Red Tomato Chutney in 30 min
If you’ve never had our tomato chutney recipe or any chutney, you need to give this a try. You might not realize how versatile this popular condiment is until you’ve tried it. The different flavors are fantastic on so many different dishes. We first made this in 2009 and never looked back!
What is Chutney?
If you love tomatoes and jam, then you’re in for a real treat. Chutney is a traditional condiment or spread that originated in East India. It’s now super popular around the world for it’s depth of flavor. This yummy conidment is a thick and chunky spread, similar to jam that’s been cooked down. But the flavors are rich, deep and outstanding. From tangy, savory, spicy and sweet, there’s a chutney made for everyone to enjoy. Tomatoes, mangoes, onions and peanuts are some examples of what they’re made of.
Video: Red Tomato Chutney Recipe
What Do you Serve with Chutney?
Think of it as a spiced jam and then your culinary ideas will start flowing. Once we started eating homemade tomato chutney it’s been so fun discovering new ways to enjoy this delicious East Indian inspired condiment.
- Tomato Chutney as a Dip: This is a wonderful vegetarian and healthy way to have a non-dairy dip. Serve the chutney with some grilled bread, crackers or slices of cucumber and celery sticks. All these scoopers are great.
- We love adding it to a grilled cheese sandwich for a great tangy/sweet/spicy filling. Here’s our chutney grilled cheese recipe
- Add it as a sauce to pasta, rice or quinoa.
- Enjoy it as a “salsa” and serve it with tortilla chips. Or drizzle it over nachos.
- Serve it as a side dish condiment over steaks, chicken, or other grilled meats. Steamed or roasted vegetables are amazing with a spoonful of this tomato chutney.
Best Tomatoes for Chutney?
We love using all types of tomatoes from ripe red tomatoes to green tomatoes. Green tomatoes are great because of the firm texture and tangy flavors. Also, if you have a bunch of green tomatoes in your garden, it’s a great way to use them up. Here’s our recipe for green tomato chutney.
- Using heirloom tomatoes would be very expensive unless you’re growing them and have a bumper crop of heirlooms. Also, heirlooms are much more watery, so cooking time will be a little longer for the chutney to thicken. Our tomato chutney recipe is so easy, it’s hard to not want to make it more often.
Thoughts on Making Red Tomato Chutney
- It’s a great way to use up your excess tomatoes or if it’s tomato season. Late Summer is the best time of year to use up those extra garden tomatoes by making tomato chutney.
- Customize your spice level. We have the base spices that are a good balance. Taste your batch and if you like more spice, savory, sweet or heat then add more of those spices. Make your adjustments based on your personal taste.
- Start with a small batch first and once you confirm your favorite mix of flavors, make bigger batches and can them.
- For more details on our red tomato chutney recipe check out the recipe box below with photos.
Red Tomato Chutney
Ingredients
Sweet & Spicy Green Tomato Chutney
- 1 pound (454 g) ripe red tomatoes , roughly cut
- 1/2 cup (110 g) brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) minced fresh chilies or to personal taste (Serrano, Thai chilies, jalapeno, habanero, etc.)
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) ground cloves , or to personal taste
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) white vinegar , or more depending on how tangy you want it
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) fresh lemon juice , or more to personal taste
Instructions
- Gather ingredients. Decide how many chiles and spicy you want in your chutney to be.
- Roughly chop the tomatoes for a chunky texture. If you prefer a smoother chutney, then you can chop the tomatoes more fine.
- Finely chop the chiles. You can remove the seeds if you like. But we like the seeds for extra spice.
- Combine all the chutney ingredients in a saucepan (1 pound (454g) chopped tomatoes, 1/2 cup (110g) brown sugar, 1 teaspoon (5ml) minced chilies, 1/4 teaspoon (1.25ml) cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon (1.25ml) clove, 1 Tablespoon (15ml) vinegar, and 1 Tablespoon (15ml) lime juice.)
- Bring to a simmer then adjust heat to medium-low. Simmer, stirring occasionally and gently.
- Cook for about an hour, or until mixture thickens to a jam-like consistency.
- Set aside to cool and store in the fridge to keep for a couple weeks. Or for longer term storage, put chutney into sterilized jars and can in a water bath (cover lidded canning jars with water about 1" above jars & simmer for about 15 min.)
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
How to Store Tomato Chutney
If you made a small batch, you can store it in an air tight container and put it in the fridge. This will store for about 3-4 weeks. For storing beyond 3-4 weeks, you should use the traditional home canning method. And if possible, still store them in the fridge. But the traditional canning method should preserve the chutney and make it shelf stable for about a year.
Easy Recipes with Tomato Chutney to Enjoy:
- tomato chutney grilled cheese sandwich
- quinoa patties with chutney
- baked breakfast tomatoes with parmesan
- homemade tomato garlic sauce
- this recipe is an oldie but goodie, which we published back in 2009. We’ve updated it with helpful video and new photos!
