pickle relish Archives - Life's A Tomato

I just made a big batch of my quick fix spicy pickles. Man, they are good! They’re perfect on burgers and hot dogs. But making them left me with a container full of dill pickle pieces. Ends, small pieces, little chunks. The parts that didn’t cut the mustard so to speak. The not-so-photogenic pieces that really didn’t need to be in my jar of pickles. So, what to do with those pickle scraps? Make quick fix pickle relish, of course! I not only loved this relish, I thought it was much better than the store-bought stuff.

Even though I used pickle ‘scraps’, this relish is so good that next time I’d be more than happy using actual dill pickles. I’m a pretty cheap guy, and no way would I waste those pickle trimmings. But who always has pickle trimmings?

Make The Spicy Version, Too

For a spicy version of this quick fix pickle relish, just add a few good pinches of dried red pepper flake. You’ll want to let the relish ‘get happy’ in the fridge for a few hours before using it so that it gets good and spicy. Stir every once-in-a-while to help speed things along. Don’t go crazy with the red pepper. Remember, you can always add more, but taking some out if you added too much is gonna be a challenge!

You’re Sweet

If you want a sweet version you can stir in some sugar or sweetener. Personally, I’m not a big fan of super-sweet pickle relish. But my wife is. So I make a slightly sweet version for her. I don’t go crazy with the sugar. It’s a relish, not desert, I figure. I still want that pickle pucker. I don’t want it hiding in an overly-sweet relish. Like with making the spicy version, you can add more sweet but you can’t take it out!