Sweet and Spicy Green Tomato Chutney
If you’re an obsessed heirloom tomato gardener like us, you know there’s always green tomatoes in the garden. Sometimes it’s intentional where you pick them green or maybe they’re the casualty of a broken branch. Don’t waste those green tomatoes because our sweet and spicy green tomato chutney recipe will rock your world.
What is Chutney?
Chutney is a traditional condiment or spread that originated in East India. It’s now super popular around the world for its depth of flavor. Chutney 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.
What Do you Serve with Chutney?
The delicious possibilities are endless! 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.
- Add it as a sauce to pasta, rice or quinoa.
- Our crispy quinoa cakes or patties recipe is great with this green tomato chutney.
- 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.
Can you use green tomatoes for Chutney?
Yes! We love using green tomatoes and not wasting them. They’re certainly edible and delicious. 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. Our green tomato chutney recipe is so easy, it’s hard to not want to make it more often. The sweet and spicy flavors are fantastic.
Video: Sweet and Spicy Green Tomato Chutney Recipe in 30 min
Tips on Making Green Tomato Chutney
- Use up your excess or dropped tomatoes. Early Summer is great to use up those fallen garden green 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.
- All sweet and spicy green tomato chutney recipe details are in the recipe box below with photos.
Sweet & Spicy Green Tomato Chutney
Ingredients
Sweet & Spicy Green Tomato Chutney
- 1 pound (454 g) green 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
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) white vinegar , or more depending on how tangy you want it
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) fresh lime juice
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 Green 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
