2025 seems to be a good year for cucumbers. We’ve already made our usual cucumber pickle so we’re making cucumber relish as well. The ingredients are very similar to the pickle but you end up with something that is a bit like piccalilli, thicker than a pickle and suitable for using on sandwiches and as a side.
Ingredients
- 1.3 kg cucumbers (~3-4)
- Red Pepper
- Large Onion
- 100g Salt
- 200g sugar
- 600ml cider or white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp each of turmeric, dill (or fennel) seeds, peppercorns
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 2 tbsp cornflour
Method
De-seed the cucumbers & pepper.
Finely chop the cucumbers, pepper & onlion and put them in a bowl with the salt and leave overnight
Drain & thoroughly rinse the mix (taste a bit of cucumber to make sure its not too salty) then squeeze them to get rid of excess moisture.
Put the vinegar & sugar in a pan and warm gently to dissolve the sugar then bring it to the boil.
Grind the spices and mix with the cornflour.
Take a couple of tablespoons of the vinegar out of the pan and leave it to cool before mixing with the ground spices.
Put the cucumber, pepper & onion into the vinegar & sugar mix and bring it back to the boil then add the spices and boil for around three minutes stiring to make sure it doesn’t stick.
Put into the sterilised hot jars.
And there you are. It can be eaten straight away but will improve with keeping. It will keep for around 12 months unopened but keep it in the fridge once opened.
How do I know when I’ve rinsed enough? Keep rinsing until it’s not too salty
How much liquid should I squeeze out? Until you think you’ve done it enough
Add plenty of cooled vinegar to the spice mix otherwise it might go lumpy when you add it to the hot vinegar