With the abundance of summer vegetables in open markets and grocery stores, a fun thing to make is relishes. The earliest known American relish was called Piccalili and was introduced in 1888 by Heinz. It combined green tomatoes, gherkin pickles, cabbage, cauliflower, turmeric mustard, vinegar and spices, and was yellow in color.

Here are some relatively easy relishes to make this summer.

My Favorite Garden Relish

5 cups

• ½ medium cabbage
• 2 carrots
• 1 green pepper
• 1 onion
• ¾ cup cider vinegar
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 t. salt
• ½ t. mustard seeds
• 12 t. celery seeds

1. Fill a blender with cabbage, carrots, green pepper and onion. Add water to cover and blend on high.
2. Pour into a colander to drain, then into a large jar.
3. Place vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seeds and celery seeds in the blender. Run the contents on high speed for 10 seconds. Add the blended contents to the jar.
4. Refrigerate for several hours.

Cole Slaw Relish

• ½ head shredded cabbage
• 1 grated carrot
• ½ finely chopped onion
• ¼ finely chopped green pepper
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 ½ t. salt
• 1 ½ t. mustard seeds
• 1 ½ t. celery seeds
• ¾ cup cider vinegar

1. Place cabbage, carrot, onion and green pepper in a bowl.
2. In a jar, combine sugar, salt, mustard seeds, celery seeds and vinegar. Close and shake well. Pour over vegetables and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Pickled Vegetables

12 first-course servings

This came from a 1995 Good Housekeeping magazine.

• 2 1-ounce bags peeled carrots, cut into 4 x ¼-inch sticks
• 1 pound green beans with trimmed ends
• 2-pound bag of cauliflower separated into flowerets
• 1 bunch celery cut into 4 x ¼-inch sticks
• 3 cups cider vinegar
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 t. salt
• ¾ cup water
• Before serving
• 1 7 ¼-ounce can large ripe olives, drained
• 2 bunches radishes, trimmed

Two days before serving

1. Heat 2 inches of water to boiling in a saucepan. Add carrots and cook 1-2 minutes. Remove to a bowl of cold water. Drain.
2. Repeat with green beans, cauliflower and celery. Place each vegetable in a large zip-tight plastic bag.
3. Combine vinegar, sugar, salt and water, and place one-third in each plastic bag. Close and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

To serve, drain marinade of each vegetable. Place on a platter, garnish with olives and radishes.

Sybil Kaplan is a Jerusalem-based journalist, author and compiler/editor of 9 kosher cookbooks. She is a food writer for North American Jewish publications, and she leads walks of the Jewish food market, Machaneh Yehudah, in English