Making Indian tamarind sauce at home is the cheapest and healthiest way. It is super simple and takes less than 20 minutes (minus soaking time for tamarind)! Use it as a dip for bhajis, samosas, pakoras, drizzle over chaats, poppadoms and salads.
Indian chaats and appetizers are quite tempting to resist and one of the main accompaniments is this sweet tamarind chutney also known as tamarind sauce. Little pots of this tamarind chutney along with mint cilantro chutney are often served across all Indian restaurants with poppadums and samosas.
Nowadays, bottles of tamarind sauce are commonly appearing on the shelves of all major supermarkets across the UK and other global markets.
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What is Tamarind Sauce?
Indian tamarind sauce is also known as tamarind chutney is a condiment made of tamarind, (often dates are added) and few simple spices. Making tamarind sauce at home is incredibly easy.
It is also called Imli ki chutney
Imli = tamarind in hindi
It is served as a dip with samosas, bhajis and drizzled over all Indian chaats(famous /ndian street food)
Why make tamarind chutney at home?
Supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury’s. Marks and Spencers sell Tamarind Sauce or Maggi Tamarina Sauce. But these may be ok for a quick fix but far from the real restaurant-style or Indian street style.
Also, store-bought Tamarind Sauce has a different smell probably down to the preservatives added to keep it fresh for long. They taste too tart for me, personally.
Making fresh tamarind sauce at home is incredibly easy and much healthier.
You can make it in bulk and store it in the fridge for a month and freeze it for up to 6 months.
Budget-friendly – making tamarind chutney at home is very cheaper and one small bottle stored in the fridge goes a long way.
Ingredients
- Tamarind – Tamarind is easily available in most Super stores and Indian grocery stores. Look for seedless tamarind if you are new to this.
- Pitted Dates – are completely optional and added to get swete tamarind chutney
- Jaggery – available in all super markets and indian stores. Sugar can be used instead but the taste will be entirely different and will not taste authentic.
- Spice powders – my recipe uses Ground Cumin, Red Chilli Powder, Chaat Masala, and Ground Ginger.Ground Fennel is also added in few recipes.
- Salt – try to get black salt(also know as kala namak)or kosher salt if you can.
- Water – to soak the tamarind and thn the pulp. using hot water will quicken the process.
See the recipe card for quantities.
Step by Step process for Tamarind Chutney
- Soak – Add Tamarind to a bowl and cover with enough hot water from the kettle. Allow the tamarind to soak for about 30 minutes.
- Process -Once the tamarind is cool to handle, squeeze the pulp by hand to extract juice. If you think you cannot handle with hand, you may use a blender. make sure there are no seeds before blending.You may need to add about ½ – ¾ cup of water for blending.
- Sieve Pass – Seive the squuezed juice to discard any pips and to get a clear juice, Add a little more water if needed to push the pulp through.
- Spice Powders – Now add the spice powders, salt to the tamarind pulp, and stir to combine.
- Cook – Place the pan on the heat, bring the sauce mixture to a rolling boil over medium-high heat and for 5 minutes,allow it to simmer for another 6-7 minutes. Continue to cook further if you like it thicker. But be aware that the sauce thickens once cooled, so you may want to keep it little runny.
- Store – Once the sauce has cooled down, transfer to a sterilized glass jar or squirty bottle to serve. Store the remaining sauce in freezer-safe containers and freeze until needed.
Serving Suggestions
Imli ki chutney can be served as a dip to samosas, bhajis, pakoras, paneer cutlets and many appetizers. It can be also drizzled over Indian chaats, chickpea salads etc, pani poori etc.
Recipe Variations
Making tamarind dipping sauce at home means, endless opportunities for customised flavours.
- For making Sweet Tamarind Chutney – Use 1 part of Tamarind, 1 part of Pitted Dates, and 1 Part of Jaggery.
- You can use concentrated tamarind paste for making instant chutney.
- It will cut down the cooking time by half. Dissolve the tamarind concentrate in water and proceed with the recipe as usual but cook for less time.
Storage
Store the tamarind sauce in a dry and sterilized glass container for up to 1 month in the fridge and up to 6 months in the freezer. Scoop out required quantities when needed.
Recipe Tips and FAQ
Use seedless tamarind to avoid difficult handling, if using tamarind for the first time.
If you add excess water, cook for some more time until the sauce thickens.
Adding prunes instead of dates helps reducing calories AND SUGAR if you are trying to lose weight.
It is slightly sour and sweet and tangy.
Yes, they both are the same. It is called chutney in the Indian subcontinent and tamarind sauce is a name used by global supermarkets. also, tamarind paste is the concentrated version of tamarind and not chutney.
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Indian Tamarind Sauce | Tamarind Chutney
Ingredients
Instructions
Preparing Tamarind Pulp
- Soak – Add tamarind to a bowl and cover with enough hot water from the kettle. Allow the tamarind to soak for about 30 minutes
- Process -Once the tamarind is cool to handle, squeeze the pulp by hand to extract juice. If you think you cannot handle with hand, you may use a blender. make sure there are no seeds before blending.You may need to add about ½ – ¾ cup of water for blending or extracting juice.
- Sieve Pass – Seive the squezed juice to discard any pips . Add a little more water if needed to push the pulp through.
- Spice Powders – Add the spice powders, salt to the tamarind pulp, and stir to combine.
Cooking Sauce
- Cook – Place the pan on heat, bring the sauce mixture to a rolling boil over medium-high heat for 5 minutes and allow it to simmer for another 7 minutes. Continue to cook further if you like it thicker.
- Store – Once the sauce has cooled down, transfer to a sterilized glass jar or squirty bottle to serve. Store the remaining sauce in freezer-safe containers and freeze until needed.
Serving Suggestions
- Dipping Sauce: Serve tamarind chutney as a side condiment dip with Indian snacks like pakoda, samosa, kachori, aloo tikki ,paneer cutlet. potato wedges or french fries also can be dippedTopping or mixing sauce: You can even use it as a topping sauce for chaat snacks like dahi vada, sev puri, pani puri, dahi puri, katori chaat, bhel puri.
Notes
- Use seedless tamarind to avoid difficult handling, if using tamarind for the first time.
- If you add excess water, cook for some more time until the sauce thickens.
- Adding prunes instead of dates helps reducing calories if you are trying to lose weight.
- Store the tamarind sauce in a dry and sterilized glass container for up to 1 month in the fridge and up to 6 months in the freezer. Scoop out required quantities when needed.
Nutrition
Hello there, I’m Siri, love food shopping more than perfumes or dresses. At one point I lost control of myself and ate my way until I was near obese. Now, am here to write about my experiences in maintaining a healthy, balanced body and mind. Remember, the best lessons are always from failed people.
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