Homemade Sweet Chili Pepper Relish

This delicious homemade sweet chili pepper relish is sweet with heat – great for any charcuterie board, burger, or brat.  It’s the best way to use a garden bounty of peppers!

Every year I find myself overflowing in peppers – bell peppers, sweet peppers, spicy peppers…. there are literally peppers, peppers everywhere! 

They are, by far, one of my favorite veggies to grow in my garden – and one that can truly get out of hand if you allow them to!  As a result of an explosion of peppers is my need to find amazingly delicious ways to use them up – in a hurry.

This Homemade Sweet Chili Bell Pepper Relish is my absolute FAVORITE condiment. It’s sweet… with heat, and is a wonderful condiment (or, even a side!) to your summer table:

• use it on your favorite bratwurst or hot dog
• topped on a juicy hamburger
• served atop crackers, or toasted sourdough
• eaten straight from the jar with a spoon (this is what my kids do…)
• or jarred up, and given as gifts to your wonderful neighbors ❤️

Preserving an Abundance of Peppers

Peppers are one of my favorite things to have too many of in my garden – not only can they be dehydrated, they can be used for some of the most unique recipes (some of which are non-cook!)

• Fresh No-Cook Jalapeño Relish
• Spicy Red Pepper Jam
• Pickled Jalapeño Peppers
• Fermented Fresno Pepper Hot Sauce
• Candied Jalapeños (Cowboy Candy)
• Refrigerator Pickled Hot Chile Peppers

OR… go a step further and dehydrate all your peppers and grind them down in a grinder to make this Homemade Jalapeno Salt. That is also a wonderful way to use a ton of peppers at once!

But now… lets talk about this relish!

This Sweet Pepper Relish is by far one of the best ways to use them up. Get creative with your dinner meals and toss in some of this finished relish (add to your beans, pile it on hummus-topped crackers, or add it to your sandwich!)

Homemade Sweet Chili Pepper Relish

Gather all of your peppers – big and small, red and orange, yellow and green… they’ll all work wonderfully in this recipe.

Bell peppers are great for this relish because they have no heat – however, toss in some Serrano, jalapeño, Fresno, or even ghost peppers for variation, too. Your variations are completely up to you- there really isn’t any way to ruin this recipe. 

• Peppers – 3-4 cups worth! Use a mixture of bell, Serrano, jalapeño, Fresno – your choice!
• Vinegar – apple cider vinegar is a great option here
• Sweetener – use 1/2 C sugar (or even less if that works well for you)
• Extras – a few cloves of garlic, and a half of an onion

Whipping up this relish is so easy it’s fool-proof. While you can dice your peppers and onions, I prefer to cut the stem off the peppers, remove (or shake out) as many of the seeds as you can, cut them in half and toss the peppers, garlic and onion in the blender. Blend it to chop the veggies.

Then dump the veggies in a medium size pot. Add the vinegar, sweetener, and additional salt and let the mixture simmer away for 15-20 minutes.

The relish is done once the liquid starts to evaporate from the relish. You will still have a little liquid left – at this point, jar it up, and top with a lid prior to refrigerating.

Can this recipe be canned?

This recipe is a refrigerated relish. If you wish to can in a water bath canner, please reference Ball canning guidelines and do your own research.

Did you make this recipe? 

If you did, please take a second to RATE the recipe and leave a review – I’d love to know what you thought of this!