Every home in India has it's own recipe to a green chutney. Today, I will share my recipe with you! I use this as almost everything - dipping sauce, sandwich spread, meal accompaniment, and even to just dip my chips in!
Made with cilantro, ginger, garlic, scallions, and jalapenos, my blend is fresh, fast, and very easy to master & make it your own!
This is the recipe I have used in the plating shots of my Shami Kebab video and the same recipe with mint was used in the Samosa video.
When it comes to chutneys, there are several different varieties of chutneys in India. They all serve a specific purpose on the plate. Differentiated by taste, you can say there are hot, sweet, tangy, and earthy.
I want to say there are as many chutney variations in India as there are curry variations. But saying that would probably not be fair to all the chutneys that go with snacks and chaats, not just the entrees.
There are chutneys that accompany dishes likes dosas and idlis.
Then, there are chutneys that go with snacks and chaats - these are usually balanced by having one fiery chutney and one sweet chutney.
Then, there are chutneys that are paired with appetizers - these would be the ones that you'd see in most restaurants. They are (usually) mixed with yogurt when they are green, or are a bit runny when they are red - with the intention to make it easier to dip into.
Then, there are chutneys that just go on the plate with the rest of the meal. They add a nice kick to each bite and also serve a very specific purpose of aiding in digestion. Ideally, you would only have a tablespoonful of these, or less, with an entire meal.
These are usually made with fresh herbs, some aromatic roots, something to add heat, and something to add sourness. You guessed, this is the type of chutney we are making today.
In our case, the chutney has cilantro (herb), you can also add mint, then there are scallions, garlic, ginger (aromatic roots), jalapenos to add the heat(I would have ideally used bird's eye chili if I were in India), and lime to add the sourness. Balanced with salt and roasted cumin seeds that add an earthy tone to the chutney to bind all the flavors together.
Ingredients:
This will make about 150gm of chutney. This is the ideal quantity since you want to make this fresh & eat it freshly made for the best taste.
Cilantro: 50 gm
Scallions: 30 gm
Ginger: 35 gm
Garlic: 30 gm
Jalapenos OR Thai Chili (or any other chili): 50 gm *adjust this as per your heat tolerance
Lime Juice: from 1 lime, ~ 40ml
Salt: 3 tsp OR 15gm *start with 2 tsp and adjust as per taste
Roasted Cumin seeds: 1 tsp OR ~5 gm
Water, to blend: 30 ml (Read Notes if you want to make in bulk & store for longer than 2 weeks)
Directions:
Clean the cilantro in cold running water. The easiest way to do this is by tying it with a rubber band towards the end and just dipping in a bowl of water with water running into the bowl. Then, rinse the bunch in a up/down motion - like you would when you're thumping a fist on a table. This is essential to get rid of the dirt. Nobody wants to taste sand in their chutney!
When the cilantro is clean, lay it on a towel and chop off the roots and thicker ends. Leave to dry for a few minutes.
In the same way, also clean the scallions. Remove the skin of the ginger and the garlic.
Rough chop cilantro, scallions, ginger, and chilies.
Add everything to a blender, including everything you just chopped and cleaned, along with salt, lime juice, roasted cumin seeds. Don't add the water yet.
Blend it once to see how much water is released. Now, add water. Start with 20 ml and add more after blending to reach the consistency you want.
Adjust for seasoning. You can also increase the heat and sourness to your liking. Buzz again to mix everything well.
Store in an air-tight jar, in the fridge. This will stay fresh for up to 2 weeks. Make sure you are using clean spoon to get into the jar, no matter how tempting! :)
Notes:
If you want to make this in bulk and store it for longer than 2 weeks, blend it with oil instead of water. Start with 20 ml oil and add more as needed. Store in the fridge, in an air tight jar. Also, try to have more than one jar. That way, if one goes bad because someone accidentally used a dirty spoon to go into the jar, or you dropped, say a pita chip, you can have the second jar that lasts longer.
You can add mint to this recipe. Measurement for mint will be half that of cilantro. So, in this case ~25 gm. But, these are not strict measurements. You can always adapt the recipe to your taste and change the measurements to make it you own!
Thanks for reading! You can PIN this image to come back to it later! :)
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