Mima, Shameer’s East African grandmother, makes this amazing chutney that is served with every meal she’s made me. If you’re wondering what type of cuisine that’s closest to, it’s Indian food including meat, but no pork. This chutney is traditionally served as a hot sauce or condiment for Indian food, like Americans and their ketchup. I’ve also used it to dip carrots and cucumbers. If you add your favorite oil, it also makes a great salad dressing. You could also mix it into your favorite recipes for some added spiciness. Mima mixes it into almost all of her Indian dishes.
Mima doesn’t have a Vitamix, so she grates her garlic and ginger ahead of time and stores it in vinegar to have on hand for making this chutney quickly. My Vitamix purees the garlic and ginger whole, so I don’t have to worry about that step. She also used store bought lemon juice, and washes out her blender with the lemon juice to get the last of the chutney from the blender. Personally, I don’t bother, as fresh lemon juice is a pain to make, and I don’t want to make extra for this step. You can also vary the spiciness by keeping more seeds in the serrano or adding in a different pepper. Be careful not to touch your eyes!
- 5-6 medium sized cloves of garlic
- 1 inch of ginger peeled
- ½ cup of fresh lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
- 1 serrano pepper
- 1 tsp of sea salt
- 1 tsp of black pepper
- 2 bunches of cilantro (you can include stalks)
- Squeeze fresh lemons.
- Peel garlic and ginger.
- Cut serrano pepper in half and scoop out most of seeds. The few seeds left will be plenty of heat.
- Blend ingredients in Vitamix. If you don't have a Vitamix grate garlic and ginger ahead of time (about 1 tbsp each) and then add to regular blender with more lemon juice as needed to blend ingredients.
This post is on Healing with Foods Friday