Ooo mango chutney, how I love thee. It may be an unabashedly British thing to eat a mound of poppadoms with a pickle tray full of mint raita, lime pickle, an onion relish I’ll later come on to and of course, the mango chutney before your balti house curry but it’s one inauthentic foodie experience neither me nor Hungry Hubby can pass up.
It’s like me sneaking a few of his chips after insisting I don’t want to order any at a restaurant – it’s going to happen, like it or not.
Poppadoms may be more authentically served crumbled onto your curry to give a bit of crunch, and any chutney carefully paired to said curry and eaten alongside it but this British-Indian combo is one I simply adore for what it is – delicious. As I can no longer easily get the brand of mango chutney I like, I had a play and came up with this version, made in the Instant Pot. Super easy, super good.
This is an offensively easy recipe. After peeling and chopping one monstrously large mango or two more meagrely proportioned ones, you simply bung all the spices, some sugar and vinegar into the pressure cooker and allow it a mere 10 minutes to cook the fruit to perfection and release all the flavours from those glorious spices.
If you too love Waitrose’s whole spice mango chutney, then you’ll be delighted to hear that my version is spookily similar! I used their vague ingredient list to start off my experiments and only after a few tweaks, I’ve settled on this as my go-to mango chutney.
[clickToTweet tweet=”How to make perfect mango chutney in the Instant Pot! ” quote=”How to make perfect mango chutney in the Instant Pot! “]
To circle back to that pickle tray image I conjured up at the start of this post – the onion relish (for want of a better description) is what my good friend and fellow Indian food addict Mhairi calls “white man’s chutney”.
Yep, all it is raw chopped onion diced finely and mixed with a little lime juice, a teeny bit of tomato puree, salt and chilli powder. If you aren’t an onion lover, then you will probably be horrified at eating spoonfuls of raw onion, only slightly softened by the lime juice.
But me and Hungry Hubby will eye each other up to ensure neither one of us gets so much as a teaspoon more of mango chutney or “white man’s chutney” than the other. Fellow allium lovers will understand the compelling rasp of a raw onion – it’s like anything pickled or vinegary, we simply can’t get enough of their bite and tang.
It really makes me smile as we’ve never spoken about it but I know that this mango chutney (and those onions!) are one thing he won’t let me have all to myself 😉

When it's so easy and so good to make your own chutney at home, you'll never need to buy a jar again! Makes about 600ml worth.
- 700 g mango (weighed before peeling and destoning)
- 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and minced finely
- 250 ml cider vinegar
- 250 g sugar (caster or granulated)
- 1 tsp nigella seeds (often sold as kaloonji)
- 1 inch shard of cinnamon bark
- 1 tsp paprika
- 5 green cardamom pods, bruised
- 1 tsp red chilli flakes
- 5 whole cloves
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf (fresh or dried)
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Wash, peel, destone and roughly chop your mango into pieces approximately 2cm big at most. Put all the flesh and juice into the Inner Pot and add all the remaining ingredients. Stir well.
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Set the Instant Pot to Manual High for 10 minutes and allow a NPR.
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Remove the lid and put the IP onto Sauté mode. Cook stirring regularly until the chutney has reduced down by around a third to a half and it has become syruppy. You don't need to go as far as you do when making jam but the liquid will suddenly start to thicken and run off your spoon like warm golden syrup or honey when it is ready.
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Ladle your chutney into the still warm sterilised jars (see notes below) and seal whilst hot. Will keep unopened in a cool dark cupboard for at least 3-6 months. Keep in the fridge once opened and use within 6 weeks.
- Make sure your mango is fragrant, ripe and juicy before using. It should have a little give if squeezed lightly.
- The best way to sterilise your jars is to wash them with hot soapy water, rinse then pop through the dishwasher on a hot wash. For this recipe, use them whilst still warm and never put your fingers inside the sterilised jar.
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Oh my!!! I’m so greedy with mango chutney that it’s shameful. My excuse is that it’s incredibly hard to get here in the Sahara of ethnic food shopping and when you do find some, it tends to have 2 huge chunks in a jar and very little sauce so it kind of spoils it…. and yet I’ve never made my own!! That’s about to change. Small regular sized chunks of mango and lots of spreadable stickyliciousness here I come! Now I just have to find poppadoms so my onion Salad, mango, poppadom cravings can spiral out of control.
Thankfully fat pants are a LOT easier to find!!
Lol oh Helen you do make me giggle! And I love that you are there with me, covered in poppadom crumbs, sticky fingered with a belly full of mango chutney 😉
I know there are people who find the scent of onions annoying. I find it comforting.
And my version of onion relish has the addition of a finely diced halapino pepper or two.
Ooo yummy! Hungry Hubby would complain at too much chilli though so I have to keep mine to a pinch of chilli powder instead 😉
Its prettiest if you use a red onion. With the acid of the lime (or lemon) juice the onion goes a translucent red.
There is nothing that is shelf stable without processing please do not encourage people with this unsafe practice. This could be waterbathed for 10 minutes and be totally shelf stable.
Hey Kim, thanks so much for stopping by to leave a comment. Actually, here in the UK, we do not can or water bath our homemade jams and preserves. Our Food Safety Agency (a governmental organisation) advises that homemade chutneys and pickles which have sufficient sugar and vinegar maintain a low enough (acidic) pH that they are shelf-stable in a properly sterilised jar until opened, at which time they must be refrigerated. I would advise any reader to follow the advice of their own food safety agencies and if that means water bathing or canning for a similar recipe, then by all means follow that advice. Take care! Jo x
Don’t u have to “can” ( process in the pressure cooker) the chutney jars to seal them?
Sorry ?, read reply below, thanks
You’re welcome Bonnie – it just comes down to the differences in advice from what your country’s food safety board advises. Canning is not common at all in the UK.
Hi just have a few questions about to make this gorgeous chutney. Do Irving the peppercorns or leave whole ? If I can’t find cinnamon bark can I use a cinammon stick ? Lastly I presume I sift through the chutney before putting in jars to remove all spices including the whole peppercorns ? Sorry? Just so want to get this right.
Hi Mich, you actually leave the whole spices in and “eat around them” in the traditional Indian manner. You could remove them, I will usually take the cinnamon out as it’s a big enough spice to find it easily. Cinnamon bark and cinnamon sticks are the same things so pick up whichever you can find. I love to eat the whole peppercorns, you don’t have to crush them – if you did, it would be a lot more spicy (which may be what you are going for!). Hope that helps x
Do the peppercorns need crushed ? Will a cinammon stick do instead of bark ? Do you take out all spices including peppercorns before jarring. Many Thanks
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