Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney
Jan 08, 2016, Updated Jun 19, 2020
Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney is awesome with parathas or sandwiches! It's the perfect accompaniment to any Indian meal.
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Sweet & spicy tomato chutney is the perfect accompaniment to Indian meals. You will love it with paratha or your sandwiches!
India is often called the land of chutneys and pickles. Whatever you can think of, from lemons to onion to tomatoes to cauliflower to carrots and everything in between – we can make a chutney or pickle out of it.
Indian meals are often incomplete without a side of chutney.
The most common chutney that you get in every Indian restaurant is the mint cilantro chutney. It goes so well with all Indian appetizers, breads etc. however there are some other amazing chutneys as well.
I remember when I was little, I was so fond of a garlic and green chili chutney. It was basically just crushed garlic, chili and oil and it used to taste amazing with plain paratha (flatbread).
One of our house helpers at my grandparents house used to make that chutney and whenever we went there during our summer break, that chutney was the first thing I demanded!
This year while I was in India, I was totally hooked onto this sweet & spicy tomato chutney. This is my mother-in-law’s recipe and I am so excited to be sharing it with you guys because the chutney is absolutely amazing!
My MIL learnt this chutney way back in the 70s when she attended some cooking class. She had this written in her old diary and she made it this year while we were visiting.
Once I had this tomato chutney, I wanted it everyday. Seriously guys it tastes so amazing with parathas or just about anything!
I was so hooked onto to it that by the time we were leaving, I asked mummy to give me the recipe. She just explained me verbally how she made it and made me write down the ingredients. So as soon as I was back here, I had to make it! And I did and it turned out amazing!
Few things about this sweet & spicy tomato chutney – there’s a lot of garam masala in it so some people might find it hot. When I tasted it as soon as it was done, I found it too spicy but as it cooled down, it became just perfect.
However in case you can’t handle all the heat from garam masala and the chili powder, please reduce the quantity of both.
This sweet and spicy tomato chutney is great with parathans, on top of bread or with your favorite snacks! The chutney obviously is vegan.
Method
Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in pan on medium heat. Add finely chopped tomatoes.
Cook for 20-25 minutes or until the moisture in tomatoes totally dries out. Set aside.
Pulse ginger-garlic and onion in food processor. You want them really fine for this recipe.
Heat a pan on medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil to it. Once the oil is hot add the chopped ginger and garlic and cook for a minute or two.
Add onion next and cook till the raw smell of the onion goes away completely.
Now add the prepared tomato and mix well. Cook for a minute.
Add garam masala, red chili powder, vinegar and salt. Mix well and cook for another minute.
Now add sugar and mix.
The chutney will turn liquidy as the sugar melts.
Keep stirring and cook for another 2-3 minutes till it thickens a bit. Don’t cook it for too long because the chutney will thicken as it cools down. Remove from heat and let it cool down.
Once the chutney has cooled down, store it in an airtight container.
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Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney
Ingredients
- 4 large tomatoes 500 grams, finely chopped
- 5 large garlic cloves 10 grams
- 3 x 1 inch ginger 25 grams
- 1 medium red onion 50 grams
- 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon oil divided
- 2 teaspoons garam masala around 8 grams
- 1.5 teaspoon red chili powder around 6 grams
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 250 grams sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt
Instructions
- Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in pan on medium heat. Add finely chopped tomatoes.
- Cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring in between or until the moisture in tomatoes totally dries out. Set aside.
- Pulse ginger-garlic and onion in food processor. You want them really fine for this recipe.
- Heat a pan on medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil to it.
- Once the oil is hot add the chopped ginger and garlic and cook for a minute or two.
- Add onion next and cook till the raw smell of the onion goes away completely.
- Now add the prepared tomato and mix well. Cook for a minute.
- Add garam masala, red chili powder, vinegar and salt. Mix well and cook for another minute.
- Now add sugar and mix. The chutney will turn liquidy as the sugar melts.
- Keep stirring and cook for another 2-3 minutes till it thickens a bit. Don't cook it for too long because the chutney will thicken as it cools down.
- Remove from heat and let it cool down. Once the chutney has cooled down, store it in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Sweet & Spicy Tomato Chutney
If I put into sterilised jars. Would it last longer? Up to 6-8 months?
yes maybe, sorry I don’t have much experience with sterilization and canning
Hi Manali,
Thank you for sharing your recipe.
I have green cherry tomatoes harvested from my garden last week because it starts to frost at night here.
Can I use these tomatoes? I think they might be tart, so maybe I can adjust the sugar amount. Or do you have a green tomato chutney recipe?
Hi Natalie, you can use them. If they are too tart, just increase the amount of sugar. I don’t have a green tomato chutney recipe.
Is there a way to can this for longer storage
you can possibly freeze it. I usually keep in in the fridge and it lasts for 3 to 4 weeks and it gets over in that time 🙂
Gorgeous mix of sweet and spice. Love it with cheese and cold meats.
How long can you store this for?
good in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks, maybe more never lasts that long.
Just made it, it’s delicious and full of flavors. I halved the sugar though.
I’m using it for samosas dip.
Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
Can I coat my chicken wings with this sauce?
sure
Can you tell me how long this lasts in the fridge, I thought I would be able to put it in the pantry and use say within 6 months but not enough vinegar to do that? can you advise please.
It will not last 6 months, I have successfully stores in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks.
what is shelf life of this tomato chutney?
2-3 weeks in the refrigerator. It doesn’t last more than that in my home so I don’t know if can be store for more time.
Hi, how long can this chutney be kept please?
2-3 weeks easily in the refrigerator
This recipe is confusing. For example 1 medium onion, 50g. I weighed a smal onion as thy sounded whack to me and it was 140g. the garlic is also weirdly off. I’m pressing on but who knows what it’s meant to be. I’ve bought a lot of ingredients so I’m disappointed
I am not sure what’s confusing or disappointing. This recipe is from my mother-in-law who lives in India (please read the text), the onions in India are much smaller. That’s the reason I have given the measurement in grams so that you can measure and use the correct amount. An onion will weight differently in different countries. That’s the reason the measurements are given in grams.
Hi Can i use fresh chili in here in place of the chili powder? This looks super yummy!
sure,reduce the chili powder then
Dear Manali,
I love tomatoes. This recipe sounds amazing and I will definitely try it! So, big thank you.
As tomatoes are now out of season where I live, do you think I could replace the fresh ones with tinned ones? The fresh ones from the market don’t seem to have much flavor anymore.
you can try, I am just wondering if the tinned ones will have a lot of water in them and that might effect the texture of the chutney
Hi there,
This looks like a great recipe! I’m hoping to make some as homemade gifts for Christmas 🙂 I’m just wondering how long the chutney lasts after it’s first made?
Many Thanks,
Bethany
3-4 weeks in the fridge, it has never lasted more than that so can’t tell the exact time
Thank you its a lovely recipe
Hi is the salt correct . As the recipe says 1tbs . I used half a tea spoon as a little worried it’ll come out too salty
it is correct but of course it’s a personal preference
Had an overflow of tomatoes from my green house so I made your chutney but I had to 5x it, it turned out beautifully, the flavour is amazing. Thank you for sharing this recipe we all love it.
Hello Manali,
I tried this recipe today, omg it’s delicious, the sweet and chilli together is a real taste sensation, very easy to make too. I’m going to make another batch and chance it until Christmas?. I’ll let you know how it goes when I open it at Christmas time.
Thank you
let me know for sure! I am not sure if it will stay good until Crhsitmas so I am curious to know
Hello Manali,
Will this chutney last until Christmas if it’s stored in airtight jars ?
I am really not sure, have never stored it for that long
I made this last weekend and it was a huge hit! I served it with homemade samosas. I took the advice of other readers and halved the sugar, and it was still quite sweet, but chutney is supposed to be sweet, so that was perfect!
glad to know!
How long can this recipe be stored for in airtight jars?
in fridge should be okay for few weeks
can it be frozen?
yes you can try
Hi Manali.
I start making my Christmas chutneys around this time of year. How long does this keep for when its put into sterilised jars.
Kind regards
Amanda
Hi Amanda, I don’t have much experience with canning, but this should stay good in fridge for 3-4 weeks
Absolutely yummy. So easy to make too. Great with cheese or a poppadom – thank you
welcome!
How long does it keep for please?
in the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks (won’t last that long)
Going to make this chutney this week. Bit confused about the tomato weight.
X1 4 tomatoes 500g
X2 8 tomatoes 500g
X3 12 tomatoes 500g
Should the total weight of tomatoes be:
X1 500g
X2 1 kilo
X3 1.5 kilo
Maybe I’m being a bit dumb but I can’t imagine one tomato weighing 500g, even a mega beefsteak!!!
Hello there, the recipe clearly mentions 4 large tomatoes (500 grams). I am not sure about the confusion? There are 4 large tomatoes which in total weigh 500 grams
Thanks for clarifying. I wasn’t sure if each tomato should weigh 500g. Maybe you could update your x2 and x3 to reflect the weight of the tomatoes required.
that’s a bug in the recipe card and I will look into it. Thanks
I made this chutney today and it turned out perfect. Sweet and spicy! Very easy recipe to follow with few ingredients. Thank you.
welcome, glad to know!
I’ve been looking for a recipe like this for ages and was very happy when I found this one. Super easy to make and very tasty. Served it today with fried fish and rice. Will gift
one pot to my Mauritian father in law. Thanks for sharing!
I tried it. It was easy and delicious. We used it on Prego rolls. Fantastic recipe! Thanks for sharing. I only used half the sugar.
I am allergic to vinegar . Can I skip it? Will the taste remains the same
yes skip!
Love this chutney!
Great taste and spiciness ?
How long would be it’s shelf life.
a month at least
I put mine in sterilised jars while hot and then put the lid on and let them cool I still have some in the cupboard still looks good, it has been over a year I was thinking of opening one the other day. If you don’t change the sugar ratio it will preserve for a long time, much like jam.
I was thinking the same with regards to the sugar preserving it, I treated it like a jam and sterilised the jars also as I am trying to use a glut of tomatoes I will be making more of this. My son loved it.
Delicious recipe! I made the mistake of not saving the page when I first made it and then couldn’t find it again. I’m so glad I found it now, this will be my go to chutney recipe from now on. I gave some in a pot to my dad and he keeps bugging me to make him some more.
Awesome! so glad you enjoyed it!
I couldn’t resist this recipe, I had 2kg of cherry tomatoes so I quadrupled the recipe and use the food processor to slice them up, my gara masala was not hot and I used only 1 fresh jalapeno, no chili powder, it is yummy and not too hot although I suspect most of the heat comes from the huge amount of ginger. When I bought the ginger I forgot I was quadrupling the recipe so I only bought about half of what I needed and then topped it up with an additional tablespoon of ginger powder. I love spice but I don’t love heat so as it turned out this was perfect for me. Love this recipe, thank you for sharing.
Glad you liked it Shannon!
I made this on Sunday and it worked perfectly! I ended up making 7x the recipe so it took much longer to thicken, but the end result is great and made 14 jam jars worth. The only thing I’d say is maybe don’t add all the sugar at once, as we found it a bit too sweet so had to add in more spices to balance it out! Better to do most of the sugar and then top it up if you think it needs it!
One can always adjust sweetness to taste. Glad you liked it! 🙂
Yum! This looks like a super-easy recipe. Thanks for including all these photos of each step.
Welcome! Hope you like it!
I would really like to try making this chutney, but, I’m not sure how much ginger you are calling for…….is it calling for a piece of ginger that is 3 inches long? Thanks for your help.
it’s 3 inches ginger..now that can be a single piece that is 3 inches long or 3×1 inch ginger pieces..it doesn’t matter.. you need 25 grams for ginger for this recipe!
Thanks! I just need to buy the gram marsala and then I’m going to make this!
Fabulous!!!
yay 🙂
This looks delicious, and I have been looking for a tomato chutney recipe, and I am assuming that the Nutrition Facts would be correct for the entire recipe yield of two cups.
its just an estimate Catherine..calculated by this plugin..I can’t say how accurate it is but yes an estimate… hope you like it!
Yummy…
much 2 sweet! 100g of sugar should do. besides that very tasty!
Thanks! sugar can always be adjusted to taste.. this is my MIL recipe and she makes it that way, so I shared the same measurements 🙂
I just made this and it smells out of this world…but I agree on the sugar. Next time I will add probably 2/3 or 1/2 the amount in the recipe. Other than that…yum!!
glad you enjoyed!
Made this chutney! Was yummm!!!
isn’t it? 🙂 I love it too!
It’s amazingly tasty! Made double amount – two jars and a little left over. Am saving for Christmas. Took longer for liquid to boil down but apart from that, true to recipe and dead easy to make.
Glad to know! 🙂
I’m going to try this ! Did you skin and deseed the tomatoes?
No!
Manali,
Your cooking is great! I love it.
Hugs
Aruna
Thank you Aruna
Just made this. Tastes delicious! !! Thanks so much for the recipe. Also made another one with roasted courgette instead of the tomato, again really tasty. Helps me preserve all the home grown produce in a different way x
Awesome! Glad you liked it Danielle!
I had never try this tomato chutney, but I’m thinking about adding it to a serrano ham baguette, something similar to pan tomate… very interesting!
It’s perfect with that combo! 🙂
I’m stumped on the 250 grams of sugar. How many tablespoons or cups is that?
around 1.25 cups of sugar (US cups) …its a traditional style chutney and sugar acts as a preservative too..reduce the sugar if you like.
I love tomato chutney, but have never tried the sweet and spicy version. Old recipes are always keepers. I am going to make this recipe soon.
Thank you Uma!
This sweet and spicy chutney looks amazing..In south we call it thokku a dry kind of chutney without garam masala.Yours is entirely different and so chunky ..
I love chutneys! That’s no surprise since I’m as Indian as they get! 🙂 Love how this sounds Manali. Looks fantastic! 🙂
This is droolworthy! Love the addition of garam masala and vinegar going to make this one soon http://www.mumbaitomelbourne.com/food-and-health-blog-posts/matki-chi-usal-moth-beans-usal