Sweet Mustard Pickle Recipe

I'll add some paper toppers to the jars for gift giving.

Last week I used the last of our store bought sweet mustard pickle. It is only my daughter and I who eat it, so one jar lasts a reaallly long time in our house. This got me thinking, surely I could make my own?

I read the ingredients on the jar- cauliflower, cucumber, onion, mustard, sugar. It sounded pretty easy. I've made jams and tomato relish before so this should be similar I thought. I found a good recipe on Best Recipes and got started. I did tweak the original a bit to suit what ingredients I had. It turned out great, I will definitely be making my own from now on.

This recipe made 7 jars. 2 for us and 5 for my gift stockpile. I will just add some paper as toppers and a pretty label before giving.

You will need:


2 litres water
1/2 c salt
1/2 cauliflower
4 large onions
1 cucumber
750 ml apple cider vinegar (I used my homemade kombucha vinegar)
2 c white sugar
1/2 c cornflour
1 TBS mustard powder (I used ground mustard seeds)
1/2 TBS curry powder (I used 1/4 garam marsala and 1/4 pepper)
1 TBS turmeric

Combine water and salt in a large pot.

Finely chop cauliflower, onions and  cucumber and add the vegetables to the salt and water and leave overnight. I placed mine outside as the onion smell was really strong!

Place the pot on the stove and heat up the mixture. Cook the vegies until tender then drain the liquid.

Place the veg back in the pot with the vinegar, sugar, mustard, and curry.


Bring to the boil for around 20 minutes. Then add the cornflour which has been mixed with about 1/4 cup of water. Simmer until nice and thick.

Seal immediately in sterilized jars.

The perfect combination for sealed jars is hot jars and lids + hot ingredients. Here are some instructions similar to the way I do mine. Put the lids on straight away and turn the jar upide down one so the hot liquid touches the lid. Then leave to sit on the bench until cool. Then I tough the lids and they "pop" very easily. I've never had a problem with anything going off. I keep all my jars from tomato paste etc and save them for jam making.

I did some pricing for this recipe as well. A jar of generic brand pickle costs $1.70 for a 500g jar.

The 7 jars cost me round $4 to make and I think it would be far better in quality and taste than a generic brand!

Are you a jam or relish maker?

Boiling the vegies in salt water.

Almost done.

Checking to see if it is thick enough.