Apple and Green Tomato Chutney Recipe

Why You Should Make This Recipe

I have to tell you, friends, this is a fantastic recipe.

Not only do Granny Smith apples bring their tart sweetness to the party, you also get a nice balance of tanginess from vinegar, heat from whole grain mustard and habanero, and sweetness from granulated sugar.

Making this recipe also gives you a chance to practice your knife skills. If you want to keep your chutney chunky, you’ll want to pay attention to your dicing to make sure most of the pieces are of similar size.

There is no added fat in this recipe. While I always say “fat carries flavor,” this intensely flavored chutney does just fine on its own, and it really sings when served along with fatty ingredients such as cold cuts and/or cheese on a sandwich or on crackers.

I like a well-balanced bite, so you get sweet-tart-tangy-spicy in each and every bite of this delicious chutney. So good!

How To Make Apple and Tomato Chutney

This is an easy recipe to make. You literally just put everything in a large pot and cook slowly for 3-4 hours.

Here’s what you’ll be putting in your pot along with substitutions should those be necessary:

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Sweet onions: such as Vidalia or Walla Walla. If you cannot find sweet onions, sub yellow onions
• Green tomatoes: any kind. No need to peel, but do core and then dice
• Apples: I use Granny Smith. Again, no need to peel. Just make four cuts straight down around the core and then dice. Discard the cores (or use for another purpose)
• Sugar: regular granulated sugar. If you prefer to use a less-refined sugar, substitute a light-colored honey or some Thai palm sugar. I don’t recommend coconut sugar, molasses, or other dark-colored sweetener because it will darken the color of the chutney. If you don’t mind it being a more brown color, go for it. It will still taste delicious.
• Golden raisins: or other dried fruit such as snipped apricots, “regular” raisins, currants, dried cherries or cranberries, etc.
• Vinegar: I prefer cane vinegar which is lightly sweet and amber in color. Good substitutes would be white balsamic, red wine vinegar, or blush vinegar.
• Water: To provide more liquid to allow all the ingredients to cook down slowly. For a tangier chutney, you may use 1 1/2 times the vinegar and only half the water called for
• Whole grain mustard: My preference is for a sweet hot honey mustard such as Lusty Monk’s Into Temptation. Use your favorite whole grain mustard, and as far as I’m concerned, the hotter the better. If you really like the heat from mustard, you may double the amount called for
• Curry powder: Use your favorite curry powder. In the US, it will most likely be yellow and turmeric-forward. But if you shop at an Asian or Indian grocery, you can find all sorts of curry blends that will work, some hotter than others. It’s up to you.
• Honey habanero seasoning: I really like the Smoky Honey Habanero seasoning from Spiceology. If you don’t have that, feel free to use some cayenne or other ground chile. For a smoky edge, use ground chipotle or hot smoked paprika. If you do not prefer a hot, spicy chutney, you may leave it out entirely
• Salt: This recipe gets a fair amount of salt to bring out all the flavors and balance out the tanginess.
• Bay leaves: Adds a very subtle “brightening” of the chutney. Just a hint of pine and coolness.
• Black pepper: Adds a little bite on the back end. Pepper does get hotter the longer it cooks–it sort of blooms, so go easy to begin with and add more towards the end of cooking if you like

Procedure

As I said, it’s a pretty easy recipe to make.

The hardest part is turning round fruits and vegetables into square dice.

Here’s how I dice the apple:

In order to dice, you need a flat side to cut down against, so rather than using an apple corer and having to deal with a big old round shape with a hole in it, I just slice straight down to one side of core, and then continue with 3 more cuts, leaving 4 slices of apple and a core.

Then, take each slice, flat side down, and make your cuts.

Once you have all your apples, green tomatoes, and onions diced up, everything else joins them in the pot.

Just plop everything in the pot. In the 4th photo, clockwise from 12 o’clock, there’s granulated sugar and curry powder, salt and pepper, bay leaf, whole grain mustard, and golden raisins.

I pour the liquid–water and vinegar–over all, give it a stir, and then set the heat to medium low.

The pot will slowly come up to a boil.

Stir occasionally, but you can pretty much just leave it alone most of the time.

Here are some photos that will give you cues about when your green tomato and apple chutney is done:

Equipment You May Need

For dicing, I recommend a good chef knife. I most frequently use an 8″ Wusthof chef knife, but use what feels well-balanced and sized for your hand.

I also like to cook this in a large, cast-iron Dutch oven. Mine is a 7-quart number. But think about how much weight you want to lift. Cast-iron is heavy.

If you would like your chutney to be smoother in consistency, run it through a food mill using the coarsest disc that comes with it.

I really like my OXO food mill, partly because it has fold-out “feet” that allow you to set it over a bowl without having to hold it up with one hand and crank with the other.

Tips for Success

The best tip I can give you is to heat everything slowly.

Try not to get impatient.

You’ll get so much more flavor out of your chutney if you allow it to come up to a boil very slowly and then simmer along for quite some time than you will be bringing it up to a boil too quickly and cooking it down too quickly.

Green Tomato Chutney Q & A

Serving Suggestions

This is a great condiment to serve with vegetables or meat.

I like to use it as a spread for a breakfast sandwich, maybe with some bacon peach jam, fried egg and cheese.

It’s also good as just a regular sandwich spread, whether you make your own bread like this potato sandwich bread or leftover grits bread or you buy bread at the store. It’s especially good with ham, turkey, and chicken.

And of course, serve it in a little bowl as part of a cheese plate or fancy charcuterie board.

Or, make the easiest appetizer in the world by pouring some chutney over a block of cream cheese. It’s maybe the second-best sauce to pour over cream cheese behind my sweet and sour “red sauce.”

A Note About Measurements

NOTE: Most of my recipes are written by weight and not volume, even the liquids.

Even though I try to provide you with volume measurements as well, I encourage you to buy a kitchen scale for ease of measuring, accuracy, and consistency.

This is the scale I use, love, and recommend. If you’re unsure, please read my post about how to use a food scale.

If you have questions about this post or recipe, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can leave a comment on the post and I will get back to you within about 24 hours.

If your question is more urgent, please shoot me an email, and I will respond within 4 hours, unless I’m asleep.