Passion Fruit Basil Chutney

Name: Passion Fruit Basil Chutney
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 1
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 5 passion fruits; 1/2 small onion; 2 cloves garlic; 1 small habanero; 1 lime; 7 leaves basil; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 teaspoon brown sugar; Salt and pepper

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Prep 15 min
Total 15 min
Servings 1

A sweet, tropical, fruity, spicy sauce that's perfect on grilled chicken, tofu, and/or rice. MORE+ LESS-

By The Food in My Beard

Updated October 30, 2014

Ingredients

passion fruits

1/2

small onion

cloves garlic

small habanero

lime

leaves basil

tablespoon olive oil

teaspoon brown sugar

Salt and pepper

Steps

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1

Peel and grate the onion and garlic.
2

Remove seeds and stem of habanero and dice well. You can use only half or a quarter of this if you are sensitive to the heat.
3

Halve the passion fruits. Scoop the insides into a mesh strainer over a bowl. Press the seeds into the mesh to collect as much juice as possible in the bowl. When only the seeds are left, discard them and keep the juice.
4

Mince the basil and put into the passion fruit juice. Add the brown sugar and lime juice and whisk.
5

In the oil, saute the onion, garlic, and habanero for about 6-7 minutes until very fragrant and softened. They will have darkened in color slightly but not yet browned.
6

Turn the heat to low and pour in the passion fruit mixture. Stir well for about 1 - 2 minutes and remove from heat.
7

Mixture should slightly thicken during the cooking and cooling process.
8

Serve over grilled chicken, rice, tofu, or even just with some flat bread or chips.

Nutrition Information

No nutrition information available for this recipe

More About This Recipe

When I made ice cream for a living I became very familiar with the flavor of passion fruit, without ever knowing what one looked like!

While we were a mostly all natural company and made a large percentage of our flavorings in-house from real ingredients, it wasn't monetarily possible to use real passion fruit. So it was one of the few syrups we had in the back room. We would have just cut the flavor all together, but it was so insanely popular we had to keep it on the menu.

As you might imagine, this gave passion fruit a bad reputation in my head, so I was sort of dreading making this recipe. Fortunately for all of us, real passion fruit is much better than that sickly sweet neon green syrup I remember. It actually is citrusy, sour, and brightly flavored. Perfect for this sweet, sour, and spicy sauce!

Next time you throw a BBQ, make a batch of this Passion Fruit and Basil Chutney as a nice complement to anything you can throw on the grill.

Grate your garlic and onion so there are no large chunks in the chutney.

Passion fruit is kinda weird looking. I wonder who the first person to eat it was? I’m not sure why a human might think this was edible.

Press all the yummy juice through the strainer and discard the seeds.

A quick whisk to melt in the sugar.

Sauté the veggies for about 5-7 minutes just to soften them up. Pour in the passion fruit before they start to brown. Cook for only about a minute on low. No boiling!

The sauce thickens up to the perfect consistency.

It tasted fantastic on this grilled chicken and rice--just enough heat, with a nice balance of sweet, salty, and sour.

Dan Whalen’s passion is flavor. He has been blogging for over four years at The Food in my Beard; check Dan's Tablespoon profile often to try his recipes with creative international spins!