These dilly garlic green tomatoes are tangy, salty, garlic-y and incredibly delicious! This easy pickled green tomato recipe will give you a delicious snack for months to come!
While I’ve added the canning instructions below, this recipe can also be a “quick pickle” meaning you can just throw them in a mason jar and keep them in the fridge for up to a month…if you can resist that long!

Every year we grow bushels and bushels of tomatoes.
They’re quite prolific and grow really well in our area.
Check out this post for a Beginner’s Guide to Growing Tomatoes to learn all our secrets.
But honestly, it’s harvesting the green tomatoes early that I get excited about.
Picking tomatoes while their still green causes the plant to panic and put out more fruit, doubling your harvest!
So whether you’re trying to increase your yield, or need to pick the last of the tomatoes before the first frost, you can easily harvest tons of green tomatoes.
But we also love cooking with green tomatoes!
Honestly, we probably enjoy it more than red tomatoes.
We’ll make some ketchup for canning, some can for pizza sauce and some for tomato soup, but truly, it’s the green tomatoes that are my favorite.
We make a green tomato marmalade, a green tomato salsa, we’ll can some slices for fried green tomatoes and love making this pickled green tomato recipe!
How to Make This Pickled Green Tomato Recipe
This recipe couldn’t be simpler.
And any recipe that knocks it out of the park flavor-wise with minimal effort on my part is a win-win!
This recipe comes straight from the Ball Blue Book of Canning – which I highly recommend if you’re interested at all in preserving food and stocking up.
They have thoroughly tested each recipe to ensure it is safe for home canning and human consumption.
To make your green tomato pickles, simply harvest and wash your green tomatoes.
Cut off the stem portion, and roughly chop your green tomatoes into 1/2-sized chunks.
Fill your sterilized mason jars.
In a large pot on the stove, combine the vinegar, water and salt.
Heat while stirring until everything is combined.
Then pour the hot pickling liquid over top of your green tomatoes and add the garlic and fresh dill (or dill seeds) to each jar.
Affix your lids and rings. I tend to invert the jars a few times to get the garlic and dill to really mix in with the tomatoes, but that’s optional.
If you want to stop here, you can throw your jars in the fridge and they’ll keep for up to a month.
To preserve them for longer than a month, however, you can process them in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.
Done!
How to You Eat Your Pickled Green Tomatoes?
Honestly, you can eat them just like this! Just like you would a pickle! (No one else eats pickles right from the jar? Just me? okay…)
Or, you can chop them up smaller and sprinkle them overtop chili or nachos.
You can chop them finely and mix them in with your tuna or chicken salad.
But my favorite way to eat them, is over a slice of toast with cream cheese.
Mmmm…excuse me while I go make some toast…
This recipe comes straight from the Ball Blue Book of Canning – which I highly recommend if you’re interested at all in preserving food and stocking up.
They have thoroughly tested each recipe to ensure it is safe for home canning and human consumption.
Pickled Green Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 5 lbs of green tomatoes, roughly chopped into 1/2-inch cubes
- 3 1/2 cups vinegar
- 3 1/2 cups water
- 1/4 cup canning salt
- 6 garlic cloves (whole or diced)
- 12 tsp fresh dill or dill seeds (2 tsp per jar)
Instructions
- Wash your green tomatoes and cut off the stem part.
- Roughly chop them into 1/2-inch cubes and fill your sterilized canning jars.
- Heat vinegar, water and salt on the stovetop until combined.
- Pour over green tomatoes.
- Divide the garlic and dill between your jars.
- Affix your lids and rings and process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.