Southern Chow Chow w/green tomatoes

I have had an overabundance of tomatoes this year!  Luckily I have been able to share the bounty with some friends but still….I have made a ton of tomato sauce for the winter.  Growing vegetables has been one of the best things I’ve done.  It’s cut my grocery bill way down and I get to watch things grow. Amazing.  Anyway, now it’s getting to be fall and there are still lots and lots of tomatoes on the plants and I know they won’t have time to ripen. I did an internet search and of course fried green tomatoes came up, which are good, but I wanted something more.

I had heard of Chow Chow but thought it was cabbage based, which it can be. But there is also a green tomato version of this sweetish relish. I had also heard that it is a delicious relish for the usual hamburgers, hot dogs etc but that it is also good on pulled pork sandwiches, good in chili and lots of other things too! I used a recipe from Mommy’s Kitchen and I cut down the sugar by half and used brown sugar instead. I also added about 1/2 tsp of turmeric. Other than that it was as written so thank you!  Now what to do with all the zucchini?

Green Tomato Relish

Ingredients:

12 – large green Tomatoes, cored (about 20 small to med size)

4 – green bell peppers, seeded

4 – medium or 1 extra large yellow onion

1 – red bell pepper, seeded

1 – tablespoon + 2 teaspoons yellow mustard seed

1 – tablespoon celery seed

2 – cups apple cider vinegar

1 – cups brown sugar

1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons kosher salt

Directions:
Chop the tomatoes and peppers very finely or if you prefer a chunky relish dice into

chunks. Either by hand or in small batches in a food processor.

Add the chopped vegetables in a large pot (heavy bottom non reactive stock pot) add

the mustard seed, celery seed, vinegar, kosher salt, and sugar.

Stir well and bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and simmer over medium heat. Cook stirring often and skimming any foam as needed. ( I did not have to skim off anything)

Simmer until the relish/chow chow cooks down and thickens into a relish, about 2 hours. Fill mixture into hot sterilized pint size jars and process in a hot water bath. Process 10 minutes for pint size jars.

Remove jars using canning tongs and place on a counter with a towel. Let jars cool until the lids have popped and sealed.

Recipe Yields: 5 – 6 pint size jars
Recipe Source: The Gift of Southern Cooking