Easy Tamarind chutney recipe to make spiced, sweet and tangy with tamarind jaggery and a few spices. This chutney is a staple to serve with all kinds of Indian chaat and fried snacks like samosa tikki dahi bhalla bhel puri etc. Tamarind chutney is also known as Imli ki chutney or Saunth.
I am sharing with you here my tried and tested recipe of tamarind chutney which I have been making for years. This tastes finger-licking good. You require minimal ingredients and I am also sharing substitutions and shortcuts to make it super quick.
This chutney is also known as saunth because the dry ginger powder is one of the main flavours added to it. In Hindi, dry powder is known as saunth that is why this tamarind sauce is also known as chutney saunth.
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Why We Love this chutney/sauce
- Easy to make.
- For the taste and balance of sweet, spicy and sour.
- So many uses, you can use it in chaats as well as a dipping sauce for snacks.
Tamarind chutney Ingredients
This sauce is made of the below-mentioned ingredients:
Tamarind: The main ingredient for this chutney. Tamarind is pods that contain slightly sweet and sour pulp. You can use regular tamarind or seedless tamarind. If you do not have the time it is okay to use the shortcut and use tamarind paste or tamarind concentrate.
Jaggery or sugar: To balance the tartness of tamarind and sweeten the recipe, jaggery or sugar is used. You can add jaggery(gud) or jaggery powder(shakkar). Both taste good. I use the one that is available at home. Jaggery is Indian unrefined sugar made from sugarcane juice or palm tree sap. If you can’t find both you may use sugar only. It tastes slightly different but still very good.
Spices: Cumin powder, black salt, ginger powder and red chilli powder. I have kept the spices to the minimum but these add an earthiness and are mildly hot.
How to Make Tamarind chutney - Steps
First, soak the tamarind in 2 cups of hot water for 20-25 minutes.
After that, using your hands rub the soaked tamarind in water and squeeze the tamarind pulp.
Strain the pulp with a mesh strainer and keep this aside.
If you are using tamarind paste skip all of the above steps and start from the below mentioned step.
In a pan add tamarind paste along with ½ cup water.
Now add jaggery powder, dry ginger powder, rock salt, cumin powder and mix everything well.
Allow it to simmer for a few minutes till the sauce starts to thicken.
Switch off the heat this will thicken further when it is cooled.
When cooled you can store it in a clean glass container in a refrigerator, and use it as required.
Recipe Notes and Expert Tips
- Consistency: The consistency of the chutney is thick but of pourable consistency. If you want a more thick chutney you can reduce the amount of water or cook it a little more to reduce it.
- Jaggery Substitute: If you can not find jaggery you can use simple table sugar or brown sugar.
- Tamarind Substitute: You can find Dried tamarind in India or Indian stores if you live outside India. But if you can’t find dried tamarind then use either tamarind paste or concentrate. But taste the paste before as most of the time it contains salt so you need to adjust the quantity of added salt while cooking the sauce.
- Red chilli powder can be substituted for cayenne pepper.
Serving Suggestions
This chutney is a staple and is mostly served with Indian appetizers and chaat. Tamarind chutney is served as a topping or as a dipping sauce.
Toppings: You can use this sauce as a topping for chaat snacks like dahi bhalla, sev puri, aloo tikki, samosa, bhel puri , Vada pav, Batata Vada or any other chaat snack.
Dipping Sauce: As a dipping sauce you can serve this imli chutney with pakora, samosa, cutlets and many other fried snacks.
Storage
Once cooled you can store the tamarind sauce in a clean glass container in a refrigerator, and use it as required. It stays good for 4-5 months inside the refrigerator. Just make sure to use a clean and dry spoon for taking out the chutney or pour it out.
You can double the quantity and make a big batch as it freezes well and you can freeze it.
More Indian Chutney Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Tamarind Chutney or Imli Chutney
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup tamarind – tightly packed imli
- 2 cups water or add as required
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger powder saunth powder
- ½ teaspoon red chilli powder
- 3 tablespoons jaggery powder
- rock salt sendha namak
Instructions
How to Make Tamarind chutney
- First, soak the tamarind in 2 cups of hot water for 20-25 minutes.
- After that, using your hands rub the soaked tamarind in water and squeeze the tamarind pulp.
- Strain the pulp with a mesh strainer and keep this aside.
- If you are using tamarind paste skip all of the above steps and start from the below mentioned step.
- In a pan add tamarind paste along with ½ cup water.
- Now add jaggery powder, dry ginger powder, black salt, cumin powder and mix everything well.
- Allow it to simmer for a few minutes till the sauce starts to thicken.
- Switch off the heat this will thicken further when it is cooled.
- When cooled you can store it in a clean glass container in a refrigerator, and use it as required.
Video
Notes
Recipe Notes and Expert Tips
Consistency: The consistency of the chutney is thick but of pourable consistency. If you want a more thick chutney you can reduce the amount of water or cook it a little more to reduce it.Jaggery Substitute: If you can not find jaggery you can use simple table sugar or brown sugar.
Tamarind Substitute: You can find Dried tamarind in India or Indian store if you live outside India. But if you can’t find dried tamarind then use either tamarind paste or concentrate. But taste the paste before as most of the time it contains salt so you need to adjust the quantity of added salt while cooking the sauce.
Red chilli powder can be substituted for cayenne pepper.
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