My Easy Plum Chutney is a delicious recipe to make at the end of summer when plums are at their best! This sweet, tangy, and spicy chutney is filled with plums, onions, jalapeño peppers, and spices. Use this chutney on toast, on roasted meats, or in a grilled cheese sandwich with aged cheddar cheese for a delicious treat!
It’s Plum Season
Plums often are at their best in late August and early September. This is when they are sweet, juicy, and as fresh as can be. Whether you enjoy black plums, yellow plums, red plums, Italian prune plums, or any other variety, stock up now! You can enjoy them fresh or preserve them for later use during the year.
What is Chutney?
If you never had chutney before, you are missing out! This jam-like spread is sweet from the addition of various fruits and sugar, and savoury from the addition of onion. Spices like cinnamon, star anise, clove or mustard seed are often added to enhance the flavour of the chutney and add warmth. Vinegar is also a key ingredient to give the chutney a more tangy and savoury note.
My Easy Plum Chutney recipe uses black plums, sugar, onion, cinnamon, clove, jalapeño pepper (for a bit of spice) and apple cider vinegar. And when I say this recipe is easy, I mean it’s super easy and can even be made in one pot! Simply chop up all the plums and vegetables, add to a pot, and simmer until it reaches a jam-like consistency.
You can enjoy it fresh as is, or you can even jar/can the plum chutney so you can enjoy it well into the winter months.
Get the Recipe!
Easy Plum Chutney
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup yellow onion finely chopped
- 1 jalapeño pepper finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger finely chopped
- 8 black plums pitted, chopped into 2-cm size cubes (about 450g/1 pound)
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 cup brown sugar lightly packed
- 1 cinnamon stick whole
- 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Heat a medium-sized pot over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the vegetable oil, followed by the onion, jalapeño pepper, and ginger. Reduce the heat to medium and saute for 5 minutes until the vegetables are softened but not browned.
- Add the chopped plums, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon stick and ground clove to the pot. Mix to combine and cook over medium heat for 20-25 minutes or until a jam-like consistency is reached and the chutney is thick. Stir often to prevent burning.
- Remove the chutney from the heat and stir in the apple cider vinegar. Remove and discard the cinnamon stick. Set aside to cool before jarring.
Notes
- This Easy Plum Chutney will stay good in the fridge for 1 week.
- If you want to jar/can this chutney for late use, follow this guide: https://canningcrafts.com/blogs/news/plum-chutney-canning-recipe
Don’t know where to start?
No problem! Explore my curated seasonal recipes, gardening tips, and entertaining ideas that inspire you to enjoy the best of the season, every day.
Get seasonal living tips once a month.
Receive monthly updates featuring seasonal recipes, gardening tips, entertaining ideas and more!
6 thoughts on “Easy Plum Chutney”
Ooooh, this sounds delish. Can’t wait to try with some grilled cheese sammiches!
Looks like the link to the canning instructions is broken. Can you share how that process works?
Hi there! Sorry that the link broke. Essentially, you would follow the typical canning steps where you would ladle hot chutney into sterilized jars leaving a ½” of headspace and remove any air bubbles. Then clean the rim of the jar using a warm wash cloth dipped in vinegar, then add the sterilized lids and rings and tighten. The rings don’t have to be so tight that you can’t unscrew the jar, just a good tightness to prevent water from getting in the jars while boiling– typically called “finger tight”.
Then place jars in water bather (with a rack at the bottom) and cover with 1” of water and bring to a boil. Set a timer to process half-pints for 10 minutes, and full pints for 15 minutes. Remove from the hot water bath and let cool. As they are cooling, you should hear the lids “click” that’s how you know it has a tight seal and can be stored safely! You can then remove the rings and store in a pantry.
Looks like a good recipe but hard to scale up. Consider using pounds for amount of fruit.
Thanks Kate! Great suggestion. 8 small black plums weigh around 450g, so about 1 pound. I hope that helps!
Really easy and delicious! A tasty addition to grilled cheese, baked potato, grilled tofu.