Looking for a rich, tangy tomato relish? Well, this is it.

I never bothered making my own relish until Hubby needed to go on a low-sodium diet. I was stunned at how much salt there was in tomato sauce, which he loved, so started looking around for alternatives. The local cafe sold a nice enough relish without any salt, but when I looked at the ingredients, I thought…. hmm… I could make this. So, I found a recipe with the same ingredients and I made it. And it was OK – a sweet, tangy relish but a bit on the thin side.

Then… we grew our own tomatoes and what a difference. We had a bumper crop, but they were the small variety. The recipe calls for 4 kilograms and they need to be peeled, so I’d always bought large tomatoes, peeled and chopped them, and into the pot they went with all the other ingredients. But as these were small I couldn’t face all the peeling, so decided to roast them and squeeze out the flesh. Well, we all know how roasting intensifies flavour, but this was unbelievable. For a start, our tomatoes tasted a 100% better than what I bought at the greengrocer, and secondly, the roasted flavour was out of this world. So, here is my recipe.

Rich Tangy Tomato Relish

Tomato relish as it’s cooking

Rich, cooked tomato relish

 Ingredients:

• 4 kgs ripe tomatoes
• 1 1/2 kgs white onion
•  1 1/3 kgs sugar
• 3 tbs curry powder
• 4 1/2 tbs mustard powder
• 1 2/3 litres white vinegar
• 1 tbs cornflour
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Roast tomatoes until soft, squeeze the flesh into a bowl and discard skin
• Place the tomato pan juices into a saucepan, bring to boil and allow to thicken
• Peel and finely chop the onions, place in a large pot and cover with the vinegar
• Add the sugar and boil rapidly for five minutes
• Add the tomato flesh and turn the heat down to a simmer
• Combine the spices and stir into the relish mixture
• Simmer gently uncovered for one hour, removing scum and stirring frequently to prevent burning
• Add salt and pepper to taste at any time during the cooking process
• When the tomato pan juices have cooked down add them to the mixture
• After one hour the relish should have thickened, look rich and taste tangy
• For the final thickening mix the cornflour with a little water to make a paste
• Add a little hot liquid to the paste, mix well and stir into the relish
• Add the paste to the relish and cook for 5 minutes stirring continuously
• Either bottle into sterilised jars or place into containers and freeze

Enjoy and happy cooking! ♥

Inara Hawley © 2018