Mango Chutney Recipe

Mango Chutney is an Indian relish made with fresh mangoes, sugar/jaggery, spices and an acidic ingredient like lemon juice or vinegar. This delicious Mango Chutney tastes slightly tangy, sweet and spicy with a burst of flavors. It is a perfect accompaniment to your grilled snacks, breads, flatbreads, sandwiches and you can actually eat it as such. A small amount of this Mango Chutney also takes your salads to the next level.

One of the joys that summers bring in is the abundance of mangoes. There is a Indian recipe for every kind of mango – ripe, unripe, sweet, tangy and the baby green immature mangoes as well. This Mango Chutney is one of the many ways to enjoy them during the season.

If you love fruit chutney, this is a must try & I’m sure you will turn back to this time and again.

About Mango Chutney

Mango Chutney is a relish made by simmering grated or chopped semi-ripe mangoes with aromatic spices and sugar or jaggery. Little amount of vinegar is added to increase the shelf life and enhance the flavor of the chutney.

While fresh ginger imparts a spicy flavor and invigorating aroma, other spices like cinnamon, cardamoms, star anise and fennel add more sweeter tones. To add heat, Indian red chili powder or flakes and crushed black pepper are used.

If you are keen to keep the color of the mango chutney yellow, use refined sugar and white vinegar.

This recipe can be made without vinegar but it helps to improve the flavors and the Mango Chutney is more shelf stable. If you leave out vinegar, feel free to reduce the spices and sweetener.

We personally love the chunky mango chutney so I prefer to dice them. If you prefer a more mushy chutney, feel free to grate them and reduce the cook time.

More Mango Recipes,
Mango Lassi
Nocook Mango Kulfi
Mango Ice Cream
Mango Smoothie

Photo Guide

How to Make Mango Chutney (Stepwise Photos)

Preparation

1. For this recipe I prefer to use semi-ripe mangoes. You can also use full ripe mangoes that are slightly firm but not too soft. Avoid using hard mangoes. The mangoes I use are sweet and tart and are known as totapuri variety. You can also use any other kind including the honey mangoes.

2. Rinse well under running water and peel them. I’m using 3 mangoes.

3. You may use a food processer to grate or a dicer to dice them to very small pieces (¼ inch). After preparation they weighed about 700 grams (1.5 lbs.).

4. Prepare the spices. You will need:

• 1 gram (2 inches) cinnamon piece (True/Ceylon cinnamon)
• 4 green cardamoms
• 1 star anise
• 1½ tablespoon ginger peeled & grated
• ½ to 1 teaspoon red chili powder or flakes, adjust to taste
• 1½ to 2 teaspoon ground fennel (saunf powder)
• 1½ to 2 teaspoon ground cumin (roasted jeera powder)
• ¼ to ½ teaspoon ground pepper (optional, to adjust the heat levels)

5. We will need ¾ to 1¼ cup organic sugar (adjust to taste or 1:1 sugar & jaggery). The amount of sugar to use depends on the sweetness of your mangoes.

6. We will need ¼ to ½ cup vinegar. I use apple cider vinegar. But note that your chutney will pick up the apple flavor. If you don’t want the apple flavor use white vinegar. You may use lesser quantity of vinegar if your mangoes are too tart or you don’t intend to preserve it longer. If you reduce the vinegar, cut down the spices and sugar too.

Make the Chutney

7. On a medium flame, heat 1 tablespoon ghee or oil in a deep pot or Dutch oven. Add the whole spices and let them sizzle for a minute. Add the ginger and saute for a minute until aromatic.

8. Lower the heat and stir in all the ground spices except black pepper.

9. Add the mangoes, sugar, vinegar and jaggery.

10. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Cover and cook on a medium heat until the mangoes are tender. This step takes me about 25 minutes. But do not rely on the timings mentioned, that’s just an approximation. It may take longer or lesser time depending on the kind of cookware. If you use grated mangoes, it will finish even faster.

11. Turn off the heat when the mango chutney is slightly runny & stir in little salt. It will become thick after cooling down. Overcooking at this stage is going to caramelize the sugar and make the mango chunks/gratings chewy.

Taste test before turning off the stove. If you feel it is still too tart for your liking, you may add more sugar and cook further until it dissolves. You can also adjust the spice level here and add black pepper.

If you want you may mash the chutney with a masher.

12. This is how it should look after cooling down.

Cool completely before storing in a glass jar.

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