Green tomatoes and Green Tomato Chutney

September 3, 2008 | easygardener

I’m sure many UK tomato growers will be knee deep in green tomatoes at the moment. A poor summer and tomato blight have made many of us strip our plants early. Some of my tomatoes went into my recipe for Green Tomato Chutney. The rest are covering various flat surfaces in the house.

Green tomatoes ripening indoors

Green tomatoes ripening indoors

Here is my recipe. As you see from the picture above it did not use up all my green tomatoes but at least it helped a little.

Chopped ingredients for Green Tomato Chutney

Chopped ingredients for Green Tomato Chutney

GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY
(Makes 4 lb jars)

2lb green tomatoes (chopped)
8 oz onions (chopped)
1 lb cooking apples (peeled & chopped)
8 oz sultanas (or raisins, cranberries, chopped dried apricots etc)
8oz brown sugar
1 pint vinegar spiced or malt (but any other will do)
2 tablespoons mustard seed
1 inch fresh ginger (peeled & finely chopped) or 2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon (or spice of choice)

1. Put all ingredients into a large pan and bring to the boil.
2. Simmer uncovered until reduced to a thick mix. Stir occasionally to keep from sticking. It should take 2 3/4 to 3 hours. Test by scraping a wooden spoon across the bottom of the pan. If the pan bottom shows clear for a while before the chutney slowly fills the gap then it is ready. (In other words there should be very little thin liquid sloshing around).
3. Put into hot sterilised jars and seal.
4. Label when cool. Chutneys improve in flavour if kept for at least a couple of weeks before use.

Gren tomato chutney simmering

Green Tomato Chutney simmering

Green Tomato Chutney - testing if it's ready. It is!

Green Tomato Chutney - testing if it's ready. It is!

Green Tomato Chutney in jars

Green Tomato Chutney in jars

15 comments

Gravatar 1 Karen { 09.03.08 at 11:33 am }

Thanks – at this rate I might be needing this.
Warm regards
Karen

Gravatar 2 Lucy Corrander { 09.04.08 at 4:47 pm }

I’ve got two red tomatoes.

Lucy

Gravatar 3 Karrita { 09.05.08 at 8:47 pm }

These look like great recipes… can’t wait to try them!
Thanks for sharing them,
Karrita

Gravatar 4 Debs { 09.20.08 at 10:58 am }

I have some nice red cherry toms for the odd sandwich but more green so this recipe is just what I need, thanks a lot

Gravatar 6 Pauline { 08.02.09 at 4:35 pm }

Thanks for the receipe, I got lots of green tomatoes this year, as my two year old daughter decided it was time to harvest them!

Gravatar 7 Rachel { 09.08.09 at 3:24 pm }

Great recipe, really enjoyed making it, have just popped it into jars now, so we’ll see what its like in a couple of weeks!
Thanks for sharing….!

Gravatar 8 Lizzie { 09.25.09 at 5:34 pm }

Hey there,

Thanks so much for this recipe. All the best recipes begin with “put all the ingredients in a large pan” ^_^

I halved the recipe (not enough green toms, would you believe?!) and now have two jars of the most incredible chutney. I varied the recipe slightly by using cider vinegar plus a good slosh of balsamic vinegar. My goodness it’s good stuff.

Thank you so so much for sharing this recipe. My partner has just announced (after fighting with me to lick the pan clean) that we aren’t allowed to let any of our tomatoes ripen next year, so that I can make loads of this. Haha!

Gravatar 9 harry { 10.07.09 at 5:30 pm }

Many thanks for the fab recipe. Just made 1.5 times your amount.

Just on the ripening of green tomatoes. I have tons this year and find the best way to ripen them slowly is to put them in a box (or drawer or other enclosed container) and cover them. They gradually ripen beautifully which means you could have an ongoing supply of red tomatoes (for red tomato jam?) for weeks. Putting a ripe apple in with a 100% green load helps to start off the ripening process. It is all to do with natural gases rather than the sun.

Gravatar 10 Sandra Leeson { 10.11.09 at 12:50 am }

Thanks for sharing this recipe! I made a half dozen jelly jars filled with green tomato chutney today. It tasted delicious when it was done cooking – I’m sure it will improve further with some aging.

Gravatar 11 Maureen Hodson { 10.12.09 at 2:13 pm }

This is probably the best recipe I have ever used for all those pesky green tomatoes! Tastes good already and it’s not really matured to its full potential yet!
Tried a batch with some home grown green chillis in too – wow, you’ve just got to try it!

Gravatar 12 Chistina { 10.20.09 at 3:16 pm }

Really please i gave this a go.. gave some to my partner (and considering he doesnt like dried fruit) it was gone within 2 days and was trying to get me to turn my windowsil ripening toms into chutney!! dead pleased with it! i did substitute the malt to cider vinegar and used dried apricots (i thought that i could cleverly disguise them easier then sultanas sneeky eh?) and even better iv just stripped my plants again today (all the tiny ones seem to of had a growth spurt so i have enough to start cooking up another batch :)

Gravatar 13 gd { 10.27.09 at 4:16 pm }

I thought this recipe was excellent

Gravatar 14 Chris Hall { 11.08.09 at 1:46 pm }

Thanks for this great recipie !!!!

I did tweek it a bit ( Cooking is an art not a science ;-) ) by using 50/50 mix of malt & tarragon vinegars oh and a few cayennes minus the seeds..

What you didnt warn about however is not only did it clear my sinuses whilst cooking but nearly cleared the whole building, to the extent of you could smell it cooking three storeys down in the carpark…

Will leave it a few weeks and try it out on my local club for the elderly ( They have chip shop dinners supplied by club funds once a month ), am sure that 80 plus elderly ladies will either give me the thumbs up or thumbs down ….

Best Regards

Chris

Gravatar 15 Pam { 11.08.09 at 6:27 pm }

have had an allotment since may last year, now an obsession, always on the internet looking for receipes, this one was brilliant, as my daughter has decided i can make loads of thing for her friends as christmas presents

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