This super simple Christmas Chutney is warmly spiced and an essential part of my festive celebrations. Filled with dried fruit and Christmas spices, it is the perfect addition to your Yule tide storecupboard!
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A Thinly Spread Christmas
Those of you who have followed Thinly Spread for a while will know that I love Christmas. It starts quietly with a whisper, the smell of spice and a suggestion of sparkle, gradually gaining momentum as we head into December.
For me, it is all about traditions, a gradual build-up, a feast for all our senses and it revolves, unashamedly, around food. Baking, stirring, roasting and preserving. I am at my happiest surrounded by the warmth of my kitchen and the smiles of my family.
There are Gingerbread Men and Ginger Cake, Mince Pies and Nut Roasts. Plates full of vegan sausage rolls and Bratwurst, little canapes and sparkly popcorn. Bowls full of hearty soup and pasta topped with festive flavours. Crisp seasonal salads, oven roasted veg, richly flavoured sauces, pâtés and, of course, seasonal preserves aplenty.
Chutney for Christmas
Jams and chutneys make fabulous gifts for family and friends as well as being a super important part of my own Christmas menu.
Top jars of my Christmas Chutney with a circle of Christmassy fabric tied on with natural twine and add some homemade labels or tiny Christmas decorations for that lovely personal touch.
If you are making up a hamper add a box of homemade or shop bought crackers, a box of good vegan cheese or a ball of homemade cashew cheese and some fresh fruit.
Include a bottle of red wine and some mulling spices and you are sure to bring a smile to loved ones faces!
Christmas Chutney Recipe
This recipe makes enough chutney to fill about six standard 1lb/380g jam jars. I used a mixture of sizes because I am incapable of popping them in the recycling and always have a mix and match stash to hand!
Dried Fruit
To make this chutney you will need 2lb/900g of dried fruit.
I use figs, apricots, dates and prunes because they just shout CHRISTMAS at me and because I use so many sultanas, raisins and currants in my Christmas cakes and puddings that I fancy a change, but you can mix and match to suit you and your storecupboard.
Vinegar
I’ve specified red wine vinegar in the recipe below but you can use cider vinegar if you wish.
Spices
A Christmas chutney must have Christmas spices and this one includes cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, ginger and all spice. You could (and I have in the past) add a bit of nutmeg and some cloves. If you like your chutney with a kick, add some chilli too!
Sugar and Salt
There is no pretending that chutney can be sugar free. There is a lot of dark brown sugar in here! Just remember that chutney is best served in small amounts alongside savoury goodies and you won’t feel too bad!
I used sea salt in my chutney but feel free to use whichever salt you have to hand!
Storing Chutney
This chutney is ready to eat straight away but improves if it is left to mature for a few weeks.
In properly steralised jars it will last for six months or more in a cool, dark cupboard.
What To Serve With Chutney
This richly flavoured chutney is a perfect complement to so many festive flavours.
Serve it with:
- Cold Nut Roast or Lentil Loaf on Boxing Day
- Homemade Cashew Cheese Ball and crisp apple slices
- Roast Cauliflower Salad
- Beetroot Falafel and Pitta Bread
Or as I have here with shop bought crackers, vegan camembert, cranberries and grapes – so festive!
Mr TS and I wolfed these down with a glass of dry sherry as soon as the photos were done!
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Christmas Chutney
Ingredients
- 350 g pitted prunes no soak
- 225 g pitted dates
- 225 g dried apricots
- 100 g dried figs
- 450 g onion peeled and roughly chopped
- 570 ml cider vinegar
- 6 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 cardamom pods
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 2 tbsps sea salt
- 450 g dark brown sugar
Instructions
- Chop the dried fruit and onions in a food processor until very small.
- Put the vinegar in a preserving pan or large heavy-bottomed saucepan with the salt and spices.
- Bring to a boil and stir in the fruit and onion pieces.
- Add the sugar and stir until it dissolves
- Reduce the heat and simmer without a lid for about an hour/hour and a half, stirring occasionally until the chutney has thickened.
- You will know it is ready when there are no pools of vinegar left behind when you draw the back of a spoon over the surface.
- Remove the cinnamon stick and spoon the chutney into warmed, sterilised jars, seal and label.
- This chutney can be eaten straight away but will improve if left to mature for a few weeks and will keep for 6 months if kept in properly sterilised jars in a cool, dark place.
- (I sterilise my jars by placing them in the oven at 150C for 20 minutes, you can also sterilise them by putting them through a hot cycle in a dishwasher.)
Notes
Nutrition
I am so making this next week….
Hurrah!
Perfect timing, I have my cake stored and being fed every fortnight – my first ever and I made my own Christmas pudding this year so I’ll get a post up next week on both and come and link up too
Brilliant! Thanks Mari x
I knew I could rely on you for a chutney recipe, was just thinking about making some this week. Christmas on a budget again this year so food presents are always a good bet and much better than some token gift. Any good ideas for tomato based chutney’s?
Tomato chutney appearing over on Life is Delicious along with pear and walnut ASAP (when I get my finger out and get on with it – poke me!)
Right I am going to be coming back every Friday and start following that pinterest board. We are having to do a tight budget this year and loving Christmas ideas and recipes this year as I am sure that our family are getting fed up with scrapbooks!! May have to join in with some of my scrapbooks though! xx
Hoorah! Lovely to have you along! 🙂 x
Love festive friday! Get so many ideas from it each year – need to pull my finger out and start doing my own!
That’s so nice to hear, I did wonder about bringing it back again but it wouldn’t be Christmas without it so I climbed up into my blog attic, blew the dust of it, checked all the bulbs and we’re ready to Jingle! 🙂
I too have started thinking about how we are going to “give” this Christmas as it is something I always get my children to think about – we aren’t religious and so it is more the moral message that we pass to them.
Exactly Oddy, thank you! x
This sounds awesome! Will give it a tray. I start feeling all Christmassy as soon as Strictly Come Dancing starts LOL. Please could I have an invite to your pinterest board? I am jbmumofone x
I have whizzed one your way *jingles bells* 😉
Whoop whoop!
Christmas is coming and the *veggie equivalent* is getting fat… tra la la la…
It is! It is! 🙂 x
I’ll be dipping in each week for festive inspiration. I don’t even think about Christmas until December so I suspect I’ll be a last minute joiner-inner. Now how about some crackers, cheese and Chutney wit ha nice Guinness and Port?
Excellent – I will come back in Dec and document all the Spanish traditions. The only one I’ve heard about so far is cava on the beach on Christmas morning… Might be the only one I need in fact.
Yay for festive Friday!
So I am thinking about making up little Christmassy hampers of goodness for my foodie friends for their gifts. I like the look of this chutney a lot! Mind if I add my cranberry sauce recipe to your linky?
Please do! 🙂
I am so trying this….. god help me
Chutney is something I’ve never braved (mainly because I have friends who make gorgeous stuff for us!) and I’m behind on the Christmas cake, but I will be back…
I have GOT to try this. Since moving to Canada we’ve dearly missed giant jars of Branston pickle. Pickle isn’t something widely known here and we’ve had to content ourselves with small, wildly over-priced jars sourced from the British section of the International Foods aisle in the supermarket.
It’s quite funny making Canadian’s cheese and pickle sandwiches so they can taste what we rave about!
No pickle?! I’m horrified frankly, you must get chutneying immediately! 🙂