Banana and Date Chutney

What a great use for a glut of bananas other than the old standard “banana bread.”

This chutney is incredibly good with robust curries.

You can make it mild, or hot.

Let flavours meld and develop for at least a month in the jar before sampling.

This recipe is a lab-tested recipe from Canadian Living.

The recipe

Jar size choices: Quarter-litre (1/2 US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz)

Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning

Yield: 7 x quarter-litre (1/2 US pint) jars

Headspace: 1 cm (1/4 inch)

Processing time: 10 minutes

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Banana and Date Chutney

Yield: 7 x quarter-litre (1/2 US pint) jars

Course Chutney

Cuisine American

Prep Time 35 minutes

Cook Time 2 hours 30 minutes

Total Time 3 hours 5 minutes

Yield 7 x quarter-litre (1/2 US pint) jars

Calories 71 kcal

Ingredients

• 1 orange (large)
• 1 lemon (large)
• 400 g apples (3 cups / 14 oz. Measured after having been peeled, cored and chopped into 5 mm / 1/4 inch pieces.)
• 1 teaspoon curry paste
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 750 ml cider vinegar (5% acidity or higher. 3 cups / 24 oz )
• 125 ml water (1/2 cup)
• 100 g raisins (seeded. 1/2 cup / 3 oz)
• 400 g dates (pitted, chopped. 2 cups / 14 oz)
• 600 g banana (peeled, thinly sliced. About 4 to 5 bananas if you are using the standard supermarket Cavendish banana. 3 cups / 1 1/4 lbs )
• 400 g sugar (2 cups / 16 oz)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

1. Wash both the lemon and orange. Zest them, put the zest in a large pot. Add to the pot the juice from both of them.
2. Add everything from the apple down to the water.
3. Bring to a boil, simmer for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the raisins, dates, chopped banana and sugar OR liquid stevia.
5. Simmer uncovered, stirring every 10 minutes so that the bottom doesn't scorch, until the mixture is just thick enough to form a mound on a tablespoon. This could take anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes.
6. Spoon into quarter-litre (1/2 US pint / 8 oz) jars.
7. Leave 1 cm (1/4 inch) headspace.
8. Debubble, adjust headspace.
9. Wipe jar rims.
10. Put lids on.
11. Process in a water bath or steam canner.
12. Process for 10 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
13. Best after at least a month of jar time.

Reference information

How to water bath process.

How to steam can.

When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.

Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.

Recipe notes

• The Canadian Living directions call for quarter-litre (1/2 pint) jars, and don’t give processing times for any larger jars for this recipe.
• It’s okay if you are a tidge shy on the dates if they happen to come in odd-sized packages such as 375 g etc.
• You can double the amount of curry paste, if you want it hotter.
• Instead of curry paste, you can substitute curry powder at a 1 to 1 ratio.
• You may wish to try adding a few pinches of dried chile flakes for some heat.
• Instead of the salt, you can use a non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub. We have found Herbamare Sodium-Free performs well in that regard.
• You can reduce the sugar, or use the same volume amount of granulated Splenda®, or use 2 teaspoons of liquid stevia. For stevia, we’d recommend Better Stevia liquid stevia.
• This is an ideal mixture to use a heat diffuser with while cooking it in the pot.

Many bananas that want using up… must be something else other than banana bread?

Sliced Banana

Chopped apple

Curry paste

Recipe source

Banana Fruit Chutney. In: Canadian Living Test Kitchen. The Complete Preserving Book. Montreal, Canada: Transcontinental Books. 2012. Page 224.

All Canadian Living home canning recipes are lab-tested for quality and safety.

pH of 3.6. Well and truly far below the safety cut-off of 4.6

Nutrition information

Regular version

Per 2 tablespoons

• 71 calories, 21 mg sodium

Sugar and salt-free version

Per 2 tablespoons

• 44 calories,  1 mg sodium
• Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: Per 2 tablespoons, 1 point

* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com

* PointsPlus™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.

* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.

* Herbamare ® is a registered trademark of the A. Vogel Corporation.

* Pickle Crisp ® is a registered trademark of the Jarden Corporation.