Tomato Chutney Recipe

This classic tomato chutney is full of homemade charm. A little sweet, a little spicy and made with humble canned tomatoes, it pairs well with almost anything! Make it for your family or as the perfect heartfelt gift with a loaf of sourdough bread.

Course Condiment

Cuisine American, Australian, English

Keyword Condiment

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 1

Total Time 1 10

Servings Jars

Calories 996kcal

Equipment

Large Heavy Based Saucepan (I use a 5L wide pan to ensure the moisture evaporates)
Stainless Steel Jar Funnel (so much easier to fill jars and dishwasher friendly)
Stainless Steel Ladle (so much easier to fill jars and dishwasher friendly)

Ingredients

800 g Diced Tomatoes (canned or tinned)
2 Onions (diced, 270g once chopped)
2 Apples (diced, 270g once chopped, green)
500 g Granulated Sugar (white sugar is best)
10 g Curry Powder (2.5 tsp)
16 g Salt (2 tsp)
9 g Pepper (3 tsp)
4 g Mustard Powder (2 tsp)
8 g Mustard Seeds (2 tsp)
200 g White Vinegar
8 g Garlic Powder (2 tsp)
3 g Onion Powder (2 tsp)
3 g Ginger (1 tsp)
6 g Fennel Seeds (2 tsp)
150 g Raisins (sultanas)

Instructions

Finely dice the onions and green apples (I don't take the skin off my apples). Add these to a heavy based saucepan, along with the diced canned tomatoes, sugar, vinegar and herbs and spices. Leave the raisins to the side for now.
Stir everything together and slowly bring the pot to a boil before reducing the heat to a slow simmer. Stir the chutney well every 5 minutes or so as its simmering. You want to keep an eye on it at this stage so the bottom doesn't catch, but you don't have to stir it constantly.
Allow the tomato chutney to simmer for around 40 minutes before adding the raisins.
Now simmer the chutney for another 20 minutes, or until it has thickened a little (it's ok if it's still a little runny as it will thicken up in the jar while it cools). At this stage you really want to stir it quite frequently to stop the bottom of the pan catching.
While the tomato chutney is simmering for the last 20 minutes, ensure your jars are clean and sterilised. I run them through a super hot dishwasher cycle right before I want to fill them with chutney.
Using a stainless steel jar funnel and ladle, carefully fill the jars, leaving around 1cm head room at the top of the jar. Place the lids on and seal immediately.
At this point you can just leave the jars to cool on the counter and store in the fridge.
Alternatively, if you are familiar with canning, you can place the sealed jars into a saucepan of water and boil for 10 minutes to make the tomato chutney shelf stable.

Notes

Jars - this recipe will fill 3 x 500ml canning jars or 6 x 250ml jars (perfect gift sizes). I tend to just use whatever jars I have available or if I'm gifting I'll look at what jar will fit in the hamper I'm putting together.

Apples and Onions - I've used brown onions (yellow onions) and green Granny Smith apples for this recipe. I do not peel my apples. Weights of diced onion is 270g and diced apples is 270g.

Shelf Life - this tomato chutney doesn't stick around long in my house so I tend to skip the water bath and just keep it in the fridge. Once open, it will last around 2 weeks. If you're wanting a shelf stable chutney then you will need to follow canning procedures and water bath for 10 minutes after sealing the lids.

Nutrition