Written, Cooked, and Photographed by: Taylor Holmes

When I think Indian food, I think Feast. A whole layout of curries, Tandoor baked breads, rice, fried appetizers, and of course chutneys. A good chutney can take your meal to another level. Whether you’re pairing it with your Indian feast, or using it to dip your samosas, there’s never an excuse to forget the sauce (especially when it’s this easy)!

Date chutney is so easy to make well with only a few ingredients. As long as you have dates, you can have chutney! For this recipe I’ll be using dates, honey, tamarind, malt vinegar, water and salt. Depending on your preference, you can play with the ingredients as you see fit. Swap out the tamarind for a bit more vinegar if you want more of an acidic bite, and less of the sourness, or use white vinegar if you’d like to make it gluten free! You may also add spices to kick your chutney up a notch. A small pinch of cloves, nutmeg, or cinnamon can really liven it up!

To begin, you’ll want to pit your dates, if they’re not pitted already. Just one pit could mean a broken tooth in an overzealous eater! Once pitted, bring the dates, water, and vinegar to a boil in a small saucepan, then reduce to a simmer. Once simmering, add your tamarind, salt, and honey, mixing well so as to not allow anything to stick to the bottom of your pan and burn.

If you want a particularly smooth chutney, after simmering all of the ingredients together for at least 10 minutes, you may puree it. If you desire a chunkier chutney, you can use your cooking utensil to gently mash the dates and tamarind after having simmered for roughly 15 minutes. This will result in a delicately chunky chutney, while still maintaining a sauce-like consistency.

When the chutney has reached the desirable consistency, you may add any additional seasoning, spices, or flavours to taste.

Bam, your chutney is done!

Ingredients

• 12-20 pitted dates

• 1 Tbsp tamarind

• 1/4 cup honey

• 1/2 cup malt vinegar

• 1 cup water (use more for a thinner chutney)

• salt and spices to taste

Looking for something to add to your Indian feast? Check out our recipe for Paneer Makhani here!