Artichoke Relish: For the Love of Canning

This post is sponsored by the makers of Ball® home canning products.*

Spring is a time of new beginnings, empty pantry shelves waiting to be filled, and rather unusual produce. One of my favorite first signs of spring produce is the rather alien-looking crowns of asparagus stalks poking out of the soil in single file, but my favorite spring treat is hidden under the soil, but ready to be dug up as the asparagus springs to life. And usually happens to be the first spring recipe ready to be canned to refill those pantry shelves!

The sunchoke, also called Jerusalem Artichokes, is a species of sunflower native to North America that is cultivated for its tasty spring tuber. Much like a root vegetable, they are dug up after the bloom has faded from late autumn to early spring but tend to show up on grocery shelves at the same time as spring asparagus. Earthy, nutty, and slightly sweet, the sunchoke is very versatile- they’ll take on the flavors of whatever you cook them with but maintain their crisp texture, similar to a water chestnut, and when cooked mimic the starchiness of a potato! The Artichoke Relish recipe in the 38th Edition Ball® Blue Book Guide to Preserving showcases the best of the little tuber and is my favorite recipe to boiling-water can!

Jump to Recipe

Artichoke Relish Ingredients

Artichoke Relish Method

Choosing your Jerusalem Artichokes: Look for firm, smooth tubers avoiding any tubers with wrinkles, soft spots, or sprouts. Firmness is the most important- which is why we’ll soak them overnight to get them ready for our relish recipe!

Prep Artichoke Relish

Wash Jerusalem artichokes under cold running water; drain. Trim artichokes as needed.

Combine water and 1 cup salt in a large saucepan, stirring until salt dissolves. Add artichokes. Cover; let stand overnight in refrigerator.

Drain, rinse, and dry artichokes.

Coarsely grind artichokes using a food processor or food grinder. Use total amount of ground artichokes.

Remove stem and seeds from red or green bell peppers. Coarsely grind bell peppers; measure 2 cups ground bell peppers.

Peel onions. Coarsely grind onions; measure 2 cups ground onions.

Because produce can vary so much in size, you may have extra peppers and onions left over! These ground veggies are perfect for mixing into scrambled eggs, salad dressing, or even spread on your sandwich bread, so be sure to save it!

Before we start to cook the artichoke relish, let’s get our clean jars prepped for water bath canning! I am using the Ball® EasyCanner Electric Water Bath Canner, which is so easy, just set and forget! However, if you are using a traditional canning pot, we’ll preheat our jars the same way. Place a canning rack on the bottom of your pot and fill the canning pot about halfway with water. Then using a jar lifter, fill the bottom of the pot with half-pint jars. We are using ten jars for this recipe but be sure to fill the entirety of your pot with jars so they don’t shift while canning- this can lead to chips!

I find it easiest to tip the jar sideways, fill with water, then place the jar on the rack. This will ensure the jar has enough weight to stay upright. Once all jars are in place, fill the canning pot until there is one to two inches of water completely covering the jars.

Preheat the jars to a simmer (about 180ºF.) Tip: an easy way to know when your jars are getting close to a simmering temperature is to look for the jars to be covered with tiny bubbles! As these are pre-heating, cook the artichoke relish. Why? Rule of thumb when it comes to canning is that hot ingredients go in hot jars and cold ingredients go in cold jars. This prevents thermal shock and chipping!

Cook Artichoke Relish

Combine sugar and vinegar in a large saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to a simmer.

Add ground Jerusalem artichokes, ground bell peppers, ground onions, ¼ teaspoon salt, and spices.

Simmer relish 10 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking. Bring mixture to a boil.

Fill Canning Jars with Artichoke Relish

First, prep your canning station! We want to avoid hard, cold surfaces (think your marble countertop) and instead create a space where we can be gentle with the jars. I use a wooden cutting board with a clean kitchen towel on top to soak up any water droplets.

Wash the canning rings and lids with hot, soapy water and inspect for any defects, then place them near your canning station on a clean surface. Also, make sure your canning tools are clean- I used the Ball® Utensil Set that comes with a jar lifter, funnel, and dual bubble remover and headspace tool.

Even though I have been canning for twenty years (yes, totally aging myself here, but I was a teenager when I fell in love with preserving food) I am constantly learning new things! Recently I’ve learned that my ‘assembly line’ method of filling jars isn’t the smartest, based on science. Instead, I now fill jars one at a time which keeps the temperature steadier, resulting in a safer, more uniform canned good.

Working with one jar at a time, fill the preheated half-pint jars with the hot artichoke relish leaving ½ inch of headspace. (Also, you can add 1/16^th tsp of Ball Pickle Crisp to each jar, if desired.)

Using a bubble remover tool, remove bubbles. (Even if you can’t see them, they are there!) and wipe the rim of the jar clean with a clean, dry towel. Note: there is turmeric in this recipe! So, use a towel you don’t mind staining or a paper towel!

Center a jar lid on the jar’s rim and secure with a canning ring, tightened to finger-tight! (Note: sometimes people think that finger tight is ‘loose,’ this is incorrect! While we don’t want to use tools to tighten the lid, do tighten it as much as possible while still just using your fingertips!)

Use a jar lifter to place the filled jar back in the canning pot and repeat with jars two through ten.

Once all jars are secured in the boiling-water canner, adjust the temperature to medium-high and bring the water to a rolling boil. Once the water has come to a boil, start your processing time timer. At sea level and up to 1000 feet the processing time is ten minutes, but this needs to be adjusted for altitude if you’re higher! Here in Denver at 5280 feet (hello Mile-High City!) I need to add an extra ten minutes. I’ll pop Ball® Home Canning’s altitude chart below:

After the jars are finished processing, turn off the heat and remove the canning pot’s cover. Let jars rest for five minutes. Then carefully, one by one, use the jar lifter to place the jars on another, clean cutting board covered with a kitchen towel to rest for twelve hours. As you are pulling the jars out of the pot, be sure to keep them upright (they may even have water on the lid) to not disturb the lid seals.

You’ll start to hear the ‘pop’ of the lids sealing themselves as the jars cool. If you watch carefully, you’ll be able to see the jar lids ‘pop’ from convex to concave!

After twelve hours, check the jar seals. I start this process by looking for any lids that are not concave, then gently tapping the lids with a fingertip. Properly sealed jars will have a clean, ringing sound. Jars that have not sealed properly will sound hollow. The hollow-sounding jar lids will also pop up and down. Finally, gently try to remove the lids with your fingertips. Concave, vacuum-sealed jar lids cannot be removed with your fingertips alone.

Finally, label and store your jars! This Artichoke Relish from the 38th Edition Ball® Blue Book Guide to Preserving is the first recipe I’ve canned this spring, and I cannot wait for so many more canning jars to join it as we preserve throughout the growing season!

Artichoke Relish Crostini

One of the most commonly asked questions I get while preserving foods is ‘how do you use them?’ And while, this answer is different for each recipe, for the Ball® Home Canning’s Artichoke Relish recipe my answer is ‘on everything!’ but my favorite way to use it is on crostini as a spring appetizer.

To build these crostini, thinly slice a baguette and top each of the slices with a thin rectangle of a good melting cheese (I love Gruyère) and give that a quick five-minute broil in the oven to melt the cheese. Then stack a layer of smoked salmon, a teaspoon of artichoke relish, then a pinch of microgreens for a bit of freshness!

These little bites are perfect to start off a spring brunch and to show off the flavor and texture of those sunchoke tubers!

*Disclosure: This is a sponsored post that is part of an ongoing partnership with the Fresh Preserving Division of Newell Brands. They have provided jars, equipment and monetary compensation. All thoughts and opinions expressed remain my own.

Photography by Becky Duffyhill