Roasted Tomato Chili Chutney

10 Jun

Roasted Tomato Dry Red Chili Chutney

The tang of tomatoes and the heat of chilies make roasted tomato chili chutney a delightfully fiery partner for stuffed parathas and cutlets.

If you’re like me, you would want a range of color on your plate. The speckled beige of chapatis, the white of yogurt, the yellow of turmeric-tanned Indian curries, simply ASK for some green and red.

Indulge them – serve the contrasting coriander chutney and roasted tomato chili chutney together with your meal.

Roasted Tomato Chili Chutney

For best taste, use small even-sized tomatoes (I use tomatoes no larger than 1.5 inch in diameter).

You Need:

  • Small firm tomatoes – 6
  • Dry red chilies – 4
  • Oil – 2 teaspoons
  • Salt – to taste

How To Make Roasted Tomato Chili Chutney:

Wash and wipe the tomatoes totally dry. In a small non-stick pan, heat a teaspoon of oil. Once hot, place the dry red chilies in the oil, let them crackle and remove them as they turn brown.

Dry Red Chilies, Frying

In the same pan, heat another teaspoon of oil. Place the tomatoes in the pan and cover with a lid. Be extremely careful doing this as the whole tomatoes tend to splutter.

Keep the heat low. Every few minutes, uncover the pan, taking care not to let the water droplets from the lid fall into the pan. Gently turn the tomatoes around. The tomatoes may crack and leak, don’t worry about it. Drizzle a few drops of oil into the pan if the tomatoes begin to burn. Mid-way, the pan should look like this:

Roasted Tomatoes

Continue roasting till no raw patches remain on the tomatoes. Some patches may get cooked more than others, that’s all right. You don’t have to sweat over browning the tomatoes with perfect evenness, it will all get blended anyway.

Remove the roasted tomatoes from the pan and keep aside to cool.

At this stage – wait.

Let the roasted tomatoes and red chilies cool to room temperature naturally. For chutney made of roasted ingredients, it is important for the ingredients to cool down before they are blended – grinding while still hot will not give you the same taste.

When the roasted tomatoes and chilies have cooled, grind them together with salt.

Roasted tomato chili chutney is ready.

Roasted Tomato and Red Chili Chutney

Serve with any Indian meal/snacks.

In the pic below: chapatis with bhindi bhujiya besanwali, toor dal tadka with spinach, roasted tomato chili chutney.

Bhindi Bhujiya, Dal, Tamatar Chili Chutney

Notes:

  • Since the chutney has long cooking/cooling time and relatively less "watching" time, it’s a good candidate for multitasking.
  • Reduce the number of dry red chilies if four is too much for your taste. Or increase if you want it hotter.
  • Roasted tomato chili chutney will stay good in the fridge for more than a week.

6 Responses to “Roasted Tomato Chili Chutney”

  1. deeksha September 24, 2011 at 1:41 PM #

    Nice chutney. love it.

    • S October 1, 2011 at 6:34 PM #

      Thanks Deeksha!

  2. Saranya September 28, 2018 at 9:59 PM #

    I made your recipe. It was yummy with french fries!

    • S September 29, 2018 at 10:00 PM #

      Great to hear that, Saranya!

  3. Sharon De Mott August 24, 2020 at 5:17 PM #

    How long can this chutney last in a sterilised jar?

    • S August 26, 2020 at 8:46 PM #

      Hi Sharon. I have not tried this…if you can, try and let us know?

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