Thankful Thursday - Runner Bean Chutney

Christmas is a coming and my cupboards are getting stocked! I'm starting to make some presents already, yep, I know we're not even out of September yet and there is Halloween and Bonfire Night to go! But this girl is getting organised. 

I love making presents for Christmas, especially of the cooking variety. It's a great way to show how much you love someone by giving them something you've made and taken time and care over. If I'm super organised I make hampers, which are full of lovely goodies that I've made.

Today, I'm going to share with you an old family recipe that I've adapted to incorporate beans! Today I'm making Runner Bean Chutney. It's truly delicious and brings a piece of summer to the dark winter months.

You can use it to perk up some vegan cheese and crackers or melted cheese on toast. I've even used some in stir fry's, it's very versatile. You can easily double up the recipe but as I've only got a small garden and only 6 runner bean plants I don't normally pick more than 500g in a day. But even 500g of runner beans makes a few jars of chutney, I made 5 small jars.

Ingredients
500g Runner beans - weighing about 460g when top and tailed
Salt 
375g Onions, chopped
460ml Malt vinegar
20g Cornflour
2 Tsp (heaped) Mustard powder
2 Tsp Turmeric
220g Demerara sugar 
110g Brown sugar

Method
Pour 160ml of the vinegar into a pan and add the chopped onions. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 15-20 minutes until the onions are a soft.

Whilst the onions are simmering prepare the runner beans and cook in salted water for 5 minutes then drain and add to the onions.

Mix the mustard powder, turmeric and cornflour with a little of the remaining vinegar until you have a paste. Add to the onions and beans mixture and stir through.

Pour in the remaining vinegar and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Then stir in the sugar until it has dissolved and simmer for another 15 minutes.

Pour the chutney into hot sterilised jars, screw on the lids loosely and leave to cool overnight. Best to keep for 1 month before eating or longer if you can!