Banana and Hot Pepper Chutney

This delicious chutney is one of the few, tested, safe uses of banana in home canning.

This recipe makes a lot, so you may wish to cut it in half.

The recipe

If you wish to adjust batch size, do the math first on paper.

Jar size choices: Quarter-litre (1/2 US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz) OR half-litre (1 US pint / 500 ml/ 16 oz)

Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning

Yield: 6 x half-litre (US pint) jars

Headspace: 1 cm (1/4 inch)

Processing time: 10 minutes either size jar

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Banana and hot pepper chutney

6 x half-litre (1 US pint) jars

Course Chutney

Cuisine American

Prep Time 50 minutes

Cook Time 2 hours

Total Time 2 hours 50 minutes

Yield 6 x half-litre (1 US pint) jars

Calories 43 kcal

Ingredients

• 500 g onion (1 pound)
• 125 g hot peppers (such as serrano, jalapeno, etc. Measured after seeding, chopping. 1/4 pound)
• 4 tablespoons ginger (fresh. measured after peeling and chopping / 1/4 cup / 30 g)
• 175 g raisins (seeded. 1 cup)
• 1.25 kg banana (2 3/4 lbs. Measured after prep.)
• 500 ml cider vinegar (5% acidity or higher. 2 cups / 16 oz)
• 450 g brown sugar (light. 2 cups firmly packed / 16 oz)
• 2 teaspoons pickling salt
• 4 teaspoons allspice (ground)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

1. Peel and coarsely chop the onion; put into a large bowl.
2. Prep the peppers and ginger, add to the bowl of onion.
3. Add the raisins to the bowl.
4. Mix the bowl's contents up roughly and put through a food processor to mince somewhat finely (but don't purée -- a chutney should be somewhat chunky.) Put back in the bowl, set aside.
5. Peel and coarsely chop the bananas; add to the large bowl for a minute.
6. In a large pot, mix all the remaining ingredients together from the vinegar down to the allspice, then add the bowl mixture.
7. Put on stove. Stir, bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer and simmer until thickened enough to form somewhat of a mound on the spoon, instead of all running off -- about 45 to 60 minutes. Stir frequently to avoid burning at bottom.
8. Ladle into quarter-litre (1/2 US pint) OR half-litre (1 US pint) jars.
9. Leave 1 cm (1/4 inch) headspace.
10. Debubble, adjust headspace.
11. Wipe jar rims.
12. Put lids on.
13. Process in a water bath or steam canner.
14. Process either size jar for 10 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
15. Best after at least a few weeks 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

• 1.25 kg (2 3/4 lbs) of peeled banana is about 1.5 kg / 3 1/2 lbs before peeling. That’s about 10 largish bananas (of the common Cavendish variety). It’s okay if you are a bit under on what you end up with.
• How many seeds you leave in the pepper is up to you. Seeds add heat, but can also get stuck in the teeth. If you want to take it hotter, you could add a few pinches of chile flakes, or a few dashes of a hot sauce.
• Instead of the freshly-chopped ginger, you can use 4 tablespoons of fresh ginger from a tube.
• 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.
• Only whiz the stuff in the food processor until just finely chopped, and don’t worry about any raisins staying whole, they will simmer down anyway.
• If you do get any scorching at the bottom, just don’t stir it up into the mixture.
• This is an ideal mixture to use a heat diffuser with while cooking it in the pot.

Recipe Source

Ziedrich, Linda. The Joy of Pickling. Boston: Harvard Common Press. 2016. Page 375.

Chopped ginger

The simmering mixture: smells wonderful.

Nutrition information

Regular version

Per 2 tablespoons

• 43 calories, 53 mg sodium

Sugar and salt-free version

Per 2 tablespoons

• 25 calories, 2 mg sodium
• Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 1 tablespoon: 0 points; 2 to 4 tablespoons: 1 point; 5 to 7 tablespoons: 2 points

pH of 3.69, well below safety cut off of 4.6

* 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.