Sweet & Sour Pumpkin Chutney

Here’s our latest recipe from Weald Allotment volunteer Saskia.

This is a traditional northern German recipe, my mother made it every autumn. She only used white sugar but in my opinion,  it is nicer with some Muscovado. It is so popular, some German supermarkets sell it.

Choose your pumpkin for flavour – the best is a grey one, but I have made this with other varieties.  You will need:

2 kg raw, peeled, pumpkin pieces, bite size

1/2 litre red wine vinegar (or cider vinegar)

1/2 litre water

1 kg sugar (of that 1/3 Muscovado)

2 Cinnamon sticks

10 cloves garlic (to taste)

Juice of 1 lemon

Put the pumpkin pieces into a large bowl that has a lid.

Boil up the water and vinegar and pour it hot over the pieces (this way they stay whole and don’t become mushy).

Leave for 12-24 hours with a lid on, then the next day:

Pour the liquid from the pumpkins into cooking pot(s) and add the sugar, lemon and spices. Bring to the boil and add the pieces. Cook until they become a bit transparent (around 45 minutes). Don’t leave the lid off the whole time or you lose too much liquid, but if you leave the lid on, you might have too much (the liquid tastes great, though).

Take the pieces out and put them back into the original pot. Let the liquid cool off and pour it over them. Leave to stand for 3 days.

Then boil the liquid once more without the pieces, put the pieces into very clean jars with metal lids and pour the boiling liquid over them.

Screw lids on tight straight away, makes 5-6 jars

As ever, if you have a tried and tested recipe to share with us, we’d love to hear from you.