Instant Tamarind Chatni without Tamarind/Sweet Indian Chutney made of Apple Butter

Instant Tamarind/Imli Chatni made from Apple Butter in minutes. This no cook recipe provides a good serving of fruit and is as simple as mixing a few ingredients together. I had this instant chatni more than  25 years back, when my then neighbor Dolly,in Orlando, invited us for dinner in the afternoon and had made this elaborate dinner of Ragda patties and chats in a couple of hours. I was impressed, still new from India, the only way I knew how to make chatni was the old fashioned way, soak the tamarind and boil the pulp with sugar and spices.

When I told her that I would probably have just finished making the Meethi chatni, in that much time, she shared her secret! Of course, I had never heard of Apple Butter till then!

Apple Butter is used as a base for this chatni, we make it sour with the lemon juice and sweeten it with sugar to make instant chatni!

So what exactly is Apple Butter? According to Wikipedia”Apple butter is a highly concentrated form of apple sauce produced by long, slow cooking of apples with cider or water to a point where the sugar in the apples caramelizes, turning the apple butter a deep brown. The concentration of sugar gives apple butter a much longer shelf life as a preserve than apple sauce.” you can read more about it here. So a chatni, that’s actually made out of fruit and is good for you!

So not only is it instant, you have just consumed a serving of fruit! Additionally, because it is cooked for so long with vinegar, it has a pretty long shelf life. Since we are using bottled lemon juice, there is nothing in it that will spoil. In the refrigerator it easily lasts for 4-5 months.

Moving on to the recipe, here is the written recipe followed by the step by step pictorial one-

Instant Tamarind Chatni without Tamarind/Sweet Indian Chatni made of Apple Butter

Aanchal Gupta

Instant Tamarind/Imli Chatni made from Apple Butter in minutes. This no cook recipe provides a good serving of fruit and is as simple as mixing a few ingredients together.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 5 minutes mins

Course chutney, dips, Side Dish, Sides/ accompaniments, Sides/ accompaniments/ salsa / appetizer, street food

Cuisine Indian

Servings 5 cups chutney

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 28 oz jar Apple butter
• 3/4-1 cup sugar
• 3/4-1 cup lemon juice
• 2-3 tbsp bhoona jeera/Roasted Cumin
• 2 tbsp Black salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp lal mirch/Red Chili Powder use less for a less spicy chutni
• 1 tsp plain salt
• 1/4 cup water optional, I used a little less, as I like it thick.

Instructions

 

• Mix Apple Butter, Sugar, Lemon Juice and water and stir well.
• Mix in all the spices and stir till sugar dissolves.
• Refrigerate the chatni and enjoy for months!

Notes

You can use plain or Spiced Apple Butter. You cannot use Apple sauce.
Bhoona jeera means Roasted Cumin. On a pan, roast cumin till it turns a few shades dark and a nice aroma comes from it. Let it cool completely. Grind in a coffee grinder. If you leave it on the hot pan, it will continue to cook and darken, so remove it on to a bowl after roasting it. I used closer to 1 cup sugar and lemon juice. Start with less and mix well. Give a taste test and if needed add more. Bhoona jeera and kala namak are the stars of this recipe ,which give it the authentic taste. 

 

Keyword Apple Butter for Indian Chutney, Dates chutney from Apple Butter, Gol gappa water hack, Indian street food hack, instant tamarind chutney from Apple Butter, Pani puri hack, Sweet imli chutney from Apple Butter, tamarind chutney hack

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Here is the step by step pictorial recipe-

Ingredients

Mix Apple Butter and sugar

Add Lemon Juice

Add all the spices and water as needed

Mix everything and Enjoy!

UPDATE- For all my readers in India and places where Apple Butter is not available, sharing a link on how to make Apple Butter at home, click here for directions.