Caramelized Onion n' Fruit Chutney

I guess you could call this bacon jam without the bacon or  meatless bacon jam but someone called it chutney today and I like that. So it's chutney. And what a chutney it is. The variations on this recipe can be endless, limited only by your ingredients and your imagination. Peaches, apricots, raspberries, raisins, rhubarb all come to my mind when envisioning the batches I'm going to make. What will you come up with?


Caramelized Onion n' Fruit Chutney

4 large walla walla onions
2 TBSP cooking oil
4 cups water
1 Knorr Homestyle Stock package
4 cups fruit or berries-I used apples and strawberries
1 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar--I used vanilla sugar-one of my beans fell in the pot, you'll see it in the first picture I pulled it out before blending
1/4 nutmeg grated into the pot
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 drops liquid smoke
1 inch chunk of ginger
pinch of dried pepper flakes*optional use more or none if desired


peel and chop all the onions
heat the oil in a large dutch oven over medium low heat
when warm add the onions and cook slowly until caramelized around 20-30 minutes
the onions should be soft and sweet when done
add the water and the stock
bring to a boil add the fruit, lemon juice, sugar, spices and liquid smoke
reduce heat to a simmer
peel and coarsely chop the ginger and add to the pot
sprinkle in the pepper flakes if using
simmer for 2 1/2-3 hours until thick
if desired you can whirl in the food processor to make it smooth, you can leave it chunky too
keeps in the fridge up to a week

pre blending

I'll be using this on leftover dal for lunch tomorrow and on roasted pork loin this weekend. I think this could very easily be made into the base for barbeque beans or barbeque sauce. It's really something.

post blending

Peace and Love--