Make your own sweet condiment with all of those fresh summer zucchini! My mom's Sweet Zucchini Relish is easy to make and so much better than store-bought jarred relish!
Bring on all of the summer zucchini, am I right? Our Sweet Zucchini Relish has been a staple in our house for years as one of my mom's recipes that she's been making for decades and has a growing list each year of friends/family who request jars of it every summer! It's a sweet delicious condiment perfect to top burgers, hot dogs, add to mayo-based salads, or to eat just on its own!
Ingredients Needed
- Zucchini - This is a recipe perfect for those huge overgrown zucchini that got lost among the leaves!
- White Onion - You could use yellow too, but white is our go-to and you'll want to stay away from red for this one.
- White Vinegar - Apple cider vinegar would work, too!
- Salt and Pepper- Plenty of it!
- Sugar - To make this the sweet relish that it is! You can reduce it to taste, as well.
- Spices - Celery salt, nutmeg, ground mustard, and turmeric. All the delicious flavor enhancers!
- Cornstarch - To thicken just a little.
Easy to Make
You'll need a food process or a good blender for this one, to blend up all of that zucchini and onion. Once done, then you'll sweat out that zucchini overnight before simmering it all down with the remaining spices.
Let that simmer to create our delicious Sweet Zucchini Relish!
You Also Might Like
- Zucchini Apple Bars
- Greek Zucchini Salad
- Caprese Zoodle Salad
- Panko Parmesan Zucchini Fritters
- Baked Panko Zucchini Spears
- Garlic Parmesan Zoodles
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
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Ingredients
- 5 cups zucchini ground
- 2 cups white onion ground
- 2 1/2 tablespoons salt
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon celery salt
- 1/2 tablespoon nutmeg
- 1/2 tablespoon ground mustard
- 1/2 tablespoon turmeric
- 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Coarsely grind zucchini and onion with food grinder or food processor. Mix zucchini, onion, and salt in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, rinse zucchini and onion with cold water, strain into a sieve, discard water, return to bowl, rinse again.
- In a large pot, add vinegar, sugar, pepper, celery salt, nutmeg, dry mustard, turmeric, and cornstarch and bring to a boil. Add zucchini and onion and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
- Prep jars for canning if storing, or just add to jars and let cool before storing in fridge.
Lisa Phillips
Great flavor, easy two step method, I am definitely keeping this for mine and will do every season, My family is not a fan of cucumber relish but I got a thumbs up from all on this one! Thank you!!!!
Tracy
Wonderful to hear, Lisa!! So glad you and your family enjoyed it - thanks for taking the time to leave a review!
Veronica Madsen
Do you peel the zucchini?
Tracy
Hi Veronica! I usually don't, but you definitely can.
Veronica Madsen
This is a great recipe! Mine turned out really well. I peeled the zucchini I might try it with the peel on next time.
Thank you for sharing this
Tracy
So glad you enjoyed it, Veronica!
Nik
It’s rather sad that you deleted a comment that was meant to help prevent people from getting sick. Your method for canning is out of date and dangerous. It would be wise to consider updating your post to reflect the correct way to can. If you note the items you are allowing to “self seal” should only be stored in a refrigerator that would also be sufficient. It’s just not reasonable to dismiss the facts in fear of losing followers or disappointing previous commenters, which is awful to think someone would ignore safety standards and risk the health of strangers only looking for a good recipe. Personally, I won’t be back to check if you applied the correction. I came back to print the recipe and saw no changes. Your website will be banned from my network. I will also be sure to direct people away from someone who is okay with misleading others in a matter that could mean their lives. Just appalling.
Tracy
Hi Nik,
Thank you for your comment. I assure you I did not "delete" a comment - all comments are filtered through program for spam and have to be manually approved after that, so your first comment must have been been wrongly filtered as SPAM. I'm sorry that you think that my previous instructions were not clear enough - although they in no way were ignoring safety standards. I'm glad you came back to comment again.
Kate
You’re just rude and also wrong! Go seek therapy for anger management.
Chris
Hello, wood love to try this recipe but I’m missing some information- how approximately many jars does this produce and how long should it be processed adjusting for altitude of course. I think that you should encourage the substitution of clear jel for the corn starch to bring your recipe up to safer standards.
Becky
What's Nik's problem?! Hope you didn't let her negativity get to you. Your recipe sounds good, I'm going to try it.
Melissa
Mine didn't turn out quite so yellow either, but it was delicious. Does it make a difference if the zucchini is larger or smaller? Do you use the seeds or cut them out?
Tracy
Hi Melissa! We prefer to use the big zucchinis from our garden, but you can use any size. For the bigger zucchinis we cut out the seeds, but smaller ones we usually don't. The color comes from the turmeric, so sometimes my 1/2 tablespoon is a little on the heavier side, which is why this color may be a little more vibrant. Glad you enjoyed it!
Mary
Can you halve this recipe?
Tracy
Yes! 🙂
Mary
Thank you, what size canning jars do you recommend?
Mary
Sorry for the multiple questions, along with size of jar, how many jars will this make?
Tracy
No need to apologize! For the full recipe it makes about 2 full quart jars.
Kelly Lord
Totally and utterly fantastic recipe !!!! Thankyou from my family and friends who all rave about these...cheers from Australia 😎
Tracy
So glad you enjoyed it, Kelly!!
Nikki
I am planning on canning, do I use a hot water bath and if so how long?
Tracy
Hi Nikki, thanks so much for stopping by! I just realized that the instructions weren't clear enough for canning so I adjusted them. As long as you're using fresh hot sterilized jars, when you put the hot relish in, it'll do the canning for you! Otherwise, if your jars are cool, a water bath of 20 minutes should do the trick too. 🙂
Katy
How long do you process for if you are canning? Thanks!
Dee
I made this recipe today and followed it to the "tee" but mine did not turn yellow as in the picture. It is green, tastes okay but no different from other relishes that I have tried. Thought this one would be different and special since the picture is yellow. My spices were also fresh, not old so don't know what happened.
Tracy
Hi Dee- oh I'm so sorry to hear this! Hmmm the color definitely comes from the turmeric, are you sure you added 1/2 tablespoon or 1.5 teaspoons?