Tomato and Zucchini Jam Recipe

Tomato and Zucchini Jam

This tomato jam gets its color and kick from Spiceology’s Smoky Honey Habanero seasoning, cooked hard and fast with cider vinegar until glossy and thick enough to hold a spoon’s track. Diced zucchini stirs in partway through, timed so the pieces stay visible instead of melting away — sweet, smoky, and just spicy enough for a cheese board, a grilled sandwich, or spooned over eggs.

The tomatoes and zucchini come from Mission Meadows, picked at peak summer ripeness rather than harvested early. That extra ripeness matters most in a fast-reduction jam, where riper produce breaks down quicker on the stove and tastes like more of itself in the finished jar.

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Tomato & Zucchini Jam

Peak-season tomatoes reduced hard and fast with cider vinegar and smoky honey habanero, with garden zucchini stirred in for texture.

Prep Time

12 min

Cook Time

24 min

Servings

2 cups (16 servings)

Difficulty

Intermediate

Season

Late Summer

Ingredients

For the Base

2 lbs ripe tomatoes, ½-inch dice (about 4 cups, juice reserved)910 g
⅔ cup granulated sugar133 g
2 Tbsp tomato paste32 g
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar45 ml
1½ Tbsp smoky honey habanero seasoning12 g
1 tsp kosher salt5 g

Stirred In at 12 Minutes

1 medium zucchini, ¼-inch dice (about 8 oz / 1½ cups)227 g

To Finish (off heat)

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice15 ml
½ Tbsp smoky honey habanero seasoning4 g

Instructions

1 Dice the produce.Core the tomatoes and cut into ½-inch dice, saving all the juice. Cut the zucchini into a smaller ¼-inch dice and set aside — the size difference keeps the zucchini reading as flecks, not chunks.
2 Build the base & boil hard.Combine the tomatoes and their juice, sugar, tomato paste, vinegar, salt, and 1½ Tbsp of the seasoning in a wide 12-inch skillet. Bring to a hard boil over medium-high and hold it there, stirring every couple of minutes — wide and shallow is what keeps the cook time honest.
3 Stir in the zucchini at 12 minutes.Cook 10–12 minutes more, stirring almost constantly near the end as the jam reduces to about 2 cups, turns glossy and dark, and a spoon dragged across the pan leaves a track that closes slowly.
4 Finish & rest.Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and the remaining ½ Tbsp seasoning so the honey sweetness and chile aroma stay bright. Rest 10 minutes before jarring — it thickens noticeably as it cools.

Local Sourcing: Tomatoes & zucchini — Mission Meadows (Spokane Valley, WA)

Chef C’s Tips

“The twelve-minute mark is everything. Add the zucchini too early and it simmers down into the tomato; too late and it never sheds its water. Set a timer — don’t eyeball it.”

“Cut the zucchini smaller than the tomato dice. Matched sizes read like chunky salsa; the finer dice reads as intentional texture in a jam.”

“This is a refrigerator jam, not a canning jam — the zucchini pushes the acidity too low for safe water-bath processing. Keep it sealed and chilled up to two weeks, or freeze up to three months.”