Date Chutney is a very popular chutney with most Indian snack items. Dates mainly come from the Middle East and are of many sizes. The most popular ones are the Large dates. They are very tender and used as delicacy. Date Chutney can be used for Bhel Puri, Pani Puri, Chaat Papdi and many other snacks.Dates have great Nutritional Values and much better then sugar. The date Chutney can be used in Curry and other dishes instead of sugar. Date trees are like Palm trees and dates are in bunches on the top part of the tree. The dates start out green and they ripe to yellow. once they are picked and dried in special containers, the turn in to Chocolate – Brown color. Yellow dates are very popular in India and Middle East and now you can see in some specialty market s. You can pick medium to small size dates. These dry dates are sold in Packets as Pitted and / or mashed -Baking dates. Baking dates reduces the prep time as you do not have to do much before making the Chutney. If Baking Dates are not available, you can use Pitted dates..The recipe makes about 4 to 6 cups using 16 Oz of Pitted or 12 Oz of Baking dates. Once the chutney is done, it is easy to freeze. I freeze them in small containers. Remove the container from freezer and it can be defrosted in Microwave or just leave it at room Temp.
Date Chutney
Ingredients
Instructions
Put water in a large pot and add dates. and bring to boil- let it boil for about three minutes.
Turn of heat and Cover-let it cool.
When cool or slightly warm, put the mixture in the Food Processor- make sure there are NO pits in the mixture
Bllend until iit becomes a smooth paste. You may not be able to blend all of it at one time- it takes about three batches.
Once blended, put the paste in a big pan or a bowl . After all batches are blended in to smooth paste, add the spices and mix with a spoon. Your Chutney is ready to put in to different containers.
