Simple Tomato Chutney

Everytime I make tomato chutney, it brings back memories of grad school. A small university town, harsh winters, chugging along trying to finish grad school would make even the bravest of souls depressed. The best anti-depressants we had to tide over those blues were food and friends. Put the two together and you have potluck parties - our secret to tasty yet inexpensive entertainment. Each one of our friends had different specialities; even the ones that paid only ceremonial visits to the kitchen had some yummy little recipe up their sleeve. And tomato chutney was one such specialty of one of my friends. He made it almost always unless he decided that we needed a change and switched over to rasam. And needless to say we always licked the bowl clean !! :-)
Here is my recipe for making tomato chutney really quick. I use it with everything from rice to rotis/parathas to dosa/idlies. This is the chutney I had mentioned in my previous blog to go with the buckwheat crepes.
I have used methi powder to give this chutney a pickle like taste. But if you dont have it, no worries. The chutney tastes perfectly good even without it.

To make the methi powder: Dry roast the methi seeds and grind it into a powder. Store the powder in an air-tight container. Stays well in the fridge for months.

Ingredients:
4-5 medium sized tomatoes or 1 14oz can diced tomatoes
1 small onion
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp chana dal or yellow split peas
1 tbsp split urad dal
1 tsp jeera (cumin)
1 tsp mustard seeds
4-5 red chillies
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp methi powder (fenugreek powder) - optional
salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in a saute pan.
2. When it is hot add chana dal and urad dal. Then add jeera and mustard seeds.
3. When they start to sputter, add red chillies, then onions.
4. Saute until onions turn light brown. Now add the tomatoes, sugar, salt and turmeric.
5. Let it cook for 5 to 10 min or until raw smell of tomato disappears and oil oozes out on the sides.
6. Now add methi powder, stir once and then switch off the flame.
7. Serve with rice, rotis, idlis or dosa.

Enjoy !!