About the Recipe
Kasundi is a versatile fridge staple. It multi-tasks as a chutney, a topping for baked fish, can be added to baked sweet potatoes, used as a curry base or a marinade for vegetables or meat. We love adding this to our breakfasts with eggs, or tofu sausages, with oak crackers as a snack, as an ingredient in home-made burgers, basically we add it to anything and everything!
Lycopene is a bright red carotene and carotenoid pigment and phytochemical found in tomatoes that is released during cooking which enhances its absorption by the body. It is fat soluble and is therefore better absorbed when tomatoes have been cooked with oil.
Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant that helps fight infections, can help prevent cellular damage and cancer, is great for eye health, helps lower blood pressure and helps strengthen bones.
Ingredients
2 white onions, coarsely chopped
60g fresh ginger, grated
6-8 cloves of garlic, peeled
1-2 green chillies, chopped (de-seeded for less heat if desired), or ½-1 tsp cheats chilli paste
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp soft brown sugar (or coconut sugar if preferred)
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
½ cup neutral oil
6 large tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped
1-2 tsp salt
Ground pepper to taste
Preparation
Place onions, ginger, garlic, chillies, tomato paste, sugar, fennel, cumin, mustard seeds, and oil into a food processor and pulse to form a fine paste.
Tip into a large, heavy bottomed pot and cook over a medium heat until the paste is softened and the oil starts to separate out (6-8 minutes).
Add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper, cover and simmer over a very low heat, stirring now and then, until it is soft and pulpy and the oil starts to rise to the surface (about 1 ½ hours).
Store in an air-tight container.
Kasundi keeps for months in the fridge (if it isn’t all devoured before then!) or can be preserved in sterilised jars.