Tamarind chutney recipe using tamarind paste is probably the easiest and most well-known recipe for this pod-like fruit.
There is a multitude of tamarind chutney recipes. But I’ll give you the most common one that everyone in India, Srilanka, Pakistan, etc. prepare.
It only takes 10 minutes preparation and 30 minutes cooking. So this chutney is really easy to prepare. You just need 40 minutes in total.
What is tamarind chutney?
This is an excellent question. You’ll be amazed how many people have eaten tamarind chutney without knowing what it is. The below picture should help you in guessing where you have had it:
So what is a chutney?
A Chutney is simply a condiment. It is used for all sorts of foods, whether it is hot food or cold.
The idea is to use it as a dipping sauce. And most of us in the western world may have seen it in Indian-Currie type restaurants.
Maybe you need to be remembered, but it is usually served as a starter with popadums. Look at the below picture. In fact, some of us call it jam instead of Chutney.
Though I prefer Tamarind chutney, restaurants mainly serve mango chutney. The reason is simply economical. Mango chutney is cheaper. That’s why.
Now, you need to know that chutneys are used with almost all of the curry meals in India.
A standard chutney is most of the time made with several ingredients. The ingredients are mainly made of a mixture of fruits and /or vegetables and obviously a number of special spices.
The four main ingredients to be used when making any type of chutneys are fruit, vinegar, and sugar. When you finish mixing these, you just cook the mixture down until you get a thick paste (like jam).
Now, in our case, we will be adding a fantastic Tamarindus indica fruit (Tamarind fruit). Obviously, if you are Indian, you’ll call tamarind as Imli. So, let’s start and make a nice Imli Chutney.
The ingredients for the Tamarind chutney recipe using tamarind paste
Tamarind chutney recipe with tamarind concentrate – The preparation
Step 1 – Pour the oil into a saucepan and heat it. Use medium heat.
Step 2 – When the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds.
Step 3 – Now add the ginger, cayenne pepper, fennel seeds and asafoetida powder. Mix the lot for about 30 seconds.
Step 4 – It is time to add the garam masala and stir for about 2 minutes. You’ll smell a lot of flavors in your kitchen.
Step 5 – Add the water to the pan. As you stir the mix, add the sugar and then the tamarind paste.
Step 6 – Bring to a boil. Now put the lot into low heat until the mixture turns a bit brown (chocolaty type brown).
Make sure that the paste (now the chutney) is thick enough like jam. It should take you a maximum of 20 to 30 minutes. When done, let it cool. As the sauce cools, it will get thicker. Now you have a nice chutney.
Step 7 – You can finally serve your tamarind chutney recipe to your guests and family. Look at the picture below, where I serve my chutney with popadums.
Conclusion
I have put together the above Indian tamarind chutney recipe to enthuse you to eat more tamarind.
Many members of my family keep asking why I always add a tamarind dish when they come over.
And the reason is that tamarind is an indehiscent legume that is really healthy for us all. And as I am really preoccupied with the health of my friends and family, you guess that I will ensure they eat healthy food.
Well, in the above sweet tamarind chutney recipe, you need to use some sugar. And we all know that sugar is not that good for our bodies in high quantities.
That is why I have put very little sugar in this recipe. But still, you optimise the flavors, the smell and the taste with my tamarind chutney recipe. And you can eat it with your homemade samosa.
I can tell you that my recipe for sweet tamarind chutney will do wonders with your entourage.
So now you just need to go ahead and start your own chutney. By the way, there are other types of chutneys recipes such as the tamarind chutney Trinidad recipe, or the tamarind and dates chutney recipe. They are all almost similar. Here I gave you the best recipe. You can then adapt to your own one.
Note that is you can use this recipe for your desserts and as a jam (my favorite). But you can also use tamarind fruit on its own blended into juices, or sweetened drink and even in sorbets. ice creams and other snacks. It is so healthy that you should eat this fruit as much as you can.
Enjoy this wonderful tamarind vegetable in your weekly diet.
Back to you
As I said, I really want you to enjoy eating tamarind fruits as these are really healthy for you.
So the above recipe may seem at first instance not healthy, because of the sugar and the oil content but this is only true if you put too much of these and use white sugar and canola oil that is non-organic.
If you want to find more great articles in addition to the one on this tamarind chutney recipe, just click here for amazing Omigy recipes.
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