Dill Pickle Relish Recipe: Simple and Classic

This recipe is for a simple dill pickle relish using fresh produce. It is so much better than store-bought! You’ll find a pretty recipe printable at the bottom of the post.

❤️ Why you’ll love this recipe

• It’s so versatile: perfect as a condiment, as an ingredient in cold salads like potato salad, or for mixing up a batch of tartar sauce.
• Great use of summer produce. Overgrown cucumbers in your garden? No problem. Or snatch some at a farmer’s market that are a little ugly.
• Beginner-friendly. A great choice for new canners.

🧂 Ingredients

This is an overview of the ingredients. You’ll find the full measurements and instructions in the printable recipe at the bottom of the page.

You’ll need the following for this simple canning recipe:

• cucumbers
• pickling salt
• turmeric
•  water
• white vinegar
• yellow onion 
• jalapeno 
• sugar
• dill seed
• fresh dill

🥣 Equipment

• large water bath canner
• pint or half-pint jars
• new lids
• canning funnel
• small saucepan

🍴Instructions

Step One: Chop the cucumbers

Peel the cucumbers (fully or halfway) and roughly chop them into quarters or eighths. Place them in a food processor and pulse to chop. You want them chopped but not pureed. Depending on the size of your food processor, you may want to work in batches.

Step Two: Soak in seasonings and drain

Place the cucumbers in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt and turmeric.  Pour the water on top and stir. Allow the mixture to sit, covered, at room temperature for 1-2 hours.

Place chopped cucumbers in a cheesecloth-lined bowl and rinse.   Lift the cheesecloth and gently squeeze to drain.  You can also leave this in the fridge overnight and continue in the morning.

Step three: Cook

Place the cucumbers, diced jalapeño, diced onion, vinegar, sugar, dill weed, and dill seed in a saucepan and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the mixture has thickened slightly and has changed from green to yellow-green.

Step FouR: Can

Ladle hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Twist lids fingertip tight and process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes. Cool until sealed and store in a dark place for up to 1 year.

🥫 Storage instructions

Like most home-canned recipes, this will keep well in a cool, dark place for up to a year.

🔍 FAQ

How to use up dill relish

• Sandwich spread: Use dill relish as a spread on sandwiches or burgers.
• Hot dogs: Add it on top of hot dogs.
• Tuna salad: Mix it into tuna salad for extra flavor.
• Potato salad: Add it to potato salad to give it a tangy taste.
• Egg salad: Stir it into egg salad.
• Salad dressing: Mix it into a simple vinaigrette.
• Deviled eggs: Use it in the filling for deviled eggs.
• Meatloaf: Add it to meatloaf mixture for moisture and flavor.
• Baked fish: Spread some on top of fish before baking.
• Tartar sauce: Mix with mayonnaise to make tartar sauce for fish
• Pasta salad: Mix it into a cold pasta salad.
• Coleslaw: Blend it into coleslaw.
• Chicken salad: Add to chicken salad mix.

👩🏻‍🍳 Expert tips

• Think about when you want to prep your canner, jars, and lids in this recipe. There are a few steps that make good stopping points, but once you add the final ingredients, you’ll want all your canning supplies ready to go while the relish is hot.
• You can easily cut this recipe in half and make about 5 half-pints, which is plenty for most people.
• If you don’t want to waterbath can this recipe, you don’t have to! It actually freezes very well. But don’t be intimidated by canning. You must be safe and careful, but it’s not rocket science.
• If you are not familiar with safe canning practices, here is a good resource to get you started canning. (The Ball Blue Book of Preserving is another good starting point!)

📘 Recipes for cucumber season

• Bread and Butter Refrigerator Pickles
• Old Fashioned Cucumber and Onion Salad with Vinegar
• Dill Pickle Relish (Easy Canning Recipe!)
• The 17 Best Types of Cucumbers to Grow at Home {Pickling + Fresh Eating Varieties}
• Small Batch Refrigerator Dill Pickles

🍅 make it along with me

Follow along step by step. The slides will turn every 7 seconds, or you can click ahead.

❤️ The story behind this recipe

My grandmother was a big baker, quilter, canner, and all the rest. I did not appreciate it at the time because I thought I was going to be a lawyer. (I was, in fact, a secretary and then a housewife.) Anyway. Years after she died, I wished I had learned from her when I could. I do have one old gardening book of hers, out of which came a handwritten recipe for relish.

It read:

Sweet relish, 6 pints

Prepare cucumbers and onions and cover with vinegar. Add sugar to taste.

Pour into hot jars and cool.

So that “recipe” was a no-go.

I searched high and low for a recipe without weird ingredients and that wasn’t too sweet or too oniony. It could not be found, so I made some simple tweaks to the Ball Blue Book recipe to suit my tastes.

📖 Here’s the recipe

Enjoy this relish recipe!