I hadn’t planned to make chutney this year, but faced with nearly a kilo of green tomatoes that just refused to ripen and a sack of apples that our neighbours brought around from their tree, I had to do something. I hate wasting food, especially produce that I have grown.
And so I realised that chutney was inevitable, and .., as I always do, I looked up various recipes, realised I didn’t have quite what I needed, and improvised a bit.
The thing is, in this kind of cooking & preserving, you can get away with a bit of a riff on the original recipe. As long as you have a bit of an idea which ingredient works well with others, an understanding of the technique and the idea behind the recipe you can create all kinds of variations on a theme. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, that the outcome will be a bit different each time is one of the most charming things about this kind of cooking.
I’m fairly new to making chutney, despite my Maternal Grandmother teaching me how to make her legendary Tomato Relish, and passing me on the recipe. This isn’t her recipe, hers requires a glut of almost overripe tomatoes which I didn’t really have, although I’m sure at some point I will. Helping her make her famed Relish, and then recreating it later enabled me to understand a bit about how to make a good chutney. Which is…
The key to creating a good chutney, is layering different levels of spice and flavour, in order to preserve a glut of… whatever it is you have a glut of… I’ve eaten all kinds of sweet, tangy, and savoury spreads… the best always have a pleasing resemblance to their original main ingredient (s) , with a hint of sweetness, a tang of vinegar, and a layering of spices that intrigue the palette. I love to add chutney to a salad sandwich, or TLAT (Tofu, Lettuce, Avocado, Tomato sammie) or to layer onto a cracker with cream cheese (There are some really nice vegan ones out now! ) , or to give out as pressies at Christmas time.
Anyway, use this as an idea, something to inspire you to create your own version to use up that glut of tomatoes, or apples… carrots or chillis. Or a combo of all.
(I’m leaving this little image here from the original 2015 post– as a little reminder to myself how far my photography has moved on.. ! )
- 1 kg (ish) green tomatoes, roughly chopped
- approx 800g chopped apples (around 1 kg before coring & chopping)
- 3 - 4 garlic cloves , finely chopped
- 1 large onion , finely chopped
- 200 g brown sugar
- 200 ml malt vinegar
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 3 chillies finely chopped
- 1 inch piece ginger , peeled & finely chopped
- 1 Tbs salt
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Make sure everything is chopped
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Put all ingredients in a heavy saucepan & simmer for around 2 hours, until it looks like a 'chutney' - use a potato masher to break up ingredients a bit if necessary.
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Sterilize jars & spoon in & seal.
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Leave for at least 3 weeks for the flavour to develop/
To sterilize jars, either put them through the dishwasher and use hot, or wash with water & pop on a low heat in the oven, which evaporates the water whilst the heat sterilizes the jar.
As I don't have a dishwasher, I boil the lids, and use metal tongs to pull them out & position them on the jars.
This makes around 3 x 500 ml jars.
Lentil & Tomato Soup
That looks wonderfully delicious. I’ll tuck this away and save it for next year, as I don’t believe our CSA will send any more green tomatoes in our farm box this fall. I was wondering how many jars and of what size this recipe makes.
Hi Kathryn,
This made 3 x 500ml jars & a little left over which we ate up straight away! As I was using up produce I kind of winged it a bit, but was very happy to have it turn out. x
Followed the recipe but substituted the malt vinegar with red wine vinegar and added 1tsp of all spice. From the test taste seems like a promising chutney but will let the flavours to infuse for another 3 weeks to make my final assessment. Made 5x 425ml jars in total.
Ohh.. hope it tastes delicious! Sounds like you’ve made enough to share with friends too!
do you leave the skin on the apples?
do you leave skin on the apples?
I peeled the apples for a smoother chutney.
Thank you for this recipe. I made it September 2019 and had it January 2020 it is absolutely gorgeous. I followed the recipe exactly. Someone gave me unwanted green tomatoes unfortunately I am unable to buy them anywhere in the UK.
You can orderthem by the kilo on-line from the Tomato Stall
Fab Christina! We love a good bulk buy too ?
I am going to make this today. I shall also add some figs off my tree and reduce a couple of apples. I will let you know how it goes.
My chutney is often a little runny. I wonder if it’s because I make it in a straight sided stock pot rather than the open jam pan my mother would use, so less surface area for steam to escape and the sauce to reduce.
Question: Should the apples be a particular type, like Granny Smith, which fall apart as you cook them?
My chutney runniness depends on the amount of liquid in the pot- to make it less runny you could boil for a little longer to evaporate some of the liquid, or yes, use a jam pan.
For the apple variety- I’ve used all kinds over the years. Some from neighbours, some from my little apple tree in the garden. I’m not sure any are a ‘type’- It really depends on what I have a glut of! (our own apple tree is a rescue from a garden centre, I don’t even know what variety it is!!)
I have just started this recipe, chopped loads of green tomatoes, some apples, garlic, chilli’s and half a red pepper that I had left over, leaving it now until tomorrow then to add the wet stuff, smells Devine so hopefully will taste amazing in a few months..x
I added some apple pulp left over from making apple jelly as well as peeled and chopped windfall eating apples. Left out the cumin seeds and added a tablespoon of whole grain mustard. Used apple cider vinegar. It only took an hour to cook. Can’t wait to try it in a month’s time. Thanks for the recipe.
Mustard seeds sound like a delicious alternative to cumin! Glad you liked the recipe & hope the results are delicious!
I’ve doubled up on all the ingredients as picked 2.3kg of green tomato’s to use. Also gave away around 8kg but received 10kg of sweet cooking apples 😊
Subbed the cumin for Mustard seeds and added a couple of drams of 18 year old single malt.
First time making chutney and all home grown by us and our neighbour
Tastes yummy 😋 but took over 5 hours due to the amount 😎
OH sounds amazing! I love how chutney can be adapted to what you have a big glut of to use up! And now you’ll have loads to give away for presents too 🙂 x