Feijoa chutney with apples, onions and raisins, and just the right amount of spice. It’s rich and sticky, with a jammy texture and heavenly aroma. Coming to the Autumn tasting platter of your dreams, now!
Feijoa season is reason enough to plan a trip to New Zealand (sorry! I realise how cruel a temptation that is during our current time!).
The soft, fragrant, aromatic, juicy little ovals of deliciousness are beautifully woven into Autumn recipes like this feijoa and walnut cake, fruity ginger-spiced muffins, and oaty feijoa apple crumble.
Today I have a newbie to share, a divine feijoa chutney recipe with apple, onions and raisins, spiced with ginger, garlic, chilli and star anise.
It’s rich, sticky and flavoursome – a thin spread over a piece of rye sourdough with sweet organic grapes and walnut pieces – the Autumn tasting platter of your dreams.
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🍂Why you’ll love this recipe
- Rich, sweet and tangy with just the right amount of spice
- Great way to use up excess fruit
- Keeps well
- Open a jar in winter and reminisce about our crisp Autumn and epic feijoa season
- Low sugar option
🍃Ingredients
- Feijoas – the ruff and tumble, odd shaped, bumped and bruised ones from the grass under your tree will do perfect. Throw the over-ripe ones in the bottom of the fruit bowl in there too
- Apple, red onions or shallots, raisins or sultanas – this trio is a fail-safe for great tasting chutney
- Vinegar – I’ve gone with an organic apple cider, though red wine or malt vinegar will also work. Chutney connoisseurs will tell you an acidity over 6% is ideal
- Sugar – a crucial ingredient alongside vinegar to help preserve the recipe. I’ve used powdered jaggery, which you can find at an Indian or specialty store. Jaggery is concentrated cane juice without the removal of the nutrient-rich molasses. You could also use coconut or brown sugar
- Spices – ginger, garlic, chilli and star anise add heat and aromatics
Make the recipe your own – other spices to play with that accompany the unique fragrant flavour of feijoa are cinnamon, ground cloves, curry powder and black pepper.
👩🍳Step by step
I like to start my feijoa chutney by frying very finely sliced onions or shallots with grated ginger, chilli and garlic, over medium heat in a large saucepan just for a minute or two.
Once softened, add your prepared fruit with the rest of the ingredients.
Crank up the heat until the mixture starts to boil, then reduce it to a simmer.
Give the mixture a good stir every so often to avoid it sticking to the bottom of the pan.
After about an hour, you can take a potato masher and break up the larger pieces of fruit if they haven’t yet broken down.
As soon as the liquid has evaporated off, and a wooden spoon leaves a channel on the bottom of the saucepan, your chutney is ready.
Note the rich brown colour – this is due to the jaggery, if you use white sugar it will look different to mine. Ah, that texture!
Time to spoon into a hot and freshly sterilised glass jar with a rubber seal. Don’t forget to label and date.
You can keep your unopened feijoa chutney in a dark place at room temperature for up to a year, and refrigerate once opened.
🔥How to sterilise glass jars
If you have a dishwasher, simply put them in for a cycle.
Alternatively, place your clean jars inside a large pot and cover with water. Bring it to the boil for a good ten minutes, then use tongs to remove and place on a wooden board.
Immediately fill the hot jars with your chutney, then cover or seal them right away.
Remember to select a jar with a rubber seal, as the vinegar in the chutney will erode metal.
🍴Expert tips
- I have found that in chutney making, a ratio of loosely 3 parts fruit to one part vinegar and half a part sugar is a good base to start with. My recipe isn’t too far off this.
- If you’d like to reduce the sugar content, my advice is to reduce both the vinegar and sugar together, as reducing the sugar without adjusting the vinegar will make for quite an acidic chutney.
- If you go lower with the sugar, just be aware the shelf life won’t be as robust, and it will absolutely need to be refrigerated.
🌳Best place to buy feijoas
If you, my poor friend, are one of the unlucky ones with no feijoa trees in your backyard, and no-one to pilfer from, the best place to get ample fruit to gorge on is Quinta Feijoas in the Matakana Coast.
Quinta are a family business run by a couple who are part of my own extended fam – Helen and Peter Lory.
Their certified organic orchard produces cultivars that ripen throughout the entire season, March through to June. And yes – can confirm they are fat, fragrant and delicious!
You can order a 5kg or 10kg carton and have it couriered to your door within a day or so depending where you live. And, if you want to scoff them out of season, you can also order frozen fruit at any time of the year – game changer!
The team also do their own wicked good range of feijoa chutneys, jams, jelly, and creamy sorbet.
🙋FAQ's
Yes – place them (skin on) in a zip-lock bag or silicon pouch and freeze.
Chutney made with an appropriate ratio of fruit:vinegar:sugar will last in a sealed and sterilised glass jar for up to a year, if unopened. Once opened, refrigerate and consume within a month.
Enjoyed this recipe? Leave a comment below, better yet - share a snap with me on instagram @ascensionkitchen. If you're after personalised health and nutrition advice, contact my clinic, I'd be happy to work with you.
📖Recipe
Heavenly Spiced Feijoa Chutney
Equipment
- Large pot
- Potato masher
- 500ml capacity glass jar with a rubber seal
Ingredients
- 500 g scooped feijoa flesh from about 13 large feijoas, or just over a kilo
- 250 g apples peeled and chopped - about two medium
- 50 g raisins or sultanas
- 150 g onions (red) or shallots finely sliced or diced, about one medium onion or two shallots
- 250 ml Apple Cider Vinegar, or Red Wine/Malt Vinegar
- 200 g powdered jaggery or coconut/brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon coarse/flakey sea salt
- 1 tablespoon ginger root peeled and grated
- 2 garlic cloves peeled and minced
- ½ red chilli de-seeded and sliced fine
- 1 whole star anise
- Zest of one lemon
Instructions
- Fry the onions with garlic, chilli and ginger for a minute or two in a large pot.
- Add remaining ingredients, cover and bring to a boil.
- Remove the lid, and simmer over low heat for up to an hour, stirring occasionally towards the end to avoid the mixture sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- Mash the chutney, and remove from heat once all excess liquid has been cooked off and a wooden spoon leaves a channel at the bottom of the pot.
- Spoon into sterile jar with a rubber seal while warm, then cap. Allow the flavours to develop over a couple of weeks before enjoying. Refrigerate once open.
Notes
- Store this in an airtight sterilised glass jar in the pantry, and refrigerate once opened.
- To make a low sugar version, reduce both the vinegar and sugar together. I have tried a chutney with 185ml vinegar and 50g sugar – perhaps start there and add a little extra sugar to your liking.
- Remember the vinegar and sugar act as preservatives, so this will need to be refrigerated right away, and perhaps stick to the recipe rather than doubling, as it won’t last too long in the fridge.
- Lastly – I haven’t tried making this with the feijoa skin on, if you give that a whirl – comment and let me know how it turns out?
- Nutrition panel is an estimate only, and is based one serving (one teaspoon)
jacquey
I made this chutney today with fruit from the tree.
It smells and tastes divine!
I added 2 small size 🌶 and just a tiny amount of tumeric and used coconut 🥥 sugar.
Recipe worked perfectly and is so yummy
Lauren Glucina • Naturopath, Nutritionist
Oooh love the sound of those additions! Thank you for sharing feedback Jacquey and glad you enjoyed it 🙂