Cilantro Chutney
Jan 30, 2020, Updated May 23, 2023
Made with fresh cilantro, ginger, green chilies, lemon juice, this Cilantro Chutney is the perfect accompaniment to Indian meals!
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My favorite Cilantro Chutney is great on sandwiches, wraps and is also the perfect accompaniment to parathas, pakoras, samosas & more!
If you love Indian food, then you must have come across the green cilantro chutney.
Indian meals (especially snacks and appetizers) are often incomplete without a side of this chutney.
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Chutneys and achars (pickles) are an integral part of Indian food. In my home, there was always some sort of chutney on the table for our lunch.
The common ones were of course cilantro, mint and then there was amla chutney (Indian gooseberry) and chutney made of raw mangoes! Oh well, the list is endless.
In fact everyone was so obsessed with chutneys in my house that if there was nothing else, we would make a chutney of garlic, green chilies with mustard oil.
It was the simplest chutney where you had to just crush everything and mix it all together and let me tell you it tasted amazing, especially with plain parathas!
I grew up eating cilantro chutney on everyday basis and so you can always find a batch of it in my refrigerator. It never lasts more than a week in my house, sometimes even less.
The thing about this chutney is that it is so versatile. You can use it on sandwiches, wraps, salads and so much more. If you love Indian food, then you gotta have a batch of this in your refrigerator at all times!
My mom always said that chutney tastes when made on sill-batta. Do you guys know what that is? It’s kind of a grinding stone which was traditionally used to grind masalas and chutneys in India.
Of course people in cities don’t use them anymore but people in villages still do.
Since my family belongs to a village in Uttar Pradesh, we always had that sill batta in the kitchen. Trust me, the chutney made in a blender can never match to that chutney.
It’s like any chutney tastes 10 times better when hand grinded with that stone. Obviously, I made this cilantro chutney in my blender because I don’t have a sill batta with me here.
Ingredients for Cilantro Chutney
Cilantro: of course, the star ingredients on this dish! Use fresh cilantro here for best results.
Ginger: I love adding ginger to my chutney, gives it a nice flavor. Some people add garlic too but I usually just go with the ginger.
Green Chili: what is a chutney without some spice? My version uses only 1 thai green chili so it isn’t really spicy. If you want a spicier chutney, feel free to add more of these.
Spices: chaat masala, roasted cumin powder are added to flavor the chutney.
Lemon juice: it adds a nice tang to the chutney, do not skip it.
Yogurt: now some people prefer adding yogurt and some don’t. I belong to the former category, I almost always use yogurt in my cilantro chutney recipe.
I have tried this chutney with dairy yogurt as well as non-dairy yogurt (plain almond milk yogurt) and it comes out great both ways.
Sugar: just a bit of sugar helps in balancing the flavors. You may skip it.
And of course there’s some salt and pepper!
How to Thicken The Chutney
In my experience, the chutney made with almond milk yogurt turns out pretty thick.
However if your chutney turns out runny (with or without addition of yogurt), here’s what you can do to thicken it- add thick sev to it!
Here’s the picture of the kind of sev you would need to add to make your chutney thick.
I learnt this cool trick many years ago from a Gujarati person that I knew.
Start by adding 1 teaspoon of thick sev at a time, blend and then add more only if needed.
Serving Suggestions
This chutney is amazing on sandwiches, rolls, wraps. And you can eat it with naan, tikki, samosa, pakoras, the list is really too long.
Basically, it tastes great with anything & everything!
Here are my favorite recipes with which I enjoy the cilantro chutney-
Method
Remove all the hard stems/stalks from the cilantro, the tender ones are okay to have and then wash the cilantro.
To a blender add the cilantro leaves, green chili, ginger, cumin powder, chaat masala, black pepper and salt. Also add in lemon juice and sugar.
Add yogurt to the blender. I have used vegan yogurt here in this recipe (plain almond milk yogurt).
Blend it all together to a smooth consistency. If your chutney has a runny consistency, you may add a teaspoon of sev or peanuts to the chutney to make it thicker.
Add 1 teaspoon at a time and then go from there.
Keep this cilantro chutney refrigerated and use it as needed. You can also freeze the chutney.
If you’ve tried this Cilantro Chutney Recipe then don’t forget to rate the recipe! You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram to see what’s latest in my kitchen!
This post has been updated from the recipe archives, first published in January 2018.
Cilantro Chutney
Ingredients
- 2 small bunches cilantro 50-60 grams each, hard stems removed
- 1 green chili or to taste
- 1/2 inch ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon roasted cumin powder
- 1/8 teaspoon chaat masala optional
- pinch black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 cup yogurt plain milk yogurt or plain almond milk yogurt
Instructions
- Remove all the hard stems/stalks from the cilantro, the tender ones are okay to have and then wash the cilantro.
- To a blender add the cilantro leaves, green chili, ginger, cumin powder, chaat masala, black pepper and salt. Also add in lemon juice and sugar.Add yogurt to the blender. I have used vegan yogurt here in this recipe (plain almond milk yogurt). You can also use plain milk yogurt.
- Blend it all together to a smooth consistency. If your chutney has a runny consistency, you may add a teaspoon of sev or peanuts to the chutney to make it thicker. Add 1 teaspoon at a time and then go from there.
- Keep this cilantro chutney refrigerated and use it as needed. You can also freeze the chutney.
Notes
- Feel free to add more yogurt as per your taste. More yogurt=less spicy chutney.
- Add more green chilies for a spicier chutney.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Utterly delicious! I can confirm this goes with everything. I was making a fish finger buttie for lunch whilst making this chutney. Ended up just dipping the fish fingers in it. Lush!
I did have to add some sev to thicken it to my taste. Added a few mint leave as well as they were knocking around in the fridge. I would go for 2 chillies next time I make this which won’t be long as currently searching for other things to dip in it
Manali all your recipes are fabulous 🤩
so glad you enjoy my recipes Rebecca! 🙂 Thanks for trying!
Can I add coconut to this?
yes! here’s a coconut cilantro chutney recipe: https://www.cookwithmanali.com/cilantro-coconut-chutney/
I took time to understand what Cilantro is, but I now understand it is Coriander leaves (Green Dhania). I like all your recipes. Thanks.
My go to recipe. Tastes just like a restaurant
Delicious 🙂
glad to know!
I’m very excited to try this (I’ve tried another recipe on your site which was so good, so I was very happy to see your recipe when I started looking.)
I’ve not seen yoghurt in other recipes. Is this addition more traditional? Have you made it without it? Does adding it affect its storage? (freezing). And have you every canned this? I know.. lots of questions. But so looking forward to this!
1. Every house in India has it’s own way of making cilantro chutney, so there’s no right or wrong here. I have a shared a version I like :). If you don’t want to add yogurt, you can skip!
2. I have never canned this, but you can freeze chutney in ice cube trays. Take out cubes as needed.
Absolutely delicious! My blender would not run because of too little liquid but I made 1/2 the recipe so maybe that’s why. I added a tiny bit of water and then it got too thin. I was using Laban, a very thick yogurt product, which I then used more of to thicken it. Probably will skip water and just add more Laban. Hoping to try mango chutney next if you have a recipe
Whut’s “sev” ?
it’s an Indian savory fried snack made with chickpea flour
Really delicious on chicken as well!! We have tons of coriander in our garden and I was looking for a way to use more of it. Can imagine this is great with samosas etc. I’ve been to India 3 times and never had this. But my local friend always kept me away from street food.
haha you have missed out on some amazing food then if you didn’t eat street food in India!
This did not work so well since the chutney tasted bitter. I tried adding more sugar and yoghurt but it didn’t work so well. It just missed having any flavor to relate to. Not sure if the portions are correct.
the portions are absolutely correct, looks like you either use a spicy chili or use extra ginger than needed or use used less cilantro and than recipe called for
I love this with herb/ parmaseam crusted lamb lollipops or a pork tenderloin 😊
A great traditional style sauce / dip. I use this recipe to go with Manali’s paneer tikka starter recipe. Very close to how you would find it in any Indian restaurant in the UK. I sometimes add a few mint leaves for a different taste too.
Glad to hear Phil!
Love the recipe. Easy to get ingredients and very easy to make. My Turkish friends enjoyed it thoroughly.
I went to a Indian grocery store downtown Brooklyn and got all of my ingredients. Down to the chaat masala, green chilies and the potatoes. I love samosas. I love fried dough period but it’s like a little vegan roti in your mouth or empanada. I added shrimp to mine. I seasoned the shrimp with the same ingredients as the potatoes and peas but added curry powder. Soooooo delicious. I used to get them from the Halal truck by my college. Those were better obviously. Not as much spice.
Hi
Made this today. So delicious. Have tried so many of your recipes . One of my favourite sites for Punjabi dishes
This absolutely didn’t work for me. I don’t understand the comments about it being runny, I don’t see any liquid in the recipe, other than the lemon juice. ( I used dairy whole milk yogurt, maybe the almond milk stuff is more liquid?) I had to add some water just to get the blender to blend. Then I tasted. Not good. Bitter, sour, way too spicy (and I like spicy), just a really harsh flavor. I had to find another recipe and add significant water, sugar, garlic, a little vinegar, more lemon juice, more salt. I did manage to salvage and end up with a good chutney.
no problem you didn’t like it, this is a basic homestyle cilantro chutney that’s made in Indian homes, maybe not suitable to your taste. And i guess you don’t have a good blender, the yogurt is more than enough to blend the chutney really well. thanks for trying. Vinegar is never really added to Indian style homemade cilantro chutney, it’s always lemon juice for the acidity.
Delicious and easy!
I made my own chaat masala with a coffee grinder, roasted cumin seeds and used the grinder for the cumin powder. I bought a grinder with a removable grinding cup that goes into the dishwasher.
The little bit of sugar really works to meld the flavors.
I am new to cooking Indian food so I really appreciate the way you format the recipes into different sections and add photos. It’s brilliant! Thank you Manali.
glad to know Pamela! 🙂
Fantastic recipe. Thank you
The recipe is just easy,fantastic and delicious. Thank you so much.
So good! My husband, who doesn’t like things spicy, gobble it down looking for more! He thought the flavors were worth the heat. I personally love the heat. Yum. I waited until my order of chaat masala arrived to make it. So glad I did. Thank you!
Fantastic and easy recipe help make a delicious. Chutney. Thank You Manali.
For how many days we can refrigerate this chutney
easily a week
That image of the chutney with the patti, what is the name of the name of patti? and do you have link to its recipe, it looks delicious.
You mean cilantro? The recipe is right here on this page you commented
Made this today. Tastes delicious but it’s a bit runny.
Mita some people also add white bread slices (with the sides removed) to thicken it up.. some people also add gathia (the fried snack)..these helps in binding the chutney..so if its runny for you liking, you can try these next time. Glad to know it turned out good though! 🙂