This zucchini relish recipe is a delicious probiotic topping or mix in for your favorite foods. It’s also a great way to use up extra zucchini.
The best Zucchini relish recipe
Enjoying lots of probiotic foods is important, whether you’re following a Nourishing Traditions diet or the GAPS diet. This sweet zucchini relish with honey is so delicious, you’ll forget how good it is for you! It’s lacto fermented, which means it contains an abundant array of healthy, probiotic bacteria.
Fresh zucchini makes a brilliant substitute for pickles in this easy zucchini relish recipe, and probably won’t even be able to tell the difference. We love to use it anywhere we’d normally use a pickle relish.
It’s a great use for all of the zucchinis that love to grow in the summertime. I know I’m always on the lookout for good zucchini recipes when our garden is overflowing with them.
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This sweet and spicy relish recipe will jazz up your favorite foods
I like to serve a variety of condiments whenever we have hotdogs and hamburgers, and this zucchini relish is by far our favorite. We’ve found other delicious ways to enjoy it, too:
- Mix into deviled eggs
- Stir into tuna or salmon salad
- Add it to sandwiches
- Serve it alongside any meat
- Top cream cheese and crackers for a fancy party snack
I love knowing that something so delicious and versatile is also really good for us! We try to eat some live, probiotic food with every meal, and this lacto fermented zucchini relish does the job perfectly.
Get my fermented beets recipe here. Some other of our favorite fermented foods are this fermented carrots recipe and this easy kimchi recipe.
Zucchini relish recipe directions
Ingredients:
- 1-2 small zucchinis
- 2 grape or oak leaves
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 onion
- 1 tsp mustard seed
- 1 TBSP raw honey
- 1/2 red pepper
- 2 tsp mineral salt
- Filtered water
Instructions:
- Chop all vegetables very finely.
- Mix chopped vegetables with honey and salt.
- Put a grape or oak leaf in the bottom of a wide mouth pint mason jar, then add chopped vegetable mixture.
- Put second leaf on top of vegetable mixture, and add fermentation weight if desired.
- Add enough filtered water to to cover contents of jar to one inch from the top of jar.
- Press leaf and weight (if using) down to keep everything submerged.
- Put a metal canning lid on jar tightly. You can also use a fermentation lid if desired.
- Ferment at room temperature for about 3 days, or as soon as you can no longer click the metal lid down.
- When finished fermenting, store in refrigerator.
Variations you can try
Feel free to swap out the zucchini for another summer squash, like yellow crookneck. You can also play around with the onions and peppers.
Try green onions instead of white, or different colors of peppers. You can even add spicy peppers if you like your food hot.
Another idea is to make this zucchini relish and add finely chopped carrots. This adds even more color and texture, and is a tasty change of pace.
Choosing ingredients
When you’re deciding on ingredients, make sure to choose the best quality you can. When you’re lacto fermenting, you’ll get the best results and highest nutrition if you use organic produce.
I’ve noticed that non organic produce often molds if I ever try to fermented it. Ever since, I’ve stuck with organic produce. I also like avoiding the bigger toxic load on conventional produce.
Even better, use produce that you’ve grown yourself. That’s where this recipe really shines. Feel free to mix and match the ingredients to fit whatever you’re currently harvesting from your garden, from a CSA share, or a farmer’s market.
This zucchini relish is very flexible, and it will be delicious made a variety of ways with different vegetables.
Fermenting equipment and tips
You don’t anything too fancy to make your own homemade fermented relish. Just some pint or quart mason jars will do, with metal lids. You can use special fermentation lids if you want, but they’re absolutely not necessary at all. If you’re in the market for some fermentation lids, check out my complete fermentation lid review and comparison here.
Don’t full the jars too full. Just full them to the shoulder (where the jar starts to curve at the top).
You can add a fermentation weight if you want, to keep everything submerged. This will help prevent mold. If you don’t have special fermentation weights, you can use some very clean washed rocks or pie weights.
Put the metal lid on tightly, and watch it while it ferments. Once the metal lid is taut and you can’t click it up and down anymore, the ferment is done.
Move it to the refrigerator or another cold place to store. Enjoy on any food you want!
If you’re interested in learning to ferment in a crock and are looking for one, I share my fermentation crock comparison here.
More homemade ferments
What is your favorite thing to eat with relish?
What ingredients do you like to use? Share in the comments!
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Zucchini Relish Recipe Lacto Fermented
This zucchini relish recipe is a delicious probiotic topping or mix in for your favorite foods. It's also a great way to use up extra zucchini.
Ingredients
- 1-2 small zucchinis
- 2 grape or oak leaves
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 onion
- 1 tsp mustard seed
- 1 TBSP raw honey
- 1/2 red pepper
- 2 tsp mineral salt
- Filtered water
Instructions
- Chop all vegetables very finely.
- Mix chopped vegetables with honey and salt.
- Put a grape or oak leaf in the bottom of a wide mouth pint mason jar, then add chopped vegetable mixture.
- Put second leaf on top of vegetable mixture, and add fermentation weight if desired.
- Add enough filtered water to to cover contents of jar to one inch from the top of jar.
- Press leaf and weight (if using) down to keep everything submerged.
- Put a metal canning lid on jar tightly. You can also use a fermentation lid if desired.
- Ferment at room temperature for about 3 days, or as soon as you can no longer click the metal lid down.
- When finished fermenting, store in refrigerator.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
32Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 6Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 146mgCarbohydrates: 1gFiber: 0gSugar: 1gProtein: 0g
My zucchinis aren’t quite ready but I will try this recipe…for sure. I can a slew of zucchini salsa for my husband each year and add pepper and turmeric to the recipe. It’s very spicy but so delicious. I love fermenting and hope to improve my results as sometimes I forget the ferments and the results look like a bad science experiment. I fermented some tayberries last week and they are terrific in salad dressings. I had to share back and appreciate your sharing with us! Ciao, for now!
Wonderful, thanks for sharing! Zucchini salsa sounds amazing!