But if the season has been a little too bountiful, all at once, and you have more tomatoes than you know what to do with, chutney to the rescue.
I’m a dip, spread, and condiment lover. I can make a meal from grazing on various salsas, guacamole, hot pepper jelly, mango chutney, homemade honey mustard, crackers and chips. But normally when I want some dip, I want it sooner rather than later. With this, there’s no canning required and it’s ready in one hour.
There’s a creeper heat because in addition to 4 tomatoes, I used 1 large red pepper and 1 small yellow banana pepper. They’re mild peppers and I took most of the seeds out. Make the chutney spicier by using a serrano or habenero if you’re brave, or sprinkle in cayenne pepper. I didn’t want to sweat too much while I was eating, so kept the heat at a mild level. But like most spicy food, that the more you have, the more you want.
The brothy liquid is so full of flavor that I wanted to eat it like soup, and did. It’s made with apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, cumin, smoked paprika, molasses, cloves. I love all those spices and flavors, but use whatever spices and seasonings you have on hand from curry to cayenne. I didn’t add any salt because we’re a low-sodium house, and because I don’t think it needs salt. If you do, add salt to taste.
Make it in one hour by roughly chopping the veggies, tossing them in a pot, and let it boil with the lid cracked at a fairly strong boil for 30 minutes. I removed the lid and let it boil on high for 10 minutes to reduce the liquid volume as quickly as possible. I didn’t have time or desire for slow-cooking and hours of simmering. I was craving tomatoes and wanted to dig in as soon as possible. I eat one tomato every day like many people eat an apple a day.
Technically-speaking I’m not sure where chunky tomato soup, salsa, and chutney intersect. Un-technically speaking, I think the intersection is in this jar.
What can you use it for? Put it on bread and let the juices soak in. Or make bruschetta. Use it to marinate your favorite protein, serve it with chips like a salsa, use it as sandwich relish, or on crackers with a hunk of cheese. Mix it into a brown rice salad, use it over noodles like pasta sauce, make Vegetable Lasagna (vegan, GF) with it, or eat it like chunky Tomato Soup.
If your garden overflows or your eyes are bigger than your stomach when you see all those gorgeous tomatoes for sale in the markets this time of year, now you know what to do with them. I’ve been happily eating my vegetables.
Related Recipes:
How to Make Easy Pickled Vegetables Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes!
Bourbon Maple Slow Cooker Baked Beans (vegan, GF) – The best baked beans I’ve ever had with many similar flavors to the tomato chutney. No pork fat required
Creamy Tomato Soup (vegan, GF)
Roasted Grapes and Balsamic Reduction with Cheese and Crackers
Spicy Honey Mustard (GF, keep vegan by using agave ) – It costs just pennies to make your own mustard and it’s ridiculously easy
Hot Pepper Jelly (Vegan, GF) – with an intro to canning
Stovetop Hot Pepper Jelly (Vegan, GF) – No canning required, make in an hour
Cranberry & Orange Ginger Mango Chutney
Roasted Cinnamon-Ginger Delicata Squash – (vegan, gluten-free) So much easier to open than butternut squash, and their skins are edible
Sweet with Heat Cinnamon Sugar Candied Nuts (GF) – Just like the candied nuts at the mall around the holidays
Tomato fan? What are you making with seasonal summer produce?
