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.

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