Lemon Chutney

This sweet, tangy and spicy lemon chutney made with winter special lemons is sure to pep-up your meals. With an instant, no-cook recipe you just require 4 ingredients, 5 minutes and a grinder jar to make this delicious lemon chutney. The best part about this chutney is that you use the lemons along with their skin. I have replaced sugar with jaggery in this recipe. This oil-free, chutney is vegan and gluten-free and can be served as a lip-smacking dip with snacks, breakfast or along with your everyday meals. It can also be paired with your favorite fasting foods (vrat ka khana). The chutney stays good in the refrigerator in an airtight container for about 2 months.

Condiments like chutneys and pickles form an integral part of Indian Cuisine. You will almost always find a chutney, pickle, dip or preserve served by the side of the main course meal in a typical Indian thali. You will find a variety of dry and wet chutneys in Indian cuisine. Chutneys that are instant have usually short shelf life while pickles and preserves are made using seasonal fruits and veggies and preserved whole year-round. Chutneys and dips can pep-up any snack, breakfast, chaat or an everyday meal.

What goes into this Instant Lemon Chutney:

This lemon chutney is made using just 4 basic ingredients present in any kitchen pantry - lemons, jaggery, salt, and red chili powder. You require winter season's fresh, juicy lemons that are yellow in color, without any blemishes, and with thin skin. This is very important as the lemons with thick skin will make the chutney bitter as we use the whole lemons here along with its skin. The lemons are cut into small pieces, seeds and the pith is discarded. These lemon pieces are ground along with chili powder, salt, and sweetener to get a coarse chutney. I have replaced sugar with jaggery in this recipe. The point to be remembered is that the quantity of sweeter should be little more than the lemon paste. You may use powdered jaggery or grated one. Red chili powder gives this tangy and sweet chutney a desirable spicy kick making it all the more delectable. The added salt balances all the flavors of this lemon chutney. This chutney is a burst of flavors. It is a delicious blend of tangy, sweet, spicy and mildly bitter taste

Variations to this Lemon Chutney

My MIL makes a lemon marmalade by cooking grated lemons with sugar. In this recipe, lemons are kept into a freezer overnight and then the whole lemons are grated along with seeds. The grated frozen lemon is mixed with sugar, red chili powder, and salt and cooked in a saucepan until a jam consistency is achieved. This lemon preserve stays good for about a year on refrigeration and tastes fantastic.

Best from Waste @FoodieMondayBlogHop

This week on our Facebook gourmet group, Foodie Monday Blog Hop it was Archana di's turn to choose the theme for our 235th week. Archana di is a versatile blogger and blogs at themadscientistskitchen. I look upon her space for authentic Goan recipes. She also has many delicious and easy-to-do food recipes from around the globe. I have tried Sweet potato bruschetta from her blog and it was a hit at my place. This time she suggested that we come up with food recipes that aim at zero wastage of food. Did you know that our Indian Cuisine has many dishes made from the ingredients one might consider as wastes? For instance, in Maharashtrian Cuisine, we have a chutney made with peels of ridge gourd and believe me it tastes awesome. Similarly, Punjabi Cuisine has a curry using the tender peels of green peas. It was a delight to see Archana di come up with gobi-ke-denthal-ki-sabzi ( a dry curry made using discarded stems of cauliflower) from Punjabi Cuisine. Usually, lemon juice or its zest is used as flavorant in many dishes. Lemon peels are very bitter and usually discarded. This instant lemon chutney is my humble contribution towards the theme,as in this case, we can eat the lemon peels also. So, let's get started.

                                          
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: Nil
Serves:1/2 cup chutney

Ingredients:

• 4 medium-size lemons
• 2 tablespoon red chili powder
• 1/2 cup jaggery powder
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Rinse the lemons well and pat dry using a kitchen towel. Cut each lemon into 8 pieces. Discard the pith and seeds. Transfer the lemon pieces to a chutney jar of grinder and make a coarse paste of it.

2. Add red chili powder, grated or powdered jaggery, and salt to taste to the lemon paste. Pulse 1-2 times so that all the ingredients blend well with each other. Do a taste test and add more red chili powder or salt or jaggery if required.

3. Our delicious, no-cook lemon chutney is ready to serve. Transfer the chutney to a clean dry glass jar with a close-fitting lid and refrigerate until use.

4. Serve the lemon chutney with any snack or breakfast dishes or with your everyday meal.

                             

Recipe Notes:

• Select fresh, juicy lemons that are yellow in color, without any blemishes, and with thin skin to make this chutney.
• Make sure you discard all the seeds and the pith of the lemon or the chutney will taste bitter.
• The quantity of jaggery to be added is a little more than the quantity of lemon paste obtained.
• The amount of red chili powder can be adjusted as per your spice tolerance.
• As this chutney is raw, it needs to be refrigerated in an airtight container for better shelf life.

I hope a few of you would love to try out this recipe. If you do so, feel free to share your feedback with us in the form of likes and comments in the comment section below this post. All your suggestions are also more than welcome. If you like my work and feel it is worth following, do hit the follow button at the top right corner of this blog. Your appreciation means a lot to me. For more recipes and new updates follow us on social media.

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