Fresh mint + cilantro + green chili + ginger + lime blended raw with salt. Hari chutney — the green sidekick to samosas and pakoras.
A 19th-century Anglo-Indian table fixture, but the form (raw herb paste on stone) is much older — the masala kallu (grinding stone) was a daily kitchen tool across the subcontinent. Hari chutney travelled with Partition refugees in 1947 to settle as the default Punjabi-Delhi green sauce on the dhaba menu.
ITC's Bukhara restaurant in Delhi has served the same hari chutney recipe since 1978 — head chef Madan Lal Jaiswal credited the punch to a 4:1 mint-to-cilantro ratio (most home cooks invert it). Anardana (dried pomegranate seed) is the optional sourness booster in Punjabi versions.
Bright kelly-green when fresh, fading to olive within an hour. Sharp herbal-cool on the tongue, chili heat building slow at the back, lime cutting the salt. Best the day it's made — the green oxidizes and the mint goes flat by day two.
Cold-blend, never cooked — heat browns chlorophyll and kills the volatile menthol. A pinch of sugar and an ice cube in the blender are the dhaba tricks: sugar buffers the chili burn, ice keeps the blade-friction temperature below 40°C so the green stays green.
Variations
Gujarati pudina chutney leans heavier on mint with peanuts and yogurt; Hyderabadi version blends roasted chana dal for body and a coarser texture. Bombay sandwich-shop hari chutney holds its color by adding a tablespoon of yogurt and refrigerating immediately.
On the Palate
Where Mint-Coriander Chutney sits in the Indian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
4 steps · 7 min active + 5 min waiting
- 15 min
Wash 1 large bunch mint + 1 large bunch cilantro; remove tough stems.
- 23 min
Blend with 4 green chilies + 4 garlic cloves + 1 cm ginger + 1 tsp roasted cumin + 1 tsp salt.
Watch outBlend cold and quick, dropping in an ice cube — friction heat above lukewarm browns the leaves and kills the fresh menthol.
- 32 min
Add juice of 1 lemon + 50 ml water; blend to smooth bright-green paste.
Watch outStop the moment it's a smooth bright-green paste — over-blending dulls it to army-green.
- 42 min
Jar; refrigerate up to 1 week.
