Coriander Chutney: A delicious pantry staple

This herby, salty, sour and spicy coriander chutney (commonly known as green chutney) goes extremely well with everything from sandwiches and toasties to chaats, wraps and as a topping for salads and bowls

Have ever been to Mumbai, India and immersed yourself in all the food that city has to offer? If yes, I am sure that the sandwich coriander chutney would have unforgettable. This chutney is a staple of the myriad snacks you can sample from Western India.

Like most Indian recipes, this coriander chutney has several regional variations. Further, each home has their own secret recipe. However, the version I love is the one ubiquitous in the food joints of Mumbai.

My earliest memory of this chutney was from a sandwich I ate before boarding a train. I was 8 and we lived in a small industrial town a few hours away from Mumbai. One evening after a trip to the city, my dad suggested we grab a sandwich just before boarding our train back.

I was skeptical of the vendors selling at the Dadar station. Also, I wondered how good a plain sandwich made on generic white bread could be. However, my dad who frequented Mumbai for business meetings, assured me that this green chutney sandwich would be worth. Wrapped in a newspaper and sold for just 5 Rupees in the early 2000s, this sandwich blew my mind. There was something about the green coriander chutney that was etched in my mind.

My mom and I tried to perfect it over the years. And, I am quite confident now that my version is pretty close to the one my dad and I enjoyed that day in Mumbai. However, my recipe uses a lower amount of heat from the green chillies but feel free to increase it if you desire!

What’s special about this coriander chutney?

This coriander chutney is a taste bomb referred to as ‘chatpata‘. While this is a common term in some parts of India, it is a term with no translation to any other popular language. Therefore, I am going to use a phrase I heard from a successful Indian chef; chatpata is the Indian umami.

If you make this coriander chutney, that is all you need for creating your own chatpata in your dishes. A hint of black salt, chaat masala and this coriander chutney will bring that Indian flavour bomb right to your kitchen.

If I could have one dip or sauce that I could use with cheese or crackers or sandwiches and toasties, it would definitely be this!

Dietary Requirements

This chutney is naturally vegan and gluten-free, making it suitable for several dietary restrictions.

To make this nutfree, you can substitute the peanuts/peanut butter in the recipe with equal parts of sunflower butter and tahini. I have personally tried this substitution (admittedly because I had a large bunch of coriander but no peanuts at home!)

What you need

(makes one bowl, ~800 ml chutney)

🔸 150 g coriander (you can use the stems)
🔸 5 tsp peanut butter or 2 tbsp roasted peanuts (or sunflower butter and tahini in equal parts i.e. 2.5 tsp each for a nut-free substitute)
🔸 4 green chilies or 5 tsp green chili sauce (adjust for heat preference)
🔸 7 cloves garlic (I like roasting my garlic lightly before using it)

Spices
🔸 1 inch ginger
🔸 Salt, to taste
🔸 1 tsp black salt (or substitute with a sprinkle of asofidieta).
🔸 1 tsp cumin powder
🔸 ½ tsp sugar
🔸 200 ml water or 5 ice cubes (adjust consistency as needed)
🔸 Juice from ½ a lemon

I love the fact that you can find most of these ingredients in a standard British supermarket!

Coriander Chutney Recipe

1️⃣ Saute the garlic cloves
Firstly, peel the garlic cloves and saute it lightly in olive oil. This would ensure that the garlic is less pungent and would prevent it from overprovering the chutney. Alternatively, use pre-chooped garlic from a jar.

2️⃣ Blend everything
Next, add the coriander, peanut butter (or nut-free substitute), salt, cumin powder, sugar, green chilies, garlic and ice cubes. Blend into a smooth paste.

I love the smoothie jar in my Ninja Nutri Blender 3-in-1 for blending this chutney.

3️⃣ Garnish and store or serve
Squeeze lemon juice and garnish with black salt (optional).

Use as a serving side, as a sauce on a sandwich or wrap, as a dip or store for use in the future. To serve right now, adjust the water consistency according to your preferences. Add a sprinkle of chaat masala to enhance the chatpata taste. You can also store this and adjust water everytime to suit your consistency based on the dish you are serving it with.

If you love this chutney but don’t know the first thing that you can use it in, try this Samosa Masala toastie. You can also use this as a layer of sauce for your cheese toastie or as a side sauce for the store-brought samosa. Add a spoon to an Indian-inspired salad/rice bowl or use it with yogurt on a naan wrap. Make Indian-inspired tacos or use it as the chutney for your homemade or supermarket onion bhajis.

Add a spoon or two to this sukha bhel or serve it as a side with naan and curry for a complete Indian meal.

The possibilities are endless! Enjoy and let me know what you used it for in the comments below!