Green Tomato Sweet Relish

During a particularly violent storm, I lost a trellis and it uprooted and snapped off several tomato plants at dirt level. I'm not a fried green tomato eater, but we do eat a pretty good quantity of sweet pickle relish every year. I chopped those green tomatoes, added bell peppers and onions and canned them like sweet pickle relish. It is wonderful! Here's the recipe I used, adapted from a recipe I found on About.com.

8 cups finely chopped green tomatoes
2 cups finely chopped peeled onions
4 bell peppers, I used some red, some yellow and some orange, finely chopped
1/3 cup pickling salt
2 tablespoons mixed pickling spices
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
2 1/4 cups white vinegar
1 1/3 cups packed light brown sugar

Combine the chopped vegetables and salt in a large stainless steel pan. Cover and let stand on the counter for 10 to 12 hours, or overnight.

Pour the vegetables in a colander over the sink and let drain. Rinse with cool water and use your hands to squeeze out any excess liquids. Tie the pickling spices and celery seeds in a cheesecloth spice bag.

In a large stainless steel or enamel-lined pan, combine the vinegar, the spice bag, chopped garlic, and the vinegar. Put the vinegar mixture over high heat and bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Add the drained green tomato mixture and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and boil gently, stirring often, for 1 hour.

While the mixture is cooking, get your canning stuff ready: boil everything and clean the counter you'll use very thoroughly.

Fill hot, prepared jars and remove any air bubbles with a small plastic spatula, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Clean jar rims and fit with lids and rings. Process in a covered boiling-water bath canner for 10 minutes. Turn off heat, remove the cover, and let jars stand in the hot water for 5 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool completely. Listen for the "zing" that tells you the jars have sealed. Test lids to make sure they have sealed when completely cool. Any that didn't seal will need to be refrigerated and used in a couple weeks.

Makes about 7 half-pint jars of relish.

This sounds yummy, I relish and never would have thought to use green tomatoes! Thanks for sharing!