Sweet Cucumber Relish Recipe | Sauced

By
Joshua Bousel
a photo of Joshua Bousel, a Contributing Writer at Serious Eats
Joshua Bousel
Joshua Bousel is a Serious Eats old-timer, having started sharing his passion for grilling and barbecue recipes on the site back in 2008. He continues to develop grilling and barbecue recipes on his own site, The Meatwave, out of his home base of Durham, North Carolina.
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Updated Aug. 30, 2018
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With Memorial Day in sight, I sat down to make sure every condiment needed for the summer barbecue season was accounted for:

Ketchup, check.
Mustard, check.
Mayo, check.
Barbecue sauce, check.

Thinking I had the standard bases covered, I started to relax, then realized an important omission, relish! Relish comes in a bunch of varieties—just add vinegar, sugar, and salt to any chopped vegetable—but when we're talking standard cookout fare, it's a sweet cucumber relish you usually want.

To make mine, I implemented to a two-step approach to grate then chop cucumbers, onions, and red and green bell peppers in the food processor to achieve a nice, fine texture. The veggies were then salted, let rest, and rinsed. Next they were simmered in a mixture of vinegar, sugar, celery seed, and mustard seed and transferred to a jar for storage.

What you'll get is a sweet, tangy relish with a nice note of celery and a little bitterness from the mustard seed to round it out. It's perfect for canning, but there's no reason it can't be used right away—I expect this batch to be gone by the end of the weekend.

Recipe Facts

4.5

(2)

Active: 45 mins
Total: 9 hrs
Serves: 20 servings
Makes: 2 1/2 cups

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Ingredients

  • 3 large cucumbers, washed, seeded, and cut into 4 large chunks

  • 2 medium white onions, quartered

  • 2 medium red bell peppers, seeded

  • 1 large green bell peppers, seeded

  • 2 tablespoons kosher salt

  • 1 cup cider vinegar

  • 3/4 cup sugar

  • 2 teaspoons mustard seed

  • 2 teaspoons celery seed

Directions

  1. Grate the cucumbers using the grating disc in a food processor. Switch to the steel blade and pulse until cucumber is finely chopped. Repeat with onions and peppers.

  2. Place chopped cucumbers, onions, and peppers in a medium bowl and mix in salt. Cover and allow to sit overnight.

  3. Pour vegetable mixture out into fine mesh strainer. Rinse under cold water and strain, pushing the vegetables against the side of the strainer using a rubber spatula to remove as much water as possible.

  4. In a medium saucepan, bring vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, and celery seed to a boil over medium high heat, stirring to dissolve to sugar. Add vegetable mixture, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  5. Let cool to room temperature, transfer relish to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator .

Special Equipment

Food Processor

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
51 Calories
0g Fat
12g Carbs
1g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 20
Amount per serving
Calories 51
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0g 0%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 191mg 8%
Total Carbohydrate 12g 4%
Dietary Fiber 1g 2%
Total Sugars 10g
Protein 1g
Vitamin C 34mg 170%
Calcium 16mg 1%
Iron 0mg 2%
Potassium 133mg 3%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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