Calories in Green Chutney

The recipe grinds 10 g each of coriander leaves, mint leaves and tamarind with 15 g of onion, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, green chillies and salt, and yields 2 tablespoons. One tablespoon therefore contains 5 g each of coriander, mint and tamarind, 7.5 g of onion and a 1/4 teaspoon of sugar. This is the sour-sweet style used on chaat and with samosas, not the plain mint and lemon version many homes make. A tablespoon is roughly what is spread inside a sandwich or drizzled over one plate of chaat; as a dip beside pakoras or kebabs, two or three spoonfuls is more usual, at 54 kcal and 81 kcal.

Carbohydrate supplies 86% of the energy, protein 11% and fat just 3%. The coriander and mint leaves carry very little energy, so most of the calories come from the tamarind, the onion and the sugar in the recipe. That also explains the 4.2 g of sugars in each tablespoon, most of the 5.6 g of carbohydrate. With 0.1 g of fat, this is the lightest of the 9 sides and chutneys in the set, well below peanut chutney at 54 kcal and coconut chutney at 67 kcal a tablespoon.

One tablespoon is about 1% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 2% of a woman's, so as a condiment it barely registers. Its job is flavour: it lets a plain sandwich, a boiled chana chaat or a grilled kebab taste lively without butter, mayonnaise or a creamy dip. What it sits on usually matters far more than the chutney. A samosa or pakora dipped in it is still a fried snack, and the chutney does nothing to change that.

For a savoury condiment this recipe is sweet: 4.2 g of sugars in a tablespoon, partly from the sugar in the recipe and partly from the tamarind. It is salted too, and both rise with every extra spoonful. That is small against a whole day but worth knowing for people who use chutney generously. Those managing diabetes or blood pressure should keep to the sugar and salt limits agreed with their doctor or dietitian. Fresh chutney also spoils quickly, so refrigerate it and use it within a few days.