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Homemade Sweet Pickle Relish – made with fresh from the garden cucumbers. Delicious served on hot dogs, deviled eggs or in all your summer salads.
We’ve got cucumbers … lots and lots of cucumbers. I eat them everyday for lunch with no complaints! I need to make pickles but thought Homemade Sweet Pickle Relish might be a nice change. My husband planted about 4 different varieties of cucumbers so I can’t even tell you what kind they are, other than the good kind!
Aside from a little chopping, relish is super simple to cook and a real treat to eat. Lightly sweet relish reminds me of my Mom’s Bread & Butter Pickles and that’s a good thing!
Dice the fresh vegetables and place all together in a large pot. Combine cider vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seeds and celery seeds and cook for about 10 minutes.
This is an amazing relish great served on hot dogs or mixed into deviled eggs. In fact these are some of the best deviled eggs I’ve ever had. The fresh relish really took them to a whole new level of deliciousness!
Invited to a summer picnic? Take a jar of this relish as a hostess gift and I bet you get invited back year after year 🙂
Homemade Sweet Pickle Relish
Ingredients
- 4 cups unpeeled, finely diced cucumber (seeds removed from larger cucumbers)
- 2 large onions diced
- 1 green bell pepper finely diced
- 1 red bell pepper finely diced
- ¼ cup kosher salt (not a typo)
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon celery seeds
- 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
Instructions
- If using large cucumbers, cut in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds with a spoon. Discard the seeds.
- Combine the diced cucumbers, onions and peppers in a large stock pot. Sprinkle the ¼ cup kosher salt over the vegetable. Fill the pot with ice cold water enough to cover the diced vegetables. Set the mixture aside to rest for 2 hours.
- Line a fine mesh sieve with cheesecloth and add the vegetables. Allow them to drain for 10 minutes, then gather the ends of the cheesecloth together and twist to form a bundle. Squeeze a little tighter to press out the liquid, allowing it to drain. Don't smash the vegetables but gently extract as much liquid as possible.
- While the vegetables are draining, combine the vinegar, sugar, celery and mustard seeds in the large pot.
- Bring the mixture to a boil and add the vegetables.
- Stir and bring it back to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Using a slotted spoon, place the hot relish in glass jars with lids. Spoon additional brine over the vegetable if needed to cover. If preserving, process according to standard canning procedures.
- If not canning, cool the jars then store the jars of relish in the refrigerator. This relish will keep for several weeks if refrigerated.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Don’t forget to PIN!
Pickle relish seems like summer to me! Are you getting ready to go back to school? Planning any late summer vacations? I can’t believe how quickly it has flown by. I hope you are able to squeeze in a few backyard BBQ’s before we drag out the pumpkins. Thanks so much for stopping by!
Tricia
Dorcas
We will not buy store prepared relish ever again! it is so good I can’t keep it in the fridge. Than you!!
Tricia Buice
Thank you Dorcas! I’m thrilled you’re enjoying this relish. We truly appreciate the feedback 🙂
Cindy
PERFECT ♥️
Tricia Buice
Thanks Cindy.
Denny
Hello, awesome recipe! Can I use honey instead of sugar? Can I replace some of the cucumber with cabbage?
Tricia Buice
Thanks Denny. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. I haven’t tried replacing some of the cucumber with cabbage but I think it should work fine. Let us know how it goes!
Jacqueline Rhoades
Tricia, Leave the recipe as is but use brown sugar instead of white and 1/2 pound cabbage. Now you have old fashioned India relish like your great Gandma made..
Tricia Buice
Thanks Jacqueline! Sounds terrific. I’ll have to give it a try.
John
You mention canning but what headspace and how long to water bath?
Tricia Buice
Hi John. You can try leaving 1/2-inch headspace and process in the hot water bath for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat then leave the jars in the water for another 5 minutes. Enjoy!
Shannon
I haven’t made this yet but would love too! Do you know how many jars this makes and what size jars?
Tricia Buice
Thanks for the great question Shannon. This recipe makes 3 pints of relish. So you would need 3 pint sized jars or 6 smaller jars. Enjoy!
Soñya
This sounds good, I’m gonna omit the mustard seed and add red pepper flakes for that spicy sweet relish. Thanks for sharing.
Tricia Buice
Thank you Soñya!
Sandy
I made this pickle relish today as I’m getting loads of cucumbers from my garden. I did half recipe as a trial. OMG, soooo good. I’ll be doing a double recipe.
When I drained the ground veggies, I rinsed them well. Perfect salt level for us.
Thank you for sharing this relish recipe.
Tricia Buice
Thanks Sandy! So glad you enjoyed the relish and how lucky you are to have so many cucumbers!
Tina
Absolutely love this recipe, I even use monkfruit sweetner instead of sugar to make it sugar free for and diabetics.
Tricia Buice
That sounds terrific Tina! Thank you for the tip. We really appreciate the feedback.