Summer Squash Relish

Making squash relish out of your bumper crop zucchini and yellow squash is a great way to preserve your harvest. Squash relish is delicious served along side any southern meal or a top a hot dog or smoked sausage.
Anyone who has a garden and has planted summer squash knows by summer's end that you usually have zucchini and yellow squash coming out of your ears.  Zucchini is one of the most plentiful veggies you can plant in summer garden and at times they seem to grow overnight. 

Pretty soon you start to run out of things to make and find yourself searching for new ways to incorporate all that summer squash. There is always the basic recipes,  zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini bread, brownies or as a side dish, but have you ever tasted Squash Relish?  

The first time I tasted this delicious relish was at my Mother in laws house. I love zucchini and yellow squash so I gave it a try and I have loved it ever since! Even my oldest son likes it and that's hard to believe. This colorful relish compliments any southern meal and is wonderful to have on hand. Making and canning squash relish is also a great way to preserve your harvest. 

The hardest part about this whole recipe is chopping up all the vegetables, especially the onion, but after that it came together quite easily. If you have a food processor, it will go even faster. Canning season is finally coming to an end and I have plenty of canned goods to put up for winter. Save a couple jars for over the holidays because they make wonderful gifts from your kitchen. 

I like to use a combination of bell peppers when I make this relish. My favorite are yellow and red. 

Finely, dice up all the vegetables and place into a bowl with cold water. I did not dice up the onion and peppers until the next morning. Add the canning salt and mix to blend. Cover and place in the refrigerator overnight. 

In the morning, drain and thoroughly rinse vegetables under cold running water and strain in a fine strainer. Set the mixture aside to fully drain.  

In a large stock pot add the sugar, vinegar, water, bay leaf and spices. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer until sugar dissolves. 

Add the squash and veggie mixture into the brine.

Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat discard the bay leaf.


Ladle the mixture into hot, sterilized jars. Divide any remaining brine into each of the jars leaving a 1/4 inch head space. Wipe the rims with a clean dish cloth that has been dipped in hot water and make sure any liquid is wiped off the rims of the jars. Add the lids and rings to the jars and finger tip tighten. Don't tighten the jars too much or the lids will buckle when processed. 

Lower the jars into the hot water bath canner and process the jars (10 minutes for pints and 5 minutes for half pints).  Remove jars from hot water bath canner and place on the counter lined with a dish towel to cool. Listen for the jars to ping and test the lids to make sure the jars have sealed. Leave the jars on the counter for 24 hours before removing the rings and wiping down the jars for storage. 




recipe source: Louise Butler








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16 comments

Stephanie said…
My mom made something similar to this to use up all her extra zucchini. It's a delicious way to use it!
Anonymous said…
Oh, that looks good, however I'd have to leave out the onions!

I've only been canning a couple years, and just found out I can reuse the rings! I've been throwing them out!
tam said…
Beautiful Christmasy colors too! Thanks-love it!
Thank You for sharing that!
~Tam :D
Ann said…
This look delicious and I love all the colors.
Tina my friend. Another great idea for Christmas gift giving. A gift from the heart. Zucchini Relish is perfect for anyone. Thank you sweetie. I'm dying to see what other ideas you come up with for the holidays.

BTY, yes, Tamales are a tradition for Christmas. I would feel like something was missing if I didn't have at least a dozen steaming on the stove.
Anonymous said…
Looks delicious. Thank you.
Laura said…
You've been tagged. Look at my blog for details.
Chrissie said…
I know you use cucumber relish on hot dogs but what would you put the zucchini relish on? Any ideas?
Anonymous said…
Just made the green tomato relish and it tasted so good before I put it in the can. Thanks for the wide variety of recipes and step by step advice. It made it fun and I learned a lot from doing it. I'll be trying the zucchini recipe next.
Anonymous said…
This was so easy to follow! I made a double bath of chunky and then my husband wanted it shredded for tuna salad...no problem, made another double batch shredded. Delicious!!!
Anonymous said…
What is the relish used with, or is it eaten by itself?
Anonymous said…
I've made a similar recipe using yellow summer squash and red bell peppers. We used this sweet squash relish in place of sweet pickle relish as in tuna salad sandwiches or on hotdogs. You really can't taste the difference.
Diana said…
I would like to add a note about my experience with vinegar and turmeric. I was making quite a bit of the squash and zuchinni relish and selling it to friends. I use the white vinegar in my recipe. I decided to try the store brand for the vineagar and turmeric. That waa a mistake. I kept that batch and made a new batch for my friends. The store brand vinegar is ok for cleaning but for the relish it was less flavor.
Tina Butler said…
You didn't accidently purchase cleaning vinegar did you? I it also white vinegar but not used to cook or eat with. I use white vinegar all the time in my squash relish and have never had a issue.
Susan Patrick said…
I made this relish and it came out wonderfully. It is colorful and very flavorful and I use it just like you would pickle relish, in fact in my opinion it is better. All I have given a jar to just raves about it but, most all the people that have tried it really said it was great on tortilla chips used like a salsa. I give it 5 stars.
susan said…
Hi Tina, I have a question for you? I love the squash relish like it is but, I have been asked could I make it into dill squash relish. Do you think I can make it just like the sweet except omit the sugar and change the spices maybe. Could you possibly help me on making this squash relish to dill what I might need to do different. Thank You, Susan Patrick