Best Ripe Cucumber Relish (For Overgrown Cucumbers)
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This easy ripe cucumber relish is the perfect homemade recipe to use up those large, overripe cucumbers you found hiding in your garden. Yes, even the ones with yellow skins can be used to make this tasty relish recipe you’ll love on your favourite dishes.
Did you get behind in harvesting your cucumbers and find a bunch of overripe ones hiding in your garden?
Don’t worry this ripe cucumber relish is the perfect way to use them up!
We love to grow both slicing and pickling cucumbers in our garden and keep up pretty good with harvesting them.
But every summer something comes up and we get very busy for a while.
What happens? You go out to the garden and find a ton of large cucumbers with skins that are starting to turn yellow.
If you’ve been wondering what you can do with overripe cucumbers, then this relish recipe is perfect!
How To Make Ripe Cucumber Relish
First, start by getting your cucumbers ready. Wash the cucumbers then cut off the blossom and stem ends. Peel, and slice them lengthwise then scoop out the seeds. Cut them into large chunks.
Using a food processor pulse the cucumbers and onions until they are the size you like. Place them into a large bowl and sprinkle with pickling salt. Cover the vegetable mixture up and let it sit overnight.
The next day drain and squeeze as much moisture out of the relish mixture as you can, then set it aside.
In a large pot bring the water and vinegar to a boil. Then stir in the sugar and spices, stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Then add the cucumber and onion mixture to the pot. Bring it back to a boil and cook for 15 minutes stirring often.
Ladle the relish into pint or half pint-sized canning jars leaving 1/2” of headroom.
Remove air bubbles and wipe the jar rims clean. Place the lids on and process in your water bath canner for 10 minutes or according to your altitude.
After processing, remove the jars from the canner and place on a towel. Let the jars sit for 24 hours undisturbed. Any jars that haven’t sealed need to be reprocessed or placed into the fridge to use up first.
Jars that have properly sealed need to be labeled and placed into your pantry storage. I love these easy printable forms to keep track of everything in my pantry so that I don’t waste food and lose track of what I already have on hand.
Do You Have To Peel The Cucumbers For Making Relish?
When you are making cucumber relish you can often leave the skins on the cucumbers or just peel half of them. But when you are making ripe or overripe cucumber relish it’s a good idea to peel them.
As cucumbers mature their skins get thicker and harder, they wouldn’t taste very good in your relish!
Making ripe cucumber relish is a great way to use up those big cucumbers you find hiding in your garden, even the yellow ones!
Best Ripe Cucumber Relish
Ingredients
- 7 large cucumbers
- 4 large onions peeled
- 1/4 cup pickling salt
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 tsp. ground turmeric
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 TBS. celery seed
- 3 TBS. mustard seed
- 3 cups vinegar
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Wash the cucumbers well, cut off the stem and blossom end and peel.
- Cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds.
- Cut into chunks and place into your food processor, pulse until they are your desired size. Place into a large bowl and set aside.
- Peel and quarter the onions and chop in your food processor, add to the chopped cucumbers. Mix the cucumbers and. onions together, sprinkle with the pickling salt. Cover and let it sit overnight.
- The next morning drain well squeezing out as much liquid as possible and set aside.
- Combine the water and vinegar in a large pot and bring to a boil.
- Add the sugar and spices and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
- Add the cucumber and onion mixture to the brine, return it to a boil and cook for 15 minutes.
- Ladle into pint or half-pint canning jars, remove any air bubbles and wipe the rims clean.
- Place the lids and rings on finger tight and process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes or according to your altitude.
- After processing remove from the canner and place on a towel in a draft free place for 24 hours. Any jars that don’t seel should be reprocessed or refrigerated.
These values are from a nutritional database and automatically calculated, and should only be used as an approximation.
Don’t Miss These Relish and Pickle Recipes!
- Easy Sweet Cucumber Relish
- Easy Zucchini Relish
- Bread and Butter Pickles
- Spicy Dill Pickles
- Pickled Beets
- Pickled Beans
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Kim Mills is a homeschooling mom of 6 and lives on an urban homestead in Ontario, Canada. Blogging at Homestead Acres she enjoys sharing tips to help you save money, grow and preserve your own food.
what is the headspace in the jars?
We love this relish and are making it for the 3rd year in a row! Always a sad day when the last jar is empty!
I add a small amount of red pepper (1small) to give it a little colour!
Sooooo god on sausages, burgers, pork chops, anything!
Was wondering if you can use celery salt instead of celery seed.
I wouldn’t, it would probably be to salty.
Great recipe made with our own yellow pickling cucumbers we thought were no good. Thank you for this great recipe
Thank you so much for the recipe! I added a couple red bell peppers from my garden also. I used about 12 large cukes, but they were very seedy. I ended up with 9 half-pint jars with a 1/4 pint jar to catch the last bits.
Not sure if the author ever did respond with volumes
But my 7 large cucumbers once seeded and diced gave me 7 cups
4 large onions once minced have me 5 1/2 cups
White or cider vinegar?
Can this be made as a refrigerator relish without canning? I don’t have any canning equipment but I have lots of overgrown cucumbers!
Can you give an amount in cups for the cucumbers and onion?
Hi Kim:
We found a bunch of huge and hidden cucumbers and decided to make relish. Your recipe was so easy to follow and tastes great!! We really appreciate your informative canning process. Thank you!
Bonita and Dale
HI Kim, I have some cucumbers to use up but need you to convert the 7 large cucs to cups. Same with the 4 large onions. Your help is appreciated. Happy Pickling!
Can you give an easier measurement for the volume of cucumbers in your recipe? 7 large is pretty vague. Is it 6#, or 16 cups? Your help would be appreciated! Lots of large cubes to use for relish.
This recipe is super easy. I’m not a relish eater, but my husband is. I tasted my first sweet pickle when I was 74 and this year I tasted relish for the first time. It is yummy! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
What kind of vinegar should I use?
@Molly, I used white.
Hello, the last time I made this relish it was delicious, just finished another batch and it is very bitter, checked and doublechecked my ingredients. Can you suggest what may have happened? Cucumbers are from our garden, very yellow, I peeled them and removed all seeds as before. Bit Mystified.
Many thanks
@Shirley, this could be because of your cukes themselves. Did you taste the cucumber before relishing them? Sometimes cucumbers can become bitter as they age.
@Shirley, Hi! after you peel a cuc always taste the cuc’s before using….a little bitter is ok but if too strong….better to feed to the chickens
@Shirley, I made this for the first time and it came out very bitter! I tasted all the cucumbers and none of them were bitter. However, I also made a batch of salsa with our tomatoes that also came out bitter. I’m wondering if it’s the onions I used in both recipes?
Can you tell approximately how many cups of cucumber and onion this comes out to?
Thank you for such a great recipe! We have some very strange-looking cucumbers. They are huge, yellow and just not something you want to give your guests for sure. But they taste great! And the close friends and family I gave some to love them and ask for more. Since we have tons of them, I will be making your recipe for sure. Thank you very much. I love recipes that help to save food. I am the type that makes jelly out of peach pits and skin. Now to find a way to save eggplants? Any ideas are welcomed. Have a blessed day!! 🙏🏻❤️
Is this relish ready to eat the next day or does it need to sit for a while before using?
I made this wonderful relish a couple weeks ago, and everyone loves it so far!
Is there a dill version of this recipe that anyone has made? I’ve since ended up with more yellow cucumbers that I need to do something with. I personally prefer dill relish. It would be great if I had dill relish as an option as well!
I have about 6lbs of cucumbers. Mostly lemon cucumbers. Will this be enough for this recipe? Just not sure about how much 7 large cucumbers would come out to.
Can I cut this recipe in 1/2?
A friend who is a first-time gardener gave my 6 huge yellow cucumbers last month a couple of days before I was flying out of town. I was looking for *something* I could do with them besides composting, and this recipe looked reasonable. Because I was a little short on cucumbers I added a big handful of chopped raw cabbage for filler since it is often used in relish. I had both yellow and brown mustard seeds, and I used brown just for look. The relish is wonderful.
While I was gone, 6 more even riper cukes showed up in my refrigerator. (nasty looking things, but not bad at all once I peeled and gutted them) I might use a red bell pepper and some green jalapenos for the filler in this batch since once again it’s not quite enough cucumber.
Do you use the liquid the liquid drained from the cucumbers or fresh water?
@Sherle, You discard the liquid drained from the cukes. It is way too salty to do anything with it.
Hi Kim
Is it possible to use regular salt instead of pickling salt?
Regards
Kate
@Kate, I used coarse Kosher salt and the relish was great.
How long does this need to sit before ready to eat? I’ve got different pickle recipes that say 48 hours or 4 weeks. How long is it fir this relish before I can give it to folks fir them to start eating?
@Amanda, My daughter took a jar the day after I made it and used it that night. They loved it.
Hi can you tell me, how long you have leave the cucumber relish before using and how long after canning the jars are good for, many thanks
@Frances Burton,
DID YOU USE THE DRAINED WATER OR FRESH WATER TO ADD TO THE VINEGAR?
@Frances Burton and @Amanda, it’s ready to eat pretty much as soon as it cools. (might be better after sitting a day or two, I don’t know) The salt pulls excess water out of the cukes and onions, then pulls the brine in. The processed jars — or unprocessed and refrigerated — will keep for years, but I’d try to use it up or give it away within a year; you can make more 🙂
@Sherle, fresh water (the drained water is too salty
Hi Kim! I have 12 pounds of chopped cucumbers and onions, how much salt should I add? 1/2 cup or more? & will it have affect of flavor or safety?
Do you use liquid drained from cucumbers? Or regular water?
@Shirley Duncan,
Did you use the drained liquid or fresh water?
@Shirley Duncan, Use regular water, NOT the salted water that you drained.
Hi! When you drain the chopped cucumber and onion, do you discard the liquid or combine it with the water and vinegar? Ready to use up all of these cucumbers that overgrew while we were out of town! Thanks!
@Emily,
Did you every find out the answer to this question?
@Emily, Discard the salted water. Use fresh water with the vinegar.
Thank you for the excellent article. I was given some large cucumbers and needed a good recipe for relish. This one turned out great! The cucumbers were green so the relish is not as yellow as yours. I have two suggestions: 1) tell us how many pints it makes (I did 1 1/2 times the recipe and got 13 half pints), and 2) tell us the amount of ground cucumbers and onions this amounts to, or tell us the weight of them when they’re ground up. I had to guesstimate the amounts because i had a variety of sizes. I think, actually, I ended up not having quite enough liquid, but time will tell. Thanks so much for posting this recipe.
A few months ago, I planted a “cucumber” plant in my garden, only to discover later that it was for pickling cucumbers. That advantageous mistake led me to the discovery of canning. Finding your article about those large yellow cucumbers that we somehow miss and turning them into relish was a gift! Thanks so much for posting your articles. I look forward to trying your other recipes as well.
Do you leave this overnight out of the refrigerator?
I normally keep it in the fridge overnight.
Hi Kim this recipes sounds like what I looking for but can you tell me how many cups approximately I would need of the cucumbers. Thank you
I’m sorry, I don’t measure the cucumbers in this recipe by cups. I use 7 good sized field cucumbers, not English cucumbers if that helps!
@Kim, we really all seem to need a more duplicateable measurement on the cukes please. One woman’s Lage cuke is another’s Nope, not yet lol
Hi, I just made this. It is tasty, but only made 4 pints. Maybe your large cucumbers are much bigger than mine. In any case, giving a weight or volume would really help.
Hi Kim! What flavour does this relish end up being? I’m looking for a tangy dilly style relish as opposed to sweet. Where would you estimate this fall on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 are super dill pickles and 10 is store bought sweet green relish?
Thanks for the recipe, though. I have WAY too many overripe cucumbers.
@Holly, hey..im in the same boat with loads of over ripe cucumbers. I also made red hot christmas pickle with the over ripe cuckes! Amazing!!!! And gorgeous. If you make them, choose the recipethat takes 5 days. So worth it!
Does this end up being a sweet relish? Can I just add some dill to it if I don’t like sweet relish?
@Sarah, did you end up making this? I have just made it today, and it isnt really sweet. I added 2 1/2 additional cups of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon each of cayenneand red pepper flakes. Eliminated the ginger. I wanted a sweeter relish with a kick. I make a hot zuchinni relish that has 5cups of sugar….so I realized after tasting it before boil…it was not nearly the flavor i wanted. Hope that helps tou decide what to do.
This relish isn’t a super sweet one because we like having a few different types of relish on hand. My sweet cucumber relish is much sweeter and might be more what you are looking for. https://www.homestead-acres.com/sweet-cucumber-relish/
@Kim,
Do you use yellow or whiten onions for the
@Sherle,
Does this sit in the fridge overnight or just on the counter?
Can I cut this in half? Ingredients and all?