be touching the bottom of the pot and instead be separated either by a canning rack or simple dish towel. Once water comes back to a boil start timing from that moment and process jars for 15 minutes. After time is up using jar lifter carefully remove jars from boiling water and transfer them to a clean dish towel. Let jars rest until they cool. If jar lids haven’t already popped/sealed you should hear the sound…and if a jar doesn’t seal within 24 hours transfer it to fridge and eat within 3 – 4 weeks.
Where is all the sodium coming from? 1801 mg seems like an excessive amount per serving.
Hi Vickie – Thanks for catching that…the serving size was listed as 6 pints (the recipe yield) instead of 2 tablespoons (standard serving size for salsa). I have updated the recipe so it should be accurate now :)
There is no rhubarb in the recipe.
Correct. We have not tried this recipe to include rhubarb, but feel free to give it a try and let us know. – Nicole
Could you replace the Jalapeños? I know that not everyone in the house would appreciate their addition. Just add more bell peppers?
Yes! That would be fine if they aren’t everyone’s favorites. – Nicole
I will give it a go and let you know! I need to reduce the quantity of the ingredients though, as I don’t have a lot of rhubarb. Thank you :D
Wow! I just made this relish this morning. It is amazing:) I will definitely make this every fall when the frost hits and I have an abundance of green tomatoes still on the vine. Thank you!
This sounds delicious…I’m looking for a ‘no sugar’ recipe for rhubarb relish. Do you think this recipe will work (replace tomatoes with rhubarb)? Thanks!
Hi Dora, we have not tried that with this recipe. If you think you’d enjoy those flavors with rhubarb as a substitute, let us know how it turns out if you give a try! – Nicole
I love this recipe, but I had my doubts. How could green tomato relish be good without sugar? It’s so good. I had my three friends over for cards and served it with cream cheese and crackers. They all copied the recipe. The only change I made was to put in 3 jalapeños instead of 8 and I put in fresh cilantro when I served it. Thank you.
So glad you gave it a try! – Nicole
I was looking for a recipe for green tomatoes that I didn’t have to can.
This looks great. How long can you keep it in the freezer? And is the consistency mush when its thawed?
It should keep good for about 8 months or so. The consistency may breakdown over time. – Nicole
When I processed my jars I never covered the jars in water because I didn’t know I had to, for the hot water bath. They all seem to be sealed well. Are they safe to store?
Hi there. This might help: http://foodinjars.com/2009/11/how-to-check-that-your-seal-is-good/comment-page-1/.
When I processed my jars in the boiling water bath I did not cover the jars with water since I didn’t know I should. If they are sealed properly are they safe to store? The seals all are seem good, except one.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. Very well detailed instructions. I would love to try it out in my kitchen and share this recipe with my friends.
What sort of recipes / dishes do you use this on? Is it more of a condiment or do you include it inside of dishes? Thanks for your reply! This looks delicious regardless.
Hi. It’s a condiment and is good on lots of things. I like it on fried fish. :)