Making and Canning Zucchini Relish

Our family was blessed this year with a beautiful garden. It was our first garden since the birth of our 7th child. Since she had so many health complications, gardening took a back seat.

This year rolled around and I felt God was telling me that I could do it. I always loved being out in my garden. It was always my place of peace. So when I do something I do it. I don’t know small…hence our family size 🙂

So I planted over 100 squash seeds. I kid you not, I think they all grew! Oh what was I thinking!!!! I had to get creative this year. I dehydrated hundreds of pounds of zucchini and squash, for casseroles and breads. I canned over a hundred jars of squash, and I canned zucchini bread. Oh that was wonderful to have on hand. This zucchini relish was a first for me, and let me tell you, IT WAS A HIT!!!

I am using the recipe that is on the Ball Book. I changed it up a bit, and you can as well. It says it only makes 4 half-pints. Like I said before, I don’t do small- that didn’t work for me. I had to quadruple it! I won’t do that here, but you can do that on your own. It works well if you just want to double it also.

This recipe takes some time, but trust me it is worth it!!!

Instructions

I start by chopping all my vegetables. I made this many times and I have chopped by hand, used my chopper (which I highly suggest), and my food processor. You do what you prefer.

Once they are chopped you want to add in the salt and cover them with cold water. Let it sit for 2 hours. Again I made a HUGE batch and I used my 20 quart mixing bowl. This bowl is a must when you doing large batches.

When the two hours are up, you rinse and drain the veggies. I rinse a couple of times. I take my hand blender and blend all the vegetables up.

Now take your salt, sugar, celery seed, mustard seed, and vinegar in a pot and bring to a boil.

You want all your jars, lids, and rings to be hot. I put my jars, lids, and rings in the oven and set it on 200 degrees. Please be careful when removing them from the oven. They are hot.

Once your brine is boiling add in the vegetables and simmer for 10 minutes. Pack the hot relish into the hot jars and remove air bubbles. Leave 1/4- inch headspace, Place lids on and water bath for 10 minutes.

I use this relish on hot dogs, sausage, and even in my potato salad. It is that good! You can cut back the sugar if you don’t want it real sweet. We did. I didn’t have any green peppers, so I used sweet yellow peppers that I had on hand. I always try to use what I have on hand first if at all possible.

Recipe

• 2 C chopped zucchini ( 1C of dehydrated zucchini)
• 1 C shopped onion (1/4 C of dehydrated onions)
• 1/2 C chopped green pepper (1 ounce of dehydrated green pepper)
• 1/2 C chopped sweet red pepper (1 ounce of dehydrated sweet red pepper)
• 2 TBSP salt
• 1 3/4 C sugar
• 2 tsp celery salt
• 1 tsp mustard seed
• 1 C of cider vinegar (you can use white)

I hope you enjoy this as we did. Remember you can tweak this a bit according to your taste!

Happy Canning!