Author: Renu Dhar, Leah Colins

Chow-chow, the sweet and tangy relish of pickled vegetables, is a staple condiment on many Southern tables. While it’s beloved throughout the South, the types of vegetables in it can vary depending on where you find it. Here we stick with one of the most common combinations: green tomatoes, green cabbage, bell peppers, and onions. The pickled vegetable mixture is a great way to make the most of end-of-season green tomatoes and other late summer produce before that first frost hits. 

The chunky relish is tart, sweet, and sure to bring a welcome pucker to your mouth. And it keeps in the fridge for up to four months, so you can pull it out to brighten up almost any meal—hot dogs, hamburgers, coleslaw, stewed beans, and even salads.

Making the relish is fairly simple: The vegetables are simply chopped, salted, and pickled in the fridge with a medley of spices, but it’s important to prepare the vegetables properly for chow-chow that’s flavorful and retains a crisp texture. For the best chow-chow to take you from summer right through the coldest days of fall, we asked our test kitchen colleague Renu Dhar to methodically pickle batch after batch to come up with our foolproof method. Read on for Renu's tips and the full recipe.

Tips for Making Chow-Chow

Use a food processor. We strongly encourage you to pull out your food processor to chop the cabbage, bell pepper, and onion in this recipe instead of chopping the ingredients by hand. This will save you a lot of time and energy. If you don’t have a food processor, of course go ahead and just chop everything with a chef's knife—just be sure your knife is good and sharp for the safest, most efficient chopping. One exception to the food processor suggestion: Be sure to still cut the tomatoes by hand. Pulsing them in a food processor will give them a sauce-like consistency, which we do not want for this relish.

Salt the vegetables overnight before pickling. It’s crucial to toss the chopped vegetables with an abundant amount of salt and let them sit for an extended period of time before pickling them. During this hands-off resting time, the vegetables will release excess liquid, which will be later discarded before they are pickled. We’ve previously talked at length about the benefits of brining vegetables, and encourage you to read about it. Essentially, brining drives water out of the cut vegetables, concentrating flavor and firming up their texture slightly for a more delicious, perfectly crunchy relish. 

For best results, start the brining process at room temperature and let the veggies sit for about 20 minutes to jump start the process, then refrigerate the bowl of salted chopped vegetables for at least eight hours or up to 12. You’ll be amazed by how much water seeps out of them in this time frame—almost three full cups water from about four pounds of vegetables! When you're ready to pickle, drain and discard all of the excess liquid before proceeding with the recipe.

Add robust seasonings. Earthy turmeric, fiery chile flakes, tangy mustard powder, brown mustard seeds, and celery seeds add a pop of flavor to the otherwise simple vegetable mixture. This blend of spices is flavorful enough to add interest to the relish without overwhelming the vegetables, making it perfect to pair with a range of foods.

Tips for Storing and Canning Chow-Chow

The recipe was tested and written using short term refrigeration storage, which will preserve the chow-chow for about four months. But the pickled chow-chow can also be preserved using the hot water bath canning method that we outline in our beginner’s guide to canning. With this method, the chow-chow can be stored for up to a year. Whether you opt for the hot water bath canning method or the easier refrigeration storage, we recommend always using sterilized glass jars.

How to Sterilize Jars for Your Relish

To properly sterilize jars, place clean jars on a rack in a large pot and cover by at least one inch of water. Bring to a boil and sterilize the jars by boiling for 10 minutes. You can then remove the jars with long metal tongs and fill right away, or reduce the heat to a low simmer and hold the jars warm until you’re ready to use them. Make sure to cool the filled jars to room temperature before sealing and refrigerating. This will prevent trapping excessive steam in the jars, which could lead to mold growth.

How to Serve Chow-Chow

One of the best things about chow-chow is its versatility, and how it adds bright, sweet and tangy flavor to everything you pair with it. Spread the Southern relish over a hot dog or a burger, mix it in a one-to-one ratio by volume with good mayonnaise for the perfect coleslaw dressing or sandwich spread, or spunk up a bowl of beans with a spoonful chow-chow and a side of cornbread.

In a food processor, pulse cabbage until finely chopped (pieces measure about ¼-inch), about 6 pulses. Transfer to a large nonreactive bowl (such as stainless steel or glass). In now-empty food processor, pulse the onion, red, green, and yellow bell peppers until finely chopped and add to bowl with cabbage. (Alternatively, use a sharp chef's knife to finely chop all ingredients by hand.) Stir tomatoes and salt into the bowl with cabbage until well combined. Let sit at room temperature until vegetables start to release moisture, about 20 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 12 hours.

Drain vegetable mixture using a fine-mesh strainer set over a large bowl, pressing lightly with back of a wooden spoon; discard liquid. 

In a large saucepan, bring vinegar, sugar, ground mustard, mustard seeds, crushed red pepper, celery seeds, and turmeric to a boil, stirring to combine, over medium heat. Reduce heat to low, and simmer brine until mustard seeds slightly plump up and mixture looks cohesive, 5 to 7 minutes.

Stir drained vegetables into brine mix and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until vegetables are crisp tender, 1 to 5 minutes. Let vegetables cool completely before placing in 3 pint-sized clean, sterilized heat-safe glass jars, and refrigerate for 12 hours to further develop flavor before serving. 

Special Equipment

Food processor, fine-mesh strainer, large saucepan, 3 pint-sized glass heat-safe storage jars

Make-Ahead and Storage

Chow-chow can be refrigerated for up to 4 months.

Breakfast bars are great for a meal on the run or an afternoon nibble, but while it’s tempting to reach for a store-bought bar, they’re often too sweet, aggressively spiced, and either so chewy they stick to the roof of your mouth, or dangerously hard with jagged edges that cut into your tongue. To avoid this, we encourage you to take the (mostly hands-off) time to make your own at home with our easy recipe for homemade breakfast bars that are lightly sweet, full of flavor, and have just the right texture.

Our perfect bar is hearty with a crunchy exterior that gives way to a softer, chewier center. It’s well seasoned, with just a touch of caramelized sweetness and a kaleidoscope of dried fruits, toasted oats, and crunchy seeds, plus it requires little more than tossing everything together, pressing into the pan, and refrigerating until firm. To get to this great result, we asked our test kitchen colleague Renu Dhar to methodically make batch after batch of seed-filled bars to come up with wholesome and satisfying breakfast bars.

Tips for Homemade Breakfast bars

Toast the oats. We found that toasting the oats with a little oil, brown sugar, and honey before mixing them with the other ingredients really deepened the bar’s final flavor. The oil, brown sugar, and honey lightly caramelize the exterior of the oats to create a rich butterscotch flavor. It requires just 30 minutes of hands-off baking and cooling time, which can be done while you are preparing the other ingredients.

Use a blend of sweeteners. To give the bars a nuanced, light sweetness without overpowering the earthy seeds, the bars are sweetened with a combination of brown sugar, honey, and finely chopped dates. The sticky honey and dates not only provide sweetness, but also help the bars hold together. A swirl of your preferred sweet fruit preserves folded into the oat mixture before pressing it into the pan further sweetens the bars and adds another flavor dimension. We love them with cherry preserves, but raspberry, strawberry, or blueberry all work wonderfully. 

Add a variety of seeds. Chia seeds, hemp seeds, and sunflower kernels boast various health benefits, but but they also bring a variety of crunchy textures and savory nutty flavors to the party

Bind it all together with nut or seed butter. . A creamy nut or seed butter of your choice not only gives you a chance to further customize these bars with your preferred flavor profile, it’s also the key sticky ingredient for binding the ingredients together. Feel free to use peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower butter—the latter is a great choice if you need to avoid tree nuts or peanuts because of allergies.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 325°F(160℃). Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray; line bottom and sides with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set both aside.

In a medium bowl, stir oats, brown sugar, oil, and 2 tablespoons of the honey until well combined. Spread oat mixture evenly onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake, stirring every 5 minutes and returning to an even layer, until golden brown and crisp, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack, about 15 minutes.

While oats are cooling, in a food processor, process dates and seed or nut butter until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down sides of processor bowl as needed. 

In a large bowl, stir together the cooled oats, sunflower butter mixture, dried fruit, chia seeds, hemp seeds, sunflower kernels, fruit preserves, salt, and remaining 1 tablespoon honey until well combined and the mixture holds together, 1 to 2 minutes.

Spread oat mixture firmly into the bottom of prepared baking pan, using bottom of a greased measuring cup to press into a flat even layer. Press plastic wrap directly onto surface of oats mixture; wrap baking pan in additional plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cold and firm, at least 8 hours or up to 3 days. 

Remove and discard plastic. Using parchment overhang as handles, remove bars; place on a cutting board. Cut bars into 1 1/4- x 4-inch squares. Serve or refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks. 

Special Equipment

8-inch square baking pan

Make-Ahead and Storage

Refrigerate portioned bars in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.