Green Tomato Chutney Recipe (Pachi Tomato Pachadi)

Make this delightful and delicious Green Tomato Chutney under 20 mins! This tangy and spicy traditional Andhra Green Tomato Chutney is full of flavors and goes well with rice, bread, flatbreads, appetizers and snacks. You can also spread it in sandwiches, wraps and rolls.

What is Green Tomato Chutney?

Green Tomato Chutney is a traditional South Indian Chutney variety made with unripe tomatoes, spices and herbs. Also known as Pachi Tomato Pachadi in Telugu, this is a traditional recipe made in the Telugu speaking homes & is often served in Andhra restaurants with a Andhra meal.

Green tomatoes are unripe tomatoes that are harvested early before they ripen. A lot of times due to the weather conditions they don’t ripen or they are just picked early to prevent wastage due to expected weather conditions.

But traditionally in Andhra Pradesh, unripe tomatoes are picked intentionally to make this Green Tomato Chutney. In this post I share my Mom’s recipe and it is made the most basic way.

We would grow a lot of tomatoes in our backyard. After sharing them with friends & neighbors, we would be left with so many more. So this chutney made way to our dinner table more often.

In the earlier days, this chutney was made in a mortar & pestle for a unique coarse texture. These days most of us use blender/grinder.

This chutney is usually mixed with hot steamed rice, topped with ghee and eaten. Sometimes we also eat it with dosa, idli, curd rice and chapati. But it goes well with just anything!

The basic green tomato chutney just has a handful of ingredients – unripe tomatoes, salt, cumin seeds, green chilies, tamarind and a drizzle of oil. When made in a mortar pestle, just these ingredients will work well and the texture is great.

But when made in a grinder/blender, tomatoes get too mushy and sometimes runny too. So for a similar traditional texture my Mom would add sesame seeds or chana dal and urad dal. You can replace them with peanuts.

More about Green Tomatoes

Here are some points to note while using green tomatoes:

• Green tomatoes should always be cooked well before consumption, especially when serving in larger portions. The presence of 2 toxins known as tomatine and solanine in green tomatoes can cause poisoning and lead to stomach problems if they are not cooked well.
• This kind of tomatoes have a sharp pungent taste which is similar to bitterness. Cooking them tones down the unpleasant taste and brings out more neutral flavors.
• It is hard for some people to digest the green tomatoes. So cooking them with herbs like curry leaves or mint leaves may be a better choice.

More Chutney Recipes
Mango Chutney
Tomato Chutney
Apple Chutney
Cilantro Chutney
Mint Chutney

How to Make Green Tomato Chutney (Stepwise Photos)

Preparation

1. Rinse 250 grams (half lb) green tomatoes under running water. Slice them thin. These tomatoes are usually hard and lack moisture so slicing helps to cook them faster.

2. Here are the ingredients required to make this chutney:

• 2 to 3 slit or chopped green chilies (adjust to taste, or sub with dried red chilies)
• 2 dried red chilies (adjust to taste or sub with green chilies)
• 2 sprigs curry leaves
• ¼ cup coriander leaves (optional, for variation)
• ⅓ teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
• ⅛ teaspoon turmeric (use up to ¼ tsp for color)
• 2 large (or 6 small) garlic cloves
• ½ tablespoon cumin seeds
• ½ tablespoon urad dal (replace with red lentils or peanuts)
• 1 tablespoon chana dal (replace with red lentils, sesame seeds or peanuts)
• ½ to ¾ teaspoon tamarind (optional, soak in 3 to 4 tbsps water & squeeze)

Make the Chutney

3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan. Add chana dal and urad dal or peanuts. Fry on a medium heat until light golden. Add cumin seeds and red chilies, fry for a minute until the chilies turn crisp.

4. Add curry leaves, garlic cloves and green chilies.

5. Fry them until the green chilies blister and the curry leaves turn crisp. If you use peanuts, make sure they are roasted well until aromatic & remove all the roasted ingredients to a plate and add to the grinder later while blending.

6. Add tomatoes, salt and turmeric. Stir fry for 2 to 3 mins and cook covered until they turn soft and completely cooked.

7. While you cook, if the pan dries out, add a splash of water.

8. At this stage taste test the mixture and add a little bit of tamarind if you want. If your tomatoes are already tangy, leave out the tamarind. I added here a tsp of the thick soaked tamarind water/pulp. Be careful at this step as too much tamarind can ruin your chutney.

9. Keep aside some of the chilies from the mixture to adjust the heat later. Add the rest to the grinder/blender along with coriander leaves (optional). We don’t add any water here.

10. Use the pulse mode and grind to a slightly coarse chutney. Taste test and adjust salt, tamarind and chilies to suit your taste. I had kept aside my red chilies. If you blend yours with them, you will get a different color.

Temper the Chutney

This kind of chutney is traditionally not tempered but if you want you may do it.

11. Pour 1 tablespoon ghee or oil & heat it on a low flame. Add a pinch of mustard seeds, half tsp chana dal,1 pinch urad dal and 1 crushed garlic clove. When the lentils turn golden, add 1 small broken dried red chili piece and a few curry leaves. Fry until the leaves turn crisp, turn off and add hing.

Pour the hot tempering over the green tomato chutney.

Pro Tips

• Traditionally no lentils, sesame seeds or peanuts are used in this chutney. However every home has their own favorite ingredient. My Mom always used sesame seeds. I use chana dal and urad dal to balance the flavors and impart a nutty flavor. However you may leave out all these.
• Peanuts add a more nutty flavor and they go well in combination with raw coriander leaves. You will get a more drier and coarse chutney with these ingredients.
• You can substitute dried red chilies and green chilies, one for the other. But Andhra style traditional chutney is made only with green chilies.
• Tamarind is used to make the chutney tangy and it has to be balanced with hot green chilies. You may leave out though but the taste of tamarind and green chili is the key here in a Andhra Style chutney.

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