This delicious homemade tomato chutney is by far the easiest and most delicious recipe out there. But I might be biased here, so try for yourself!

Tomato chutney

This simple tomato chutney came to life years ago when Tom and I were still having our own market stall with produce. This tomato chutney was one of the best selling articles on the market stall. So if that will tell you anything it is that this is really delicious. I tend to make it in large batches. Even now when I don’t sell it anymore. I just love the stuff. It goes perfectly well with things like cheese but is also delicious on a piece of pork or lamb.

What you need for the tomato chutney

I’m giving you two options here; one is for a simple tomato chutney with fresh tomatoes and the other is for canned tomatoes. I actually prefer the latter as it is so much quicker but if you happen to have a vegetable patch with loads of tomatoes you need processed you might want to go for the fresh tomato option.

For making this you need:

Fresh ripe tomatoes or canned tomatoes
red chillies
red onions
red wine vinegar
brown sugar
cinnamon
cardamom
apple
tomato paste

If you want to make this more of a spicy tomato chutney you can add cumin seeds and chili flakes to up the heat level. It’s essentially an onion tomato chutney recipe but you can change the level of the onions to your liking.

Tomato season

It’s tomato season, you can see them everywhere, beautifully red, sweet and delicious. Growing my own tomatoes has been on the list for a while now, but so far it has been stupidly unsuccessful. I guess I seem to be lacking in the green finger department. Even herbs don’t survive. Maybe also not the best situated garden for growing sunny things like tomatoes. But who knows, I might be successful at some point in the future.

But even without green fingers you can buy good quality and good quantity of fresh tomatoes at the market in the summer season. The first time I made this recipe of tomato chutney I went for the fresh tomatoes. So I’m sharing two versions here. You can find the full details in the recipe card.

With fresh tomatoes

My first version of the tomato chutney was with fresh tomatoes. This works well, but I personally don’t like the skins of the tomatoes. Fishing them out is also not my favorite part of making tomato chutney. One option would be to put them in the blender, but I like the texture of having some of the cubes. You lose that if you use a blender. But – that said – if you do go for the fresh tomatoes I would suggest using a blender or scoring and removing all the skins of the tomatoes first. Which is a pretty tedious job.

So if you want to use fresh tomatoes, you have two options (the third option is with tinned tomatoes)

Option 1 – Peel before cooking

To peel tomatoes easily, slice them with a sharp knife. Then dip them in hot water for a minute and peel them. You can then cook them as normal.

Option 2 – In the blender/immersion blender

Not my preference, but you can put the tomato chutney in a blender or use a stick blender. In this case, you could put the chopped tomatoes in the blender after step 1, crush them and then put them back in the pan. Using an immersion blender is easier as you can do it in the pan.

Option 3 – using tinned tomatoes

When I want to make a quick batch of tomato chutney, this is what I use. No skins. Quick and just as tasty. But not so useful if you have an overdose of tomatoes from your own garden.

Making the tomato chutney

This tomato chutney could also be called a tomato onion chutney as it does have a fair amount of onions in the mix. For a true onion chutney check the red onion chutney as well. The tomatoes are still the main ingredient but you can switch the ratio around. The recipe is fairly forgiving and easy to adjust to your liking. For the fresh tomatoes I slice them in half and add them to a large saucepan with red wine vinegar and the sugar. You can add a little water if you want. Place on medium heat and bring to the boil. If you’ve not removed the skins prior to cooking wait until it starts to soften and then place an immersion blender in. Puree until smooth and no pieces of skin or left. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 45 minutes or until it has the desired consistency.

If I’m using the tinned tomatoes I place all the ingredients into the pan at the same time. This tomato chutney is fairly mild but you can make a spicy chutney by adding more red chilies or add red chilli powder. For me this is the best tomato chutney out there and it’s delicious with aged cheese (perfect when you’re making a cheese board), a piece of roast pork or why not make it for your next Christmas dinner and serve with the leg of lamb?

More tomatoes left over? Try the tomato curry too! If you love chutney check out the mango chutney, pumpkin chutney (yes really!), rhubarb chutney, apple chutney with pears or the red onion chutney.