Easy Tomato Chutney Recipe: 3 Ways to Use Tomato Chutney

Tomato chutney, or thakkali chutney, is a popular Indian condiment, served as a side dish to various South Indian breakfast dishes and snacks. A staple in many Indian households, this vibrant red chutney consists of tomatoes simmered with a blend of spices until thickened and soft.

Tomato chutney is gluten-free and an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, and calcium. You can serve the condiment with various dishes and snacks, including flatbread, samosas, pakora, fries, and hamburgers.

If it’s your first time using tomato chutney, think of it as a spice-forward tomato dip. Here are a few ways to use the condiment:

1. 1. With chaat: Serve tomato chutney alongside many varieties of chaat, or street snacks, like samosa, pakora, and vada.
2. 2. With flatbread or pancakes: For a true Indian breakfast spread, serve tomato chutney with chapati (roti) or paratha; any variety of dosa, like fluffy steamed idli dosa or uttapam dosa; moong dal pancakes or besan chilla.
3. 3. With fries, on burgers, and more: You can use tomato chutney similarly to ketchup—add it to fries, hot dogs, and hamburgers.

Tomato chutney is one of many varieties of chutney used throughout the Indian subcontinent. Here are some of the most popular:

1. 1. Apple chutney: Apple chutney combines diced apples with spices, sugar, butter, and vinegar or citrus juice. Apple chutney is not typically sweet but rather relies on the mild sweetness of the cooked apples to balance the savory notes—and occasional heat—of the spices.
2. 2. Coconut chutney: South Indian-style coconut chutney features fresh coconut meat blended with lentils like chana dal or urad dal, ginger, fresh or dried chilies, topped with blistered curry leaves.
3. 3. Green chutney: Green chutney, or hari chutney, features finely chopped fresh herbs like mint and cilantro combined with fresh, hot green chilies, sugar, salt, and citrus juice.
4. 4. Mango chutney: Indian mango chutneys consist of stewed, ripe mangoes, spices, sugar, and distilled white vinegar. Mango chutney is usually on the sweeter side of salty, unlike aam ka achar, or spicy mango pickle.
5. 5. Onion chutney: Onion chutney follows the same formula as coconut chutney—a base of toasted lentils and red chilies—but swaps chopped onion and shallots for coconut meat. Some recipes also incorporate dried tamarind.
6. 6. Tamarind chutney: Tangy-sweet tamarind chutney, or imli chutney, has a loose, pourable consistency. Use it as a drizzle or dip.

South Indian chutneys can be mellow and sweet or fiery and hot. Here’s how to refine or evolve your tomato chutney recipe:

1. 1. Temper the whole spices: In Indian cuisine, tempering—frying whole spices in hot oil or ghee before adding aromatics like onion, ginger, and garlic—is known as tadka, or tarka. The technique releases the flavors of any seeds—or dried lentils like urad dal—and creates an aromatic foundation for everything that comes next. Add any ground spices closer to the end of cooking for the brightest results.
2. 2. Tasting the tomatoes: Whether you use canned diced tomatoes or fresh tomatoes, taste the chutney often to balance the acidity. The flavor of the chutney will shift depending on the season, ripeness, and varietal of the individual tomatoes. Increase the acidity of dull tomatoes with dried tamarind, vinegar, or citrus juice, and temper high acidity with a little more sugar as needed.
3. 3. Skin and seed the tomatoes for a smoother texture: Many Indian recipes for tomato chutney call for only the inner flesh of the tomato. To remove the skin of fresh tomatoes, make a shallow X cut in the base of the tomato, then either blanch it in boiling water or place it in a bowl of ice water for five minutes until its skin begins to shrivel. Next, gently peel the skin away. (You can also blend the chutney to a smooth paste with an immersion blender.)
4. 4. Make it spicy: To make spicy tomato chutney, increase the amount of red chili powder in your recipe—like paprika or dried Kashmiri chili—or incorporate fresh green chilies into the mix.