Tomato season is over and my greenhouse is cleaned and my tools are put away for winter. Time to preserve what I cannot eat fresh and save what I grow until next season. I usually clean out my greenhouse in late September. The garden season, where I live in Alaska, can be short and cool in some years so I rely on my home weather station to let me know when summer is over.
I ended up with 30-40 lbs of Green Tomatoes. I hate to waste any produce, even if it is not ripe. So I usually make green tomato chutney. It is a favorite relish and goes very well with spicy curry dishes.
I wash and slice all of the tomatoes then chop in a food processor, along with green apples and onions... this process took several hours for this large amount of green tomatoes.
Minced green tomatoes ready for chutney...
I don't think I have ever made such a large batch before. I had to use my 5 Gallon canning kettle to mix and cook down all of the ingredients. This took me 2-3 hours stirring and watching so that it did not burn. After cooking down I was finally able to transfer the chutney into two smaller pots and free up my canner for processing jars.
With over 30 lbs of tomatoes I had to scale up my recipe and to be honest I simply added spices and sugar-free Swerve sweetener by taste. I think it turned out very good. I used white vinegar because that's what I had and Swerve brown sugar replacement. It cooked down very well.
Green Tomato Chutney
This is a sweet-spicy Indian style chutney.
Chopping ingredients in the food processor makes prep time go faster. Adjust sweetener and hot spice to your taste. This recipe is for 2 cups of chopped tomatoes and will yield about 4 cups - adjust for your amounts.
Ingredients:
2 cups chopped green tomato
1 cup chopped Granny Smith apple
1/2 cup Stevia sweetener - to taste
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon Tamarind paste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper flakes - more or less
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
2 garlic cloves, minced
Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 45 minutes or until thick, stirring frequently. Fill sterile canning jars and seal. Process in water-bath canner for 20 minutes for pint jars and 10 minutes for half pint jars.
I had to fill jars, and process in batches and I lost count - but I almost ran out of jar lids. I guess you can never have too many canning jar lids - Ha!
This is a pickled relish recipe made with green tomatoes, apples, and vinegar and is is considered high acid. Vinegar typically contains from 5% to 8% acetic acid with a pH of 2-3. Green tomatoes and apples are considered high acid fruits. Pickled fruits and vegetables with a pH below 4.6 are considered safe by the USDA for water bath processing.
* ALWAYS FOLLOW:
USDA SAFE FOOD PROCESSING RULES