BBQ Green Tomato Chutney

In my produce box this week, I received a few green tomatoes. There's tons you can do with green tomatoes. There's green tomato pie, fritters, pickles, relish, baked and of course, fried green tomatoes. I've even made green tomato biscotto, green tomato jam-filled cookies and green tomato crumble last year. One of my favorite is green tomato chutney.

You want to pick mature green tomatoes, not rock hard dark green ones. The mature ones are paler and just on the verge of ripening. I usually just pick some from my grow-op of tomato plants.
The front porch lined with tomato plants.








The back porch filled with tomato plants. What can I say? I love tomatoes!







Mature green tomatoes. Just about to start ripening.

I decided to make a BBQ green tomato chutney. Yep. You heard me. BBQ.

I know it sounds a bit loopy but there is method to my madness.
Firstly, it keeps my time in a stuffy, hot kitchen to a minimum. Secondly, the ingredients will take on a deeper and intense flavor thanks to the grilling. Thirdly, I was firing up the BBQ anyways to make a big batch of locally raised and made sausages. Last, but not least, a BBQ green tomato chutney would go perfectly with BBQ sausages.

I made enough to last a few weeks in the fridge. You could can this chutney but that would mean having to get your kitchen all hot and sweaty with the canning process.

The basic chutney components are veggies and/or fruit, vinegar, spices, sweetener. For the BBQ green tomato chutney, I've grilled all the vegetables before adding it to the rest of the ingredients. You could make a regular chutney and just throw all the raw veggies in with the chutney mixture and cook it down until the veggies are soften.

All the veggies, fruit, honey, even apple cider vinegar were all island grown!

I used golden plums that I picked up at the Cedar Farmer's Market a few weeks back. You could use any sort of plum or soft fruit like peaches or figs. Or you could use dried fruit. Just soak them in some hot water before adding to the rest of the chutney.





Here my Fast & Dirty BBQ Green Tomato Chutney recipe:

3-4 medium sized green tomatoes
2 small yellow onions
3 sweet peppers
4-5 golden plums

1 clove of garlic - minced
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 heaping tablespoon curry powder (whatever you have on hand or your own mixture)
A healthy pinch of each: salt, black pepper, chipolte chili powder, ancho chili powder, cayenne pepper (or whatever you happen to have on hand to give it a fiery kick)
1/3 cup honey (or brown or cane sugar)

Mix the curry, salt, pepper and chilli powders together.

Slice the tomatoes into 1cm thick slices.
Quarter the onions. Leave on the top on so that the quartered onions stay intact. Sprinkle both with the spice mixture.
Core peppers and cut them into 3-4 chunks.
Fire up the BBQ to medium high heat and lay the vegetables in a single layer on the grill. You want to char the pepper skins so have those skin side down.
Grill the tomatoes and onions for 2-3 minutes on each side or until starting to soften.
Grill the peppers until the skin is blackened.
Set all the the veggies aside to cool.

While veggies cool, mix all the other ingredients in a medium sized pot.
Bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes.
While the mixture simmers, chop up the tomatoes into 1 cm chunks, chop of the top ends of the onions and chop that into 1 cm chunks.
Remove the blackened skin off the pepper and chop into 1 cm chunks.
Remove the plum pits and chop into quarters.
Dump veggies and plums into the chutney mixture and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Voila!
Have a yummy week everybody!

Jen

Enjoy the summer bounty and take the 100 Mile Diet Challenge!