Can I Make The Christmas Chutney Without Onion?

Our answer

Nigella's Christmas Chutney (from NIGELLA CHRISTMAS) is a combination of apples, cranberries, dates and clementines, sesaonally spiced with cloves, ginger and cinnamon. The mixture includes one diced onion, as the onion provides a slight savouriness to the fruits and sugar.

We suspect the chutney will be fine without the onion, particularly as the onion is quite a small amount in comparison with the other ingredients. The fresh cranberries and cooking apples are both quite sour, which should provide a bit more balance than for some chutneys that are made made with sweeter fruits. Nigella's Fig And Olive Chutney is made without any onions at all. We would not particularly advise cooking onions and adding them to the chutney as the chutney should already be in sterilised jars and opening the jars would mean re-sterilising the jars and boiling the chutney again. In addition, the flavour of the onion will not meld as well with the chutney if it is added retrospectively. If you are worried you could try tasting some, though it will not quite have matured and mellowed fully yet. The jar will keep for a month in the fridge after opening.