Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

Let summer fruit show off its savory side

Recipe: Chunky chutney combines peaches, apricots and dried cranberries

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED AUG 3, 2025

Chutney is endlessly flexible. Try a mix of favorite soft fruits for a variety of savory uses. Debbie Arrington

With seven backyard fruit trees and access to more, I end up with a summer assortment of peaches, apricots, plums, pluots, nectarines and other juicy favorites.

Besides supplying the inspiration for countless desserts, those summer fruits also can be wonderful complements to savory dishes – especially when cooked into a chutney.

Originally part of Indian cuisine, chutney gets its name from the Hindi word that means “to lick” or “to eat with appetite.” Described by some as a relish made with jam ingredients, chutney combines sweet, sour and spicy into a secret sauce that elevates entrees.

Part of the beauty of chutney: Flexibility. It can be made with a wide variety of soft fruits (plus tomatoes).

For this version, I used my Babcock white peaches along with the last of the apricots (which were looking a little wrinkled). Their thin skins dissolve while cooking, so there’s no need to peel. To keep the chutney chunky, the fruit was rough chopped – further speeding up preparation.

This recipe can be scaled up or down, depending on the amount of fruit you have on hand.

Use this chutney with grilled chicken, pork or turkey burgers. It’s tasty on sandwiches, too.

Chunky chutney

Makes about 6 cups or 3 pints

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 cup chopped onion

8 cups chopped peaches and/or apricots (see note)

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

½ cup orange juice

¼ cup lemon juice

¼ cup rosé or white wine

1 cup dried cranberries

¼ cup sugar

2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

½ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions:

Jar of chutney on a trivet — The finished chutney can be stored in the
refrigerator, frozen, or canned using the
hot-water-bath method.

In a large heavy pot over medium heat, melt butter or margarine. Saute chopped onions until soft.

Add chopped peaches and/or apricots. Stir in broth, orange juice, lemon juice and wine.

Rinse dried cranberries with hot water; add cranberries to pot. Stir in sugar, pepper flakes and black pepper.

Bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cook uncovered, stirring often, until fruit is very soft and chutney is desired consistency, about 1 hour.

Store covered in refrigerator or freeze.

This chutney also can be packed in sterile jars with hot-water bath method. Process for 10 minutes.

Note: If fruit is thin-skinned, there’s no need to peel. Plums, pluots, nectarines, apriums and other similar fruit may be substituted for peaches and apricots.

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

recipe recipes peaches apricots chutney condiment summer August stone fruit orchard fruit preserving cooking backyard produce farmers markets Sacramento gardening

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Flowers in My Back Yard Series

June 2: Sunflowers capture Sacramento's summer attitude

May 29: Are your roses going 'blind'?

May 26: Zinnias are the summer flowers every garden needs

May 19: Plant dahlias now for late-summer flower power

May 12: Know your coreopsis from your bidens

May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend

April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look

April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact

April 7: Calendulas do double duty

April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come

March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)

March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots

March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums

March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come

March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy

Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?

Feb. 24: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come

Feb. 17: How and why to grow wildflowers

Feb. 10: Let's talk Valentine's Day roses

Feb. 3: Why grow flowers?

Local News

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Find our spring recipes here!

Sites We Like

Garden checklist for week of June 7

Afternoon highs are expected to be back in the mid 90s by midweek, then edging towards triple digits. Plan your planting and garden activities accordingly.

* Remember to water early.

* It’s not too late to transplant tomatoes, peppers, eggplant or other summer favorites. Make sure they stay hydrated.

* From seed, plant corn, melons, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.

* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.

* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias.

* It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.

* Let the grass grow longer. Set the mower blades high to reduce stress on your lawn during summer heat. To cut down on evaporation, water your lawn deeply during the wee hours of the morning, between 2 and 8 a.m.

* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.

* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.

* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.

* Mulch, mulch, mulch! This “blanket” keeps moisture in the soil longer and helps your plants cope during hot weather.

* Cut back fruit-bearing canes on berries.

* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.

* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.

* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com

Taste Summer! E-cookbook