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Tomato Relish

Tomato relish is a delicious condiment that you can enjoy with everything. It is similar to bruschetta or salsa, but has more of a homestyle sweet taste. I made mine with onion, celery, jalapeno, sugar, vinegar, and a touch of curry powder. I added it on top of everything from hotdogs to breakfast sandwiches and even enjoyed it as a dip. You have to try this delicious recipe.

Hot Dog topped with Tomato Relish

What is Tomato Relish

What is tomato relish? Tomato relish is a condiment made from tomatoes, onions, sugar, salt, vinegar, and other seasoning. It goes so well on burgers, hotdogs, nachos, pizza, and sandwiches. I even just used it as a dip like salsa.

Relish is a sauce that you eat with other food to give it more flavor. My homemade tomato and onion relish is one of my favorite things to add to my air fryer hotdogs and breakfast sandwiches. Also, this tomato relish stays fresh in the refrigerator for about 4 weeks. This means you can make it once during Tomato season, or if you are a gardener like me, when you start to have an abundance of tomatoes. Then you can enjoy it with all of your grilled food for the remainder of the summer.

Tomato Relish made with tomatoes, onion, shallots, celery, jalapeno, vinegar, sugar, and curry powder

Old Fashioned Tomato Relish recipe

Tomato relish is one of those old fashioned American recipes that people like to can. There are so many family recipes and so many different ways to make this recipe, but the main ingredients are tomatoes, onion, and sugar.

A lot of people peel their tomatoes, and I don’t doubt that it creates a better texture. I think peeling is especially important when you are using cherry tomatoes because the skin is about 50% of the whole tomatoes. However, if you are using large tomatoes like me, you can just make a few thin cuts around the tomatoes to cut off the skin, and just chop up the inside.

While doing my tomato relish research, I noticed that most recipes call for celery seed. I don’t typically have that in my pantry, so I created this recipe using very finely chopped celery. Chopping it fine is very important because celery can be a little tough to chew if it is in large pieces. In my opinion, having the very finely chopped celery, along with some finely chopped jalapeno really accentuates the texture of this relish.

I added a little bit of curry powder to my relish too. Many recipes use allspice, cloves, or nutmeg, but all of those seemed a little too strong for my liking. I love the mellow taste of yellow curry powder and I knew it would go so well with the other ingredients.

Ingredients for Tomato Relish

What to do with Tomato and Onion Relish?

You can add tomato relish to anything that you want to add some additional flavor to. It is a super versatile condiment and tastes so delicious on so many things.

  1. Burgers – Use it in place of ketchup on your burgers.
  2. Hotdogs – If you are like me and love pickle relish on a hotdog, change things up and try this tomato relish.
  3. Nachos – I love making nacho platters, especially sheet pan nachos, and using this relish in place of salsa is such a great idea.
  4. Pizza – We already know how food pizza tastes with tomato sauce, but add this relish as topping and you’ll make an incredible pizza pie.
  5. Sandwich – I love adding this on a turkey sandwich. It is such a simple and healthy way to add some flavor to an ordinary lunch.
  6. Bagel – Add a couple of spoonfuls on top of a bagel and cream cheese
  7. Pasta – Add it to some freshly made pasta with a little olive oil and you will have a super fresh tasting meal.
  8. Crostini – Use this just as you would bruschetta

How to make this recipe

INGREDIENTS  

  • 1.5 Cups Ripe Tomato I used 4 Roma tomatoes and 1 Heirloom tomato
  • 1/2 Large Yellow Onion
  • 1 stalk Celery super finely minced
  • 1 Shallot finely diced
  • 1/2 Jalapeno Pepper seeds removed
  • 3/4 tsp Sea Salt
  • 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Yellow Curry Powder
  • 2 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
  • 1.5 tbsp Sugar

INSTRUCTIONS 

  • Chop up your tomatoes. I normally cut very thin slices around the sides of the large tomato to get rid of some of the skin. Then I chop up what is left. If you are using smaller tomatoes, you should consider boiling them so that the skin will be easier to remove without wasting the majority of the flesh.
  • Chop your onion and shallot and add to a bowl with your chopped tomatoes.
  • Finely chop your celery into teeny tiny pieces. Add to the bowl.
  • Finely chop your jalapeno. Be careful chopping this up and do not rub your eyes. Remove the seeds as this is the spiciest part. Add to the bowl.
  • Wash your hands well to remove the jalapeno juices from them,
  • Add your remaining ingredients and combine.
  • Let the flavors mix for about 24 hours before eating. This mixture can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.

Tomato Relish

Tomato relish is a delicious condiment that you can enjoy with everything. Similar to bruschetta or salsa, with a more homestyle sweet taste.
5 from 1 vote

Ingredients
  

  • 1.5 Cups Ripe Tomato I used 4 Roma tomatoes and 1 Heirloom tomato
  • 1/2 Large Yellow Onion
  • 1 stalk Celery super finely minced
  • 1 Shallot finely diced
  • 1/2 Jalapeno Pepper seeds removed
  • 3/4 tsp Sea Salt
  • 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Yellow Curry Powder
  • 2 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
  • 1.5 tbsp Sugar

Instructions
 

  • Chop up your tomatoes. I normally cut very thin slices around the sides of the large tomato to get rid of some of the skin. Then I chop up what is left. If you are using smaller tomatoes, you should consider boiling them so that the skin will be easier to remove without wasting the majority of the flesh.
  • Chop your onion and shallot and add to a bowl with your chopped tomatoes.
  • Finely chop your celery into teeny tiny pieces. Add to the bowl.
  • Finely chop your jalapeno. Be careful chopping this up and do not rub your eyes. Remove the seeds as this is the spiciest part. Add to the bowl.
  • Wash your hands well to remove the jalapeno juices from them,
  • Add your remaining ingredients and combine.
  • Let the flavors mix for about 24 hours before eating. This mixture can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.

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3 Comments

  1. Jay Aronowitz says:

    5 stars
    Would love this on Nachos or a Crustini.

  2. People really calling salsa a relish now 🤣

    1. Relish is more of a pickled condiment made with vinegar while Salsa is made with lime juice. I also have never seen salsa made with celery or curry powder.