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 (½ US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz)
Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning
Yield: 7 x quarter-litre (½ US pint) jars
Headspace: 1 cm (¼ inch)
Processing time: 10 minutes
Banana and Date Chutney
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 / ¼ inch pieces.)
- 1 teaspoon curry paste
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 750 ml cider vinegar (5% acidity or higher. 3 cups / 24 oz )
- 125 ml water (½ cup)
- 100 g raisins (seeded. ½ 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 ¼ lbs )
- 400 g sugar (2 cups / 16 oz)
Instructions
- 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.
- Add everything from the apple down to the water.
- Bring to a boil, simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Add the raisins, dates, chopped banana and sugar OR liquid stevia.
- 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.
- Spoon into heated quarter-litre (½ US pint / 8 oz) jars.
- Leave 1 cm (¼ inch) headspace.
- Debubble, adjust headspace.
- Wipe jar rims.
- Put lids on.
- Process in a water bath or steam canner.
- Process for 10 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
- Best after at least a month of jar time.
Nutrition
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 (½ 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.
Mimi
Is the curry paste absolutely necessary?
Healthy Canning
The curry paste is there as a seasoning. You may omit.
Susan
I’ve now used this recipe three times so it must be working for me! I have left out the water so can cook for a shorter time. I also put the whole lemon and orange (cut up) in the food processor (marmalade style) which gives it a very fresh flavour and is quicker. I used about a tablespoon of mixed pickling spice plus a little chilli instead of the curry paste the second and third time I made it – gave it a mince-meat like flavour but was very good to eat, even before it sat and matured. Thought it was good to add to a Christmas hamper. It’s great to be able to use up bananas, including ones I’ve stashed in the freezer when they were surplus.
Wendy
Hi there, how long will banana and date chutney last for? Keep in fridge? Or on shelf ok? Thanks
Healthy Canning
See this page about home-canned goods shelf life.
Hd
Can I leave out the curry?
Healthy Canning
Yes, the curry may be omitted. It is just a seasoning in this recipe.
Deb
Hello!
Can I substitute ripe plantains for bananas in a banana and date chutney recipe (as posted by http://www.healthycanning.com) and still safely can it using the water bath ?
Thank you in advance!
Deb
Healthy Canning
From studies we’ve seen, plantain and banana have a similar pH range, and the consistency is very similar, so it seems like an acceptable swap.