Pickled green tomatoes, an easy recipe for canning green tomatoes. These pickles are delicious, economical, and full of vitamins.
I love to see these large jars of pickled green tomatoes on the shelves in the cellar, they really are my favorite pickles.

What to do with green, unripe tomatoes?
How about all those unripe green tomatoes, which will not manage to get ripe anymore this summer? If you ever kept your own tomato plants in the garden, balcony, or greenhouse you know what I am talking about.
So what to do with them? Can them, of course, it would be such a shame to just throw them away. Or some amazing salsa verde. Or you could slice them and put them on the grill.
So after preserving horseradish and making watermelon rind jam, pickling zucchini, and making zacusca, I thought I would make my favorite pickles: green tomato pickles.
Are green tomatoes bad for you?
I grew up on these canned tomatoes in Romania, we had them in winter at least every few days, but when coming to Germany I discovered that many people could not even understand how I can actually eat them.
You see, they all keep thinking that unripe tomatoes are poisonous. Just as that small green stem part of a ripe tomato as well, they are all patiently cutting that away from every cherry tomato they put into their mouth for fear of getting poisoned.
Well, like my cousin Adi bluntly put it: “Considering that I have never removed that green thing from the tomatoes and with all the green tomatoes pickles I have been eating all my life, I should be long dead! But I am not!”
So, just in case you are still worried about eating green tomato pickles.
Tomatoes are a member of the nightshade family, like eggplants and potatoes for instance, which all produce a toxic substance called solanine, which is part of their defense mechanism against animals. Tomatoes produce a similar, yet less toxic substance called tomatine.
Both these substances can sometimes cause an upset stomach. BUT, that will only happen if you eat kilos of green tomatoes, green potatoes or raw eggplants every day, which I am sure you will not, nobody does.
How to make?
- I mixed some celeriac and carrots among the green tomatoes, I love their sour crunchiness, you could do that as well or choose other vegetables like small cauliflower florets for instance.
- Do try to get the fresh horseradish root, it is really great in this recipe.
- You will need rather large canning jars, large enough to hold at least five or six tomatoes per jar, preferably more. I tend to pickle small to medium-sized tomatoes and slice and fry or grill their larger companions.
- I had about 2 kg/ 4.4 lbs. However, you can use how many as you happen to have. Make enough pickling liquid (calculating the water-salt ratio) and discard the rest of it, if it is too much, it's just water with salt.
Step by step:
- Wash the vegetables.
- Peel and thickly slice the carrots.
- Peel the celeriac and cut it into cubes, about the size of the carrot slices.
- Clean the celeriac leaves as well.
- Peel the horseradish, wash it thoroughly and cut it into finger-thick stripes, about as thick and long as the little finger.
- Bring the water and the salt to a boil. Let boil for 3-4 minutes. Let cool slightly, not longer than 3-4 minutes. If it gets too cool, reheat it. The liquid should be very hot, but not boiling.
- In the meantime place some of the horseradish stripes on the bottom of the prepared jars.
- Start adding the tomatoes, alternating some carrot slices, celeriac cubes, celeriac leaves, more horseradish stripes, garlic cloves, and bay leaves in between.
- Sprinkle some mustard, dill seeds, and black peppercorns in each jar.
- Carefully pour the hot pickling liquid in the jars. Wait for 1 minute, then pour more liquid if necessary. The vegetables have to be completely covered with pickling liquid.
- Seal the jars very well.
- Process in a boiling water bath or canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude.
How long do they keep?
- Store the jars in a dark cool place.
- Leave the pickles for 4 weeks before you start eating them.
- Once you open a jar, keep it in the fridge.
- They will last at least over the winter, so about 4-6 months.
How to serve?
In Romania, pickled green tomatoes are served as a side dish for many dishes in the winter months.
I've always been a fan of pickles and this recipe has always been my favorite, I could eat the pickles every day, either at breakfast with bread and cheese or as a side dish for several kinds of dishes like:
- Beef and Pork Meatballs or Zucchini Beef Meatballs with mashed potatoes, for instance.
- Polenta dishes like these Polenta and Cheese Balls with Sausages or this Moldavian Stew - Tochitura.
- Pork Stew or Hungarian Beef Stew.
Pickled Green Tomatoes (Canning Tomatoes)
Ingredients
- green unripe tomatoes, about 2 kg/ 4.4 lbs
- 2 thick carrots optional
- about 200 g/ 7 oz celeriac optional
- some celeriac leaves from the celeriac
- about 150 g/ 5.3 oz fresh horseradish root
- 3 liter/ 6.3 pints/ 12 ½ cups water
- 4 tablespoons coarse salt without iodine
- garlic cloves about 3-4 per jar
- bay leaves about 2-3 per jar
- about 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
- about 1 tablespoon dill seeds
- about 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
Instructions
- Sterilize the jars. For more information on sterilizing jars, have a look at this post.
- Wash the green tomatoes. Peel and thickly slice the carrots. Peel the celeriac and cut it into cubes, about the size of the carrot slices. Clean the celeriac leaves as well. Peel the horseradish, wash it thoroughly and cut it into finger-thick stripes, about as thick and long as the little finger.
- Bring the water and the salt to a boil. Let boil for 3-4 minutes. Let cool slightly, not longer than 3-4 minutes. If it gets too cool, reheat it.
- In the meantime place some of the horseradish stripes on the bottom of the prepared jars. Start adding the green tomatoes, alternating some carrot slices, celeriac cubes, celeriac leaves, more horseradish stripes, garlic cloves and bay leaves in between.
- Sprinkle some mustard, dill seeds, and black peppercorns in each jar.
- Carefully pour the hot pickling liquid in the jars. Wait for 1 minute to allow the liquid to set in the jar and add more liquid if the tomatoes are not completely covered with pickling liquid. Seal the jars very well.
- Process in a boiling water bath or canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude.
- Leave the pickles for four weeks before you start eating them. Once you open a jar, keep it in the fridge.
- See above for serving ideas.
Sissi says
Lovely pickles! I also love preserved green tomatoes (I make green tomato & chilli jelly and green tomato salad, both are delicious and I would never replace the green tomatoes with red ones; they are simply different in texture and taste and not better in these cases.
It's funny that people think green tomatoes are poisonous!
It's nice to see what other people preserve... I am also in the middle of preserving season 🙂
Monica says
This is so interesting. I've never pickled anything in my life and doing it for green tomatoes sounds like a great idea. Speaking of green tomatoes, do you ever fried them? (In the US, fried green tomatoes is a specialty in the South...we just tried them on vacation and it was sensational)!
Kate @ Framed Cooks says
Hi Adina! I usually use green tomatoes to make fried green tomatoes, but I am definitely going to give these pickled ones a try! Happy end of summer. 🙂
Evi @ greenevi says
I love pickling! Last year I also had a few unripe tomatoes at the end of summer and had to pickle them. It was only a quick pickling method, so I definitely want to try your (proper) version this year, sounds really great! Also that you pickle celeriac, such a great idea, never tried it before…
Laura Dembowski says
Nothing wrong with eating green tomatoes. Love that you turned them into pickles.
Mary H Mullins says
Will give it a try. No vinegars used like other pickles...
Adina says
Glad to hear it. It is a traditional Romanian recipe, which doesn't use vinegar.