Homemade Pickle Relish Sweetened with Honey
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Homemade pickle relish wasn’t super high on my food preservation list, but I’m glad I decided to make some since the homemade version tastes awesome! Even my husband, who is not a relish guy, likes this pickle relish recipe. You team up high quality spices, vinegar and honey with your fresh garden cucumbers or zucchini to make something delicious.
It’s easy, too – just chop, mix, soak, strain and water bath can. Note: This recipe does need to soak for 5 hours (or overnight) to draw the liquid out of the veggies, so start early in the day so you have enough time to finish or later in the day so you let it sit overnight and finish the next morning.
We don’t use a ton of pickle relish, so I didn’t give the ingredients much thought – until I read the label on some commercial relish. Here’s what we’ve got:
- Cucumbers
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Corn Syrup
- Cauliflower
- Vinegar
- Salt
- Dehydrated Red Peppers
- Spices
- Xanthan Gum
- Calcium Chloride
- Alum
- Natural Flavors
- Polysorbate 80
- Yellow 5
- Blue 1
Sheesh! HFCS and corn syrup? Two kinds of artificial color? Aluminum? It sounds more like a lab experiment than food.
Which would you choose? Technicolor store pickle relish (top) or homemade pickle relish (bottom)?
Homemade Pickle Relish Recipe (Sweetened with Honey)
Adapted from Putting It Up With Honey
Ingredients
- 4 cups cucumbers or zucchini
- 1 cup green pepper
- 1/2 cup red pepper
- 3 cups onion
- 3 cups celery
- 1/4 cup sea salt
- 1 3/4 cup honey
- 2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon celery seed
- 1 tablespoon mustard seed
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
Directions
Finely chop all the vegetables and combine in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt, cover with cold water, and let stand five hours or overnight.
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Drain thoroughly in a colander, pressing out excess liquid.
In a medium stockpot, mix honey, vinegar, and spices. Bring to a boil. Stir in drained vegetables and simmer for 10 minutes.
Pack into hot sterilized jars to within 1/2 inch from the top.
Complete seals and process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Yields 9-12 cups, depending on moisture levels of produce.
I think mama would be proud, and I know my family will be eating just a little less chemical laden food in the coming year.
PrintHomemade Pickle Relish Sweetened with Honey
Easy homemade pickle relish made with “just the good stuff”.
Ingredients
- 4 cups cucumbers
- 1 cup green pepper
- 1/2 cup red pepper
- 3 cups onion
- 3 cups celery
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1 3/4 cup honey
- 2 cups vinegar
- 1 tablespoon celery seed
- 1 tablespoon mustard seed
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
Instructions
- Gather ingredients. Finely chop all the vegetables.
- Combine in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt, cover with cold water, and let stand five hours or overnight.
- Drain thoroughly in a colander, pressing out excess liquid.
- Combine honey, vinegar, and spices. Bring to a boil. Stir in drained vegetables and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Pack into hot sterilized jars to within 1/2 inch from the top.
- Complete Seals. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.
- Remove from canner to a kitchen towel placed on the countertop.
- Allow to cool completely. Remove rings, label and store in a cool, dry dark location.
You can pair this relish up with homemade buns and picnic friendly foods such as hot dogs and brats from a trusted local meat store (read the labels – look for ingredients you recognize as food).
We also use it in egg salad, potato salad, homemade tarter sauce, even sandwiches. It adds a nice bit of tang to lots of different foods.
You may also enjoy:
- Home Canned Salsa That Tastes a Lot Like a National Brand – Except Better
- Homemade Ketchup
- Home Canned Spaghetti Sauce
- Creamy Cucumber Salad with Sour Cream Dressing
Originally published in 2010, updated in 2016.
If you use more honey than called for, is there a possibility of making the relish unstable for shelf ?
No, if anything extra honey will make it more shelf stable. Real honey is acidic, though honey from tropical areas is less acidic. Average honey pH is 3.9, well within safe water bath canning parameters.
Thanks Laurie, I love this relish! I make it every year (third time today.) I got 8 half-pints.
Thanks, Cindi! I’m glad you like it. We went through so much last year that this year we made two double batches.
What would you suggest to replace the celery with??? I despise celery.
You could try substituting more peppers and more cucumber, say one additional cup of pepper and 2 cups of cucumber. The celery is chopped so finely and seasoned in the mix that it really doesn’t taste much like celery anymore, it jut adds a nice crunch to the mix.
Any idea what I can do with the leftover salt water brine? I can prob drink a little everyday, huh? I use Celtic salt so very good for you
Some of the salt goes into the produce, and some water gets drawn out of the produce, so you end up with a fairly dilute mix. You could drink some daily, but I would store it in the refrigerator, as I’m not sure how resistant it will be to mold growth with the low salt concentration.
If you want to spend more time working with it, you could cook it down to concentrate it and use it as a weed killer, or even get a solar oven and evaporate it back down to salt.
Just saw this today. I don’t use any peppers, I use finely diced raw carrots. My relish is also salt-free because I cut it out years ago with no issues. This year I will be using honey instead of turbinado sugar, for the experimental fun of it. THANKS!
I no longer can stuff. Does this recipe freeze well?
I have not tried freezing it, but I can’t see a reason that it wouldn’t work.
I know this is an old post and of course I’m working on this today and wondered if using a bigger jar would result in needing more time in the water bath canner? I am using a 1/2 pint not the small 4 oz jars.
Processing time is ten minutes for 4 oz, 8 oz or 16 ounce jars.
Thank you!
You’re welcome.
I added 1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves an stalks, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds. It was very good om burgers.
can you make relish without spices or herbs because have allergic to spices and herbs scott
Don’t skip the salt, sugar and vinegar, but you could skip the herbs if needed. You’ll just have a very bland relish.