Introducing: Plant to Plate

One of my favorite parts of having our own garden is using the food we grow in some of our favorite recipes or trying new ones.  Recently I got to make and can my mom’s “famous” Zucchini Relish!  I have shared the recipe below.  As I explore the best ways to use and preserve the food from our garden, I will document my successes and my failures, as you can see from my post about our sour cherries.  When the recipes fail, I will not share the recipes, but when they are a hit, I will gladly share the recipe and the source of my recipe.  Some of them will be recipes passed down to me from family members and friends.  Some of them will come from online sources that I find.  In all of them, my goal will be to show yummy ways to use all of our garden produce and not let anything go to waste.  I will call this series Plant To Plate.

Not only will I be sharing how I prepared the food to eat, but I will also be sharing about the plants that the food comes from.  I will share some of our experiences growing them and tips on how to care for them well.

Episode 2: Zucchini Relish

This is my second recipe in my Plant to Plate series.  The first one is Kid-Friendly Thai Basil Chicken. If you want to ensure that you never miss a Plant to Plate post, make sure you sign up for our newsletter! You will receive notifications of new blog posts and exclusive gardening tips and offers! Sign up at the end of this post.

Canning season has started!  Our zucchini was one of the first things we really started to be able to harvest. That meant it was time to make and can some zucchini relish!

Zucchini relish is one of the things that my mom makes every year.  She makes sure to can enough to last the whole year, because she uses it in everything!  So of course I got the recipe from her. She got the original recipe from my aunt.  I was able to make it one year when I had a few less kids, but have not had the time or energy to attempt it again.  I have relied on my mom to supply me with the zucchini relish I would need for some of the recipes that we love.  Trust me, store bought relish does not cut it!!!  Not even by a long shot!

I know what you are probably thinking, “Relish? Isn’t that just for hotdogs?”

Well, if you bought your relish at the store, I would say Yes. But homemade zucchini relish is so much better! The flavor is completely unique and it goes well in a lot of foods that we like to eat in the summer.  We put it in egg salad, tuna salad, potato salad, etc.  We even have a few recipes like tuna rolls that we like to make in the winter.  My mom puts it into even more recipes than I do.  And of course it is good on hotdogs!  In fact, it makes such a difference, that I can hardly even look at a hotdog that has store bought relish on it.  It is just not the same.

You may also be wondering about zucchini.  “Isn’t relish made out of cucumbers?”  My mom explained this to me a long time ago, cucumbers tend to get mushy in relish over time.  Zucchini keep their crispness no matter how long you have them in the fridge or on your shelf.

From Plant…

When we planned out our garden, zucchini was high on my list of things to plant.  I knew I wanted to can some zucchini relish, but I also knew how much we love to eat fried zucchini!  We would have no problem using and preserving all zucchini that the garden could produce.  We planted three plants.  They grew quickly and started producing zucchini right away.  We almost lost one plant to a nasty worm, but due to Ben’s quick work, he was able to save the plant!

Our church, Church of the Redeemer, also has a garden.  Our farm director gave us a large zucchini one Sunday.  That, with the three that we got from our garden gave me enough zucchini to make a batch and a half of zucchini relish.

In order to can food successfully, it is important to start with the proper equipment!  I use a water bath canner, like this one.  All of these tools you see in the picture are also important tools that you will need while canning.  You will be dealing with boiling water, so you need to make sure you have what you need before you start to ensure your safety and successful canning! You also need jars, rings, and lids.  I prefer mason jars, because we use them as water cups when we are not using them for cooking.  I can the relish in pint size jars. Make sure you sterilize all jars and lids in boiling water before you get started.

It is important to remember that this is a two day process. All the prep is done on the first day and all the cooking and canning is done on the next day.  As with all of my recipes, I like to get all of my ingredients out to make cooking go smoother.  Chopping all the veggies takes a long time, so I suggest listening to some music or your favorite podcast and just plowing through it.  This can easily be done earlier in the day and then you can mix them all together with the salt in the evening.

Make sure you rinse all the salt off before you start cooking the next day!!!!

The vegetables in this recipe cook down a lot, so don’t be alarmed when it looks like a lot less than when you started.  If you want a lot of relish (more than six, pint jars), you will want to make several batches. While the zucchini relish is cooking, I usually finish prepping all my jars and lids.  Sterilizing takes time, so make sure you account for that.

As soon as the zucchini relish is ready, I put it into the jars and start the canning process right away.  I always make sure that the lips and sides of the jars are clean before I put the lids and rings on them.  It is very important to get the jars to seal properly to ensure that you can store them all year.  If I cannot fill up my last jar, I stick it in the fridge without canning it to enjoy right away.

To Plate!

Okay, so my recipe didn’t technically end on a plate.  It ended in a jar, but ultimately it will end up on your plate!  If you would like some of the recipes that I put my zucchini relish into, feel free to email me!

Print

Zucchini Relish

Prep Time

30 mins

Cook Time

30 mins

Canning time

15 mins

Total Time

1 hr

 

Easy zucchini relish that will be enjoyable all year round!  Make and can it to use whenever you want to.  Eat on hotdogs or use it to flavor other recipes!  

Keyword: Canning, Condiment, Relish, Zucchini

Ingredients

• 10 cups Zucchini Squash chopped small
• 2 Red Peppers chopped small
• 4 cups Onion chopped small
• 5 tbsp. Salt
• 2 & 1/2 cups Vinegar
• 2 tsp. Mustard Seed
• 6 cups Sugar
• 1 tbsp. Turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. Black Pepper

Instructions

1. Combine all chopped vegetables together.

2. Stir in salt.

3. Cover and place in refrigerator overnight. 

4. The next day, drain salt water from the vegetables and rinse with cold water.

5. In a pan, add vinegar, mustard seed, sugar, turmeric and black pepper to the vegetables.

6. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 30 minutes, stirring every few minutes.

7. After it is done cooking, pour relish into sterilized canning jars. Place lids and rings on the jars.

8. Process in a water bath canner for 15 minutes.

Recipe Notes

This recipe makes over 6 pints of relish.  Doubled will make 13 pints.