I feel spoilt. We have the most luscious, juicy peaches grown locally. Buying a tray of these heirloom peaches has been my weekly treat to my family recently. Driving home with that sweet peachy scent coming from the tray….yum, I usually start eating fresh peaches as soon as I get home.

As much as I love eating fresh peaches as is, I can only scoff so many of these tasty treats before my belly is full. Peaches don’t store as well as apples or oranges. What that means is that I need to get creative with all those peaches!

Peach and Chilli Chutney

I love chutney. I have been known to make a curry just so I can eat chutney. Which makes me laugh because for years, I did not like chutney at all. I had a memory of a neighbour once feeding my brother and myself cheese and chutney sandwiches. We could not stand the taste. We both shoved them in her pot plant while she was not looking! So I stayed away from chutney until I tried a friend’s home made chutney – I was hooked.

I have bought jars from local markets or eaten friend’s home made chutney. But never made my own. Having excess peaches made me think maybe now is the time to try and make a chutney.

After an extensive online search, I decided on the below recipe adapted from BBC Good Food. I had most of the ingredients on hand and I do like the flavour of cardamon.

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 700 grams of peeled and diced peaches
• 3 chopped and de-seeded chillies (I used Birdseye Chillies – which are super hot)
• Thumb sized piece of ginger, cut into match stick pieces
• 1 Tablespoon of cumin seed
• Seeds from 15 cardamon pods
• 200g rapadura sugar
• 250mls of apple cider vinegar

 

 

Method

(OK, all the recipes I read said that you needed to use peeled peaches. Now peaches are a delicate fruit. A vegetable peeler would bruise my yummy peaches. This useful article, Peeling Peaches helped me learn how to peel a peach.)

• Heat the oil in a pot.
• Add onions and fry until soft.
• Add the rest of the ingredients. Turn up the heat, keep stirring until that sugar is dissolved.
• Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. Most of the liquid should have evaporated, the peaches will have softened, the chutney will have a dark caramel colour and smell soooo good .

Because I wanted to store my chutney for longer than a couple of weeks in the fridge, I sterilised a jar.

Here is a handy step by step guide if you want to know How to Sterilise Jars.

Taste Test and Lesson Learnt 

Next time, I will put about half of the cardamon seeds in. I like the taste of cardamon but I did find the amount I put in too strong. But apart from that, this chutney was chilli spicy with a mellow sweetness coming from the rapadura sugar and peaches. Yum!

I learnt that it is best to use small jars when bottling up chutney. I poured all my chutney in a super large jar. While I was congratulating myself on getting a seal on my lid and how yummy the chutney was, I realised once I opened this super large jar of chutney, I would have to eat it all in a two weeks. Next time, small jars are the go! That way I can enjoy that peach and chilli chutney deliciousness over a longer time.

Peachy Breakfast Deliciousness

Any baked fruit with a crumble topping is a winner for me.

Make your crumble topping. This is one of my faves.

• 1/2 cups of oats
• 1/4 cup of pecans
• 1/4 almond meal (you could also use 1/4 plain flour)
• 2 big tablespoons of coconut sugar (or brown sugar, I like the mellow caramel flavour coconut sugar has)
• 50 grams of cold butter

Whizz this up in a food processor till crumbly….

I loved the idea of mini peach crumbles. How to make a crumble mini? Well, half your peaches. I left the skin on mine because I’m OK with baked peach skin. If you don’t like baked peach skin, use peeled peaches 🙂

Place your peaches in a baking dish. Top them with the crumble mixture. Bake at 180 degrees for 30mins.

Let them sit out of the oven for about 10 minutes. This allows the crumble topping to set.

Enjoy these warm and cold. I made these for breakfast. Later on that day, a friend came over for lunch – we enjoyed them for dessert. I eat them at any time of the day! Serve with cream, ice-cream or yogurt.

Quick Peach Salad

I call this a salad because I don’t know what else to call it! I guess it is more like a condiment as I eat it alongside steak or salmon.

Dice a peach, add chopped red capsicum and red onion. Mix. That’s all there is to it.

Because my peaches were really ripe and juicy, I found no need to add any dressing. But you could add a balsamic vinegar dressing, if you like.

Being creative in the kitchen is my happy place. Do you have any peach recipes for me to try in my kitchen? I would love to hear them. Please feel free to let us know in the comments below. 

Want more peach recipes? These are recipes that I will also be trying, Peach Chia Seed Jam and Paleo Peach BBQ Sauce.