About this dish
Cuisine : Indian
Course : Side dish
Diet : Vegetarian, dairy-free
Time required to prepare this recipe: 5-10 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Taste: Semi-sweet, medium spicy
Calories : 10
Preparation time : 10 min
Total time : 10 min
Method : No-cooking
Not many chutneys can boast the combination of sweetness and spiciness like ginger chutney. If you like many flavors and want your chutney to have all the flavors (sweet, spicy, tangy), then you cannot resist this dish.
Ginger chutney is also called Adrak Chutney (North India) or Allam Pachadi (South India). It is made with fresh ginger and other pantry staples. With some exceptions, most of the people love ginger in their chutney. Don’t worry, you’ll not have only ginger in your chutney. Although ginger is the main ingredient, the use of raisins in this recipe gives a sweet flavor and helps to balance the pungent taste of ginger.
This chutney has local variations in different parts of India due to different local spices, herbs and fruits used. In some places, people use tamarind instead of lemon and jaggery instead of raisins. The beauty of this recipe is that you can experiment with your own ingredients with similar taste to the ones listed below.
This chutney mostly accompanies street foods like fried samosas, cutlets, etc. In North India, they are savored with most Punjabi cuisine dishes. In South India, this recipe is perfectly matched with idli, vada or dosa. Ginger chutney is a popular condiment mostly eaten with main dish in breakfast.
Ginger Chutney
Ingredients
- 1 cup Ginger should be fresh
- 2/3 cup Raisins Sultana if available
- 2/3 cup Lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 10 gm Onion
- 1 pc fresh green chili
- 2 tsp salt to taste
Instructions
Preparation
- Get all the ingredients in required quantities: ginger, raisin, lemon, salt, onion, garlic and chili.
- Peel off the skin of onion, garlic and ginger. Rinse with water and chop them into small pieces. Chopping need not be uniform as this is done just for the purpose of easy blending. Transfer chopped ingredients into a blender.
- Chop a chili into small pieces and transfer to the blender. If you want your chutney to be more spicy, add more chillies. Or you can add red hot chili powder. It adds heat and lends good flavor to chutney.
- Squeeze the lemon and pour the juice into a blender. Freshly squeezed lemon juice is recommended.
- Take ⅔ cups of raisins and wash them with clean water a few times. Soak the raisins for 5-10 minutes in clean water. Soaking makes the raisins absorb water and thus increasing in size. After soaking is complete, strain water and transfer the raisins into the blender.
- Add required salt to your taste. If you are unsure, add just a little amount and you can add more later.
Time to Blend
- Blend everything until it forms a smooth paste. Transfer the paste into an empty container. If you still see chunks of raisins then it is totally fine. Do not over blend, over blending causes the ginger taste bitter.
Nutrition
Mistakes when making Ginger Chutney
Recipe is too bitter?
Use more lemon juice and/or raisins until it balances your taste. Do not use mature ginger and do not overblend it.
Overfrying
You can fry ginger but be careful to not over fry it. Over-frying ginger may make the chutney bitter.
Using more ginger than necessary
Some people may add more ginger thinking that it produces stronger and tastier chutney. While some people like bitter taste, most people don’t and using a little more ginger than mentioned in the recipe may result in bitter ginger chutney.
Serve it fresh with other dishes if you want a strong ginger flavor. Refrigerate it for at least a couple of hours if you want less strong ginger flavor.
FAQs on Ginger Chutney
What can be used instead of lemon juice?
If tamarind is available, add some tamarind pulp to this recipe in place of lemon juice.
Tamarind has a typical sourness unlike lemon juice or any other sour powder. Tamarind is very desirable in India.
Can we replace jaggery with raisins?
Yes, both jaggery and raisins give almost the same flavor of sweetness. You can even use sugar if you don’t have jaggery or raisins.
Can I grind without chopping the ingredients?
Yes you can directly grind all the ingredients. Chopping is done just to make it easy to grind.
Can I grind garlic, onion and ginger without sautéing?
Yes absolutely.
How to sterilize a jar?
Place the empty glass jar in boiling water for 10 minutes. Add a splash of vinegar to the water which will prevent the lid from getting a cloudy appearance. After 10 minutes, remove and wipe with clean cotton cloth.
Should the chutney be prepared in advance?
Yes. The bitterness of ginger can be felt for the first day or few hours right after preparation, but refrigerating it decreases the bitterness and you will get a good taste.
Benefits of Ginger Chutney
- Ginger has a chemical called Gingerol, which is known to have lots of health benefits. Ginger is a well-known home remedy for sickness like nausea, hangovers and common cold. It boosts immunity power and improves respiratory conditions such as asthma.
- Ginger helps with allergies and is an effective painkiller for menstrual cramps, indigestion. It has anti-inflammatory properties too.
- It is packed full of antioxidants like vitamin A,C, B12, B13. Antioxidants are very essential for maintaining a healthy immune system and also good for your skin and hair.
** While ginger is very good for your health, it is not a substitution for any medicine.