So here is my homemade sweet pickle relish recipe you have all been waiting for! And the good news here is that this relish is absolutely ready in about 5 minutes!
That is no joke at all.
This sweet green pickle relish is a great topping for hot dogs, tacos and burgers as well!
And a great topping companion for my sweet pickled pineapple.
But how on earth I came up with this idea to make a homemade sweet pickle relish recipe.
Florida
See, I often store certain tastes, flavors and meal idea that I bump into while we travel in the back of my mind.
Just a little side note for later, when I want to try out something new one day.
And this sweet pickle relish is one of them for instance!!
I first tasted this sweet and sticky green goodie in Florida.
That was in the Keys somewhere – a long stretch of islands one after the other so don’t ask me which one it was.
I have no idea.
Keys
But it happened that I fell in love with this relish right away.
It was only a couple of days later that I realise just what an addictive treat relish really was!
We were visiting the Everglades, and I ordered a portion of fried alligator nuggets with relish for lunch. Bang. That was it. I loved it so much.
So once I left the US I even brought back a jar of this fabulous relish home.
I think I bought it at a Winn-Dixie supermarket somewhere along the way.
Gator Nuggets & Relish
And of course, not surprisingly we emptied that jar of sweet relish in just a couple of days.
Because I was not capable of leaving the sweet pickle relish unopened in my pantry for much longer than a week.
So I have kept that sweet and sour cinnamon flavored green relish tucked away in my brain since then.
Don’t you have that?
You taste something while you are traveling and that flavor stays with you for ages? This relish is exactly that.
What a treat.
Easy 5-Minute Sweet Pickle Relish
I have always tried to find this sweet and sour relish whenever I would walk by a more international supermarket, even while we were traveling.
But I never really found a similar sweet pickle relish again.
Up until the moment that I had to clean out my fridge because we were going away on another holiday again. And I still had half a jar of sweet and sour pickled gherkins left that we needed to eat.
Sweet & Sour Gherkins
So suddenly I thought of that relish.
Could I prepare the best sweet pickle relish recipe at home by myself?
Could I really just make the homemade relish that I had been craving for years?
It just sounded too good to be true.
So then I thought, why not give it a try and see how close we get to the original relish.
Cinnamon
I blended the gherkins finely, and then added the most important flavor, cinnamon.
I also added those pickled mustard seeds that usually sit right at the bottom of the jar, which turned out to be a great idea.
Also a dollop of mustard, a sprinkle onion powder and caster sugar went into it. Until I reached the flavor that I was looking for.
I let this mixture rest for about half an hour, tried a little teaspoon to see how I was doing.
Bang on.
There it was.
Hot Dogs
I just created my very own sweet pickle relish recipe from scratch, at home!
Right there and then I realised that my this heavenly relish that I had missed for so long… It was just there lurking in my fridge for all those years. And I was totally flabbergasted.
Of course the hubs was also over the moon once he tasted it.
That day I put some of that freshly made sweet pickle relish on a coleslaw hotdog. And I used the rest of it as an extra topping for my homemade pork belly tacos with sauerkraut the day after.
Delicious!
Sweet Pickle Relish for Canning
Of course you can use this sweet pickle relish recipe for canning as well.
You can find how to properly sterilize glass jars for canning here!
Preserves
Do you love pickled food?
Then you should also check out my post about how to pickle cabbage and other vegetables for later! Pickled cabbage also makes a lovely topping for tacos, hotdogs and burgers!
Or how about my quick and easy 30 minute homemade piccalilly pickles!
And you don’t have to throw away food, that is what I love the most about pickle recipes…
I hope you like this sweet pickle relish recipe.
Enjoy!
Easy 5-Minute Sweet Pickle Relish Recipe
5-Minute Sweet Pickle Relish Recipe
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
0 mins
Total Time
5 mins
My homemade sweet pickle relish recipe: ready in 5 minutes!! A great topping for hot dogs, tacos or burgers!
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Servings: 1 cup
Calories per serving: 21 kcal
Ingredients
- 4 large pickled gherkins (sweet and sour)
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 1 tbsp mustard seeds (pickled)
- ⅔ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp strong mustard
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- ⅔ tsp onion powder
- pepper
Instructions
1) Add the sweet and sour pickled gherkins to a blender.
2) Blend for just a few seconds until you get a rough crumble. Then add the caster sugar and ground cinnamon.
3) Pulse again for another 2 to 3 seconds until you end up with a lightly coarse gherkin mixture. Remove the blade of your blender if you can or pour the blended gherkins in a mixing bowl. Then add the pickled mustard seeds, mustard, vinegar and onion powder. Season with a little pepper to taste.
4) Stir the sweet pickle relish well. Cover and let the relish marinate at room temperature for an hour. Then check the seasoning again and add extra cinnamon, sugar, onion powder or pepper if necessary. Once it’s seasoned enough, then pour the sweet pickle relish in a clean jar. You can store the sweet pickle relish in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Ways to Serve This Sweet Pickle Relish Recipe Recipe
This sweet pickle relish recipe is so versatile.
You can use it in so many ways!
Like I already mentioned above, it is a great dipping sauce for fried nuggets and such. Which makes it a delicious appetizer as well.
I also like to make this sweet pickle relish recipe when I plan on making a cold cut platter.
Cold Cut Platters
Its sweet flavor goes extremely well with cheddar cheese for instance.
There is this type of cold cut platter in the UK that comes to mind now.
You might have heard of it before. It is called a ploughman’s lunch. And it consists of cheese, bread, apples, boiled eggs, pickled onions, boiled ham and such.
The cheeseboard of your dreams in other words.
And if you ask me this relish goes very well with it.
Branston
Usually another more darker colored sticky relish is served with that ploughman’s lunch platter.
And that one goes by the name of Branston pickle.
Sounds familiar?
However the hubs prefers my sweet pickle relish recipe! Both relishes have one important flavor in common, and that is the cinnamon.
Branston is what you usually get when you go to an Irish pub for food, especially sandwiches and any bread type of meal.
Breakfast
Just a couple of days ago the hubs prepared breakfast.
And he decided to try out something different.
So he spread some sweet pickle relish recipe on grilled toast, then topped it off with a fried egg and some chili sauce.
And it was to die for!
Try it as well!
