Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney

4.85 from 40 votes

Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney is awesome with parathas or sandwiches! It's the perfect accompaniment to any Indian meal.

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Sweet & spicy tomato chutney is the perfect accompaniment to Indian meals. You will love it with paratha or your sandwiches!

Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney

India is often called the land of chutneys and pickles. Whatever you can think of, from lemons to onion to tomatoes to cauliflower to carrots and everything in between – we can make a chutney or pickle out of it.

Indian meals are often incomplete without a side of chutney.

The most common chutney that you get in every Indian restaurant is the mint cilantro chutney. It goes so well with all Indian appetizers, breads etc. however there are some other amazing chutneys as well.

I remember when I was little, I was so fond of a garlic and green chili chutney. It was basically just crushed garlic, chili and oil and it used to taste amazing with plain paratha (flatbread).

One of our house helpers at my grandparents house used to make that chutney and whenever we went there during our summer break, that chutney was the first thing I demanded!

This year while I was in India, I was totally hooked onto this sweet & spicy tomato chutney. This is my mother-in-law’s recipe and I am so excited to be sharing it with you guys because the chutney is absolutely amazing!

Sweet-and-spicy-tomato-chutney

My MIL learnt this chutney way back in the 70s when she attended some cooking class. She had this written in her old diary and she made it this year while we were visiting.

Once I had this tomato chutney, I wanted it everyday. Seriously guys it tastes so amazing with parathas or just about anything!

I was so hooked onto to it that by the time we were leaving, I asked mummy to give me the recipe. She just explained me verbally how she made it and made me write down the ingredients. So as soon as I was back here, I had to make it! And I did and it turned out amazing!

Sweet Spicy Tomato Chutney Recipe

Few things about this sweet & spicy tomato chutney – there’s a lot of garam masala in it so some people might find it hot. When I tasted it as soon as it was done, I found it too spicy but as it cooled down, it became just perfect.

However in case you can’t handle all the heat from garam masala and the chili powder, please reduce the quantity of both.

This sweet and spicy tomato chutney is great with parathans, on top of bread or with your favorite snacks! The chutney obviously is vegan.

 

Method

Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in pan on medium heat. Add finely chopped tomatoes.

Cook for 20-25 minutes or until the moisture in tomatoes totally dries out. Set aside.

Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney-Recipe-Step-1

Pulse ginger-garlic and onion in food processor. You want them really fine for this recipe.

Heat a pan on medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil to it. Once the oil is hot add the chopped ginger and garlic and cook for a minute or two.

Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney-Recipe-Step-2

Add onion next and cook till the raw smell of the onion goes away completely.

Now add the prepared tomato and mix well. Cook for a minute.

Add garam masala, red chili powder, vinegar and salt. Mix well and cook for another minute.

Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney-Recipe-Step-3

Now add sugar and mix.

The chutney will turn liquidy as the sugar melts.

Keep stirring and cook for another 2-3 minutes till it thickens a bit. Don’t cook it for too long because the chutney will thicken as it cools down. Remove from heat and let it cool down.

Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney-Recipe-Step-4

Once the chutney has cooled down, store it in an airtight container.

Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney

If you’ve tried this Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney Recipe then don’t forget to rate the recipe! You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram to see what’s latest in my kitchen!

Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney

4.85 from 40 votes
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 35 minutes
Total: 45 minutes
Servings: 2 cups
Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney is awesome with parathas or sandwiches! It's the perfect accompaniment to any Indian meal.

Ingredients 

  • 4 large tomatoes 500 grams, finely chopped
  • 5 large garlic cloves 10 grams
  • 3 x 1 inch ginger 25 grams
  • 1 medium red onion 50 grams
  • 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon oil divided
  • 2 teaspoons garam masala around 8 grams
  • 1.5 teaspoon red chili powder around 6 grams
  • 1 teaspoon white vinegar
  • 250 grams sugar
  • 1 tablespoon salt
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Instructions 

  • Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in pan on medium heat. Add finely chopped tomatoes.
  • Cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring in between or until the moisture in tomatoes totally dries out. Set aside.
  • Pulse ginger-garlic and onion in food processor. You want them really fine for this recipe.
  • Heat a pan on medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil to it.
  • Once the oil is hot add the chopped ginger and garlic and cook for a minute or two.
  • Add onion next and cook till the raw smell of the onion goes away completely.
  • Now add the prepared tomato and mix well. Cook for a minute.
  • Add garam masala, red chili powder, vinegar and salt. Mix well and cook for another minute.
  • Now add sugar and mix. The chutney will turn liquidy as the sugar melts.
  • Keep stirring and cook for another 2-3 minutes till it thickens a bit. Don't cook it for too long because the chutney will thicken as it cools down.
  • Remove from heat and let it cool down. Once the chutney has cooled down, store it in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator.

Notes

Adjust the garam masala and red chili powder to taste. The chutney gets quite a lot of heat from the garam masala, if you think you can't handle it, reduce the quantity of garam masala to 1 teaspoon.

Nutrition

Calories: 706kcal, Carbohydrates: 145g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 15g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Sodium: 3531mg, Potassium: 766mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugar: 133g, Vitamin A: 2495IU, Vitamin C: 40.7mg, Calcium: 51mg, Iron: 1.2mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Indian
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Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney

Sweet-and-spicy-tomato-chutney-collage


Hi, I’m Manali!

Bringing you easy, delicious vegetarian & vegan recipes! Eating veggies can be fun, you just need to get creative in the kitchen with the right set of ingredients!


4.85 from 40 votes (14 ratings without comment)

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140 Comments

  1. Hi Manali,
    Thank you for sharing your recipe.
    I have green cherry tomatoes harvested from my garden last week because it starts to frost at night here.
    Can I use these tomatoes? I think they might be tart, so maybe I can adjust the sugar amount. Or do you have a green tomato chutney recipe?

    1. Hi Natalie, you can use them. If they are too tart, just increase the amount of sugar. I don’t have a green tomato chutney recipe.

    1. you can possibly freeze it. I usually keep in in the fridge and it lasts for 3 to 4 weeks and it gets over in that time 🙂

  2. 5 stars
    Just made it, it’s delicious and full of flavors. I halved the sugar though.
    I’m using it for samosas dip.
    Thank you for this wonderful recipe.

  3. Can you tell me how long this lasts in the fridge, I thought I would be able to put it in the pantry and use say within 6 months but not enough vinegar to do that? can you advise please.

    1. 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator. It doesn’t last more than that in my home so I don’t know if can be store for more time.

  4. This recipe is confusing. For example 1 medium onion, 50g. I weighed a smal onion as thy sounded whack to me and it was 140g. the garlic is also weirdly off. I’m pressing on but who knows what it’s meant to be. I’ve bought a lot of ingredients so I’m disappointed

    1. I am not sure what’s confusing or disappointing. This recipe is from my mother-in-law who lives in India (please read the text), the onions in India are much smaller. That’s the reason I have given the measurement in grams so that you can measure and use the correct amount. An onion will weight differently in different countries. That’s the reason the measurements are given in grams.

  5. 5 stars
    Dear Manali,
    I love tomatoes. This recipe sounds amazing and I will definitely try it! So, big thank you.
    As tomatoes are now out of season where I live, do you think I could replace the fresh ones with tinned ones? The fresh ones from the market don’t seem to have much flavor anymore.

    1. you can try, I am just wondering if the tinned ones will have a lot of water in them and that might effect the texture of the chutney

  6. Hi there,

    This looks like a great recipe! I’m hoping to make some as homemade gifts for Christmas 🙂 I’m just wondering how long the chutney lasts after it’s first made?

    Many Thanks,
    Bethany

  7. Hi is the salt correct . As the recipe says 1tbs . I used half a tea spoon as a little worried it’ll come out too salty

  8. Had an overflow of tomatoes from my green house so I made your chutney but I had to 5x it, it turned out beautifully, the flavour is amazing. Thank you for sharing this recipe we all love it.

  9. Hello Manali,

    I tried this recipe today, omg it’s delicious, the sweet and chilli together is a real taste sensation, very easy to make too. I’m going to make another batch and chance it until Christmas?. I’ll let you know how it goes when I open it at Christmas time.

    Thank you

  10. I made this last weekend and it was a huge hit! I served it with homemade samosas. I took the advice of other readers and halved the sugar, and it was still quite sweet, but chutney is supposed to be sweet, so that was perfect!

  11. Hi Manali.
    I start making my Christmas chutneys around this time of year. How long does this keep for when its put into sterilised jars.
    Kind regards
    Amanda

  12. Going to make this chutney this week. Bit confused about the tomato weight.
    X1 4 tomatoes 500g
    X2 8 tomatoes 500g
    X3 12 tomatoes 500g

    Should the total weight of tomatoes be:
    X1 500g
    X2 1 kilo
    X3 1.5 kilo

    Maybe I’m being a bit dumb but I can’t imagine one tomato weighing 500g, even a mega beefsteak!!!

    1. Hello there, the recipe clearly mentions 4 large tomatoes (500 grams). I am not sure about the confusion? There are 4 large tomatoes which in total weigh 500 grams

      1. Thanks for clarifying. I wasn’t sure if each tomato should weigh 500g. Maybe you could update your x2 and x3 to reflect the weight of the tomatoes required.

  13. 5 stars
    I made this chutney today and it turned out perfect. Sweet and spicy! Very easy recipe to follow with few ingredients. Thank you.

  14. 5 stars
    I’ve been looking for a recipe like this for ages and was very happy when I found this one. Super easy to make and very tasty. Served it today with fried fish and rice. Will gift
    one pot to my Mauritian father in law. Thanks for sharing!

  15. 5 stars
    I tried it. It was easy and delicious. We used it on Prego rolls. Fantastic recipe! Thanks for sharing. I only used half the sugar.

    1. I put mine in sterilised jars while hot and then put the lid on and let them cool I still have some in the cupboard still looks good, it has been over a year I was thinking of opening one the other day. If you don’t change the sugar ratio it will preserve for a long time, much like jam.

      1. I was thinking the same with regards to the sugar preserving it, I treated it like a jam and sterilised the jars also as I am trying to use a glut of tomatoes I will be making more of this. My son loved it.

  16. 5 stars
    Delicious recipe! I made the mistake of not saving the page when I first made it and then couldn’t find it again. I’m so glad I found it now, this will be my go to chutney recipe from now on. I gave some in a pot to my dad and he keeps bugging me to make him some more.

  17. 5 stars
    I couldn’t resist this recipe, I had 2kg of cherry tomatoes so I quadrupled the recipe and use the food processor to slice them up, my gara masala was not hot and I used only 1 fresh jalapeno, no chili powder, it is yummy and not too hot although I suspect most of the heat comes from the huge amount of ginger. When I bought the ginger I forgot I was quadrupling the recipe so I only bought about half of what I needed and then topped it up with an additional tablespoon of ginger powder. I love spice but I don’t love heat so as it turned out this was perfect for me. Love this recipe, thank you for sharing.

  18. 5 stars
    I made this on Sunday and it worked perfectly! I ended up making 7x the recipe so it took much longer to thicken, but the end result is great and made 14 jam jars worth. The only thing I’d say is maybe don’t add all the sugar at once, as we found it a bit too sweet so had to add in more spices to balance it out! Better to do most of the sugar and then top it up if you think it needs it!

  19. I would really like to try making this chutney, but, I’m not sure how much ginger you are calling for…….is it calling for a piece of ginger that is 3 inches long? Thanks for your help.

    1. it’s 3 inches ginger..now that can be a single piece that is 3 inches long or 3×1 inch ginger pieces..it doesn’t matter.. you need 25 grams for ginger for this recipe!

  20. This looks delicious, and I have been looking for a tomato chutney recipe, and I am assuming that the Nutrition Facts would be correct for the entire recipe yield of two cups.

    1. its just an estimate Catherine..calculated by this plugin..I can’t say how accurate it is but yes an estimate… hope you like it!

    1. Thanks! sugar can always be adjusted to taste.. this is my MIL recipe and she makes it that way, so I shared the same measurements 🙂

    2. 4 stars
      I just made this and it smells out of this world…but I agree on the sugar. Next time I will add probably 2/3 or 1/2 the amount in the recipe. Other than that…yum!!

  21. 5 stars
    It’s amazingly tasty! Made double amount – two jars and a little left over. Am saving for Christmas. Took longer for liquid to boil down but apart from that, true to recipe and dead easy to make.

  22. Just made this. Tastes delicious! !! Thanks so much for the recipe. Also made another one with roasted courgette instead of the tomato, again really tasty. Helps me preserve all the home grown produce in a different way x

  23. I had never try this tomato chutney, but I’m thinking about adding it to a serrano ham baguette, something similar to pan tomate… very interesting!

      1. around 1.25 cups of sugar (US cups) …its a traditional style chutney and sugar acts as a preservative too..reduce the sugar if you like.

  24. I love tomato chutney, but have never tried the sweet and spicy version. Old recipes are always keepers. I am going to make this recipe soon.

  25. This sweet and spicy chutney looks amazing..In south we call it thokku a dry kind of chutney without garam masala.Yours is entirely different and so chunky ..

  26. I love chutneys! That’s no surprise since I’m as Indian as they get! 🙂 Love how this sounds Manali. Looks fantastic! 🙂