Hot Mango Sauce

One is always advised to preserve only seasonal produce. I have no idea if July is the mango season, especially since it does not grow here and since I see it all year round on my market. Sometimes I am lucky to stumble upon big, ripe and cheap mangoes and then I can’t stop myself from buying some and filling jars for my pantry. This time I decided to do some more hot and sweet mango sauce.

This quick and easy sauce has a beautiful intense and sunny colour. It is delicious on roast pork, chicken, on toasts, rice, green salad, as a dip…

Several tips for those who are not used to handle hot peppers:

1-Wear gloves while washing or cutting them !

2- Add your peppers gradually. They vary a lot in size, in hotness, and even the same variety can be completely different depending on the season and country of origin.  I always mix peppers and add them gradually until the sauce acquires the desired taste.

3-Do not throw away the seeds if you want the sauce to be even hotter! (they are the hottest part of the peppers).

4- Keep in mind that the warm sauce is always hotter in taste than the cold one…

5- Decide the colour you want to obtain. If you add green peppers the sauce doesn’t usually change colour. It stays beautifully yellow with some green spots. When using red peppers,  be prepared for a slight change of coulour: it becomes orange or even reddish (if cooked for a longer time). I made those two with the same mango, but different peppers:

6-Make notes of the exact proportions of your sauce together with the date you’ll put on your jar label. This way next time you’ll know how to modify it if it is not perfect.

Preparation: around 30 minutes + a couple of hours for cooling + 20 minutes for processing

Ingredients: (2 mangoes will yield around 3-4 200ml jars, but it depends on the fruits’ juiciness and ripeness)

2 mangoes

1 T salt

200 g (1 cup) sugar

200 ml (6 3/4 oz) white wine or cider vinegar (mine was 4,5% acid)

preferably fresh, red or green hot peppers (I put 3 flat tablespoons of tiny “bird’s eye” peppers and my sauce was quite hot)




Cut off the peppers’ stems. Cut in half lengthwise and throw away the seeds (or not! if you want your sauce extra hot).

Mix the peppers in a food processor. Put aside.

Peel the mangoes, cut up the flesh. Mix the mangoes in a food processor.

Place the mixed mangoes, the sugar, the salt and the vinegar in a heavy bottom pan (shouldn’t be aluminium or copper, otherwise the vinegar will react with the metal).
Add the chilies gradually (for example starting with half of the amount). Cook for around 30 minutes. Taste and, optionally, add sugar /vinegar/peppers to adjust the taste.

/At this point you can (after the sauce has cooled down) either freeze it, or keep it in the fridge for a couple of weeks, or process it in the jars, as described below, and store it in your pantry for at least a year!/

Pour the sauce, still hot, into sterilised jars. Cover with lids. Leave the jars to cool.

Place the cool jars into a big pan, bottom lined with an old kitchen towel folded in two (this will prevent the jars from breaking), cover up with hot – but not boiling- water to the level just below the lid. Bring to boil and keep on a very low heat, in simmering water, for around 20 minutes.
Stick on self-adhesive labels, write the name of the sauce and don’t forget to mark the date (do not forget to put down the exact amounts of every ingredient you used).

In a dry place, with a moderate temperature, the jars should keep for at least a year.

Hot Mango Sauce on Punk Domestics

6 Replies to “Hot Mango Sauce”

  1. Amazing colour and another brilliant recipe…Well, the mango season in North India is coming to an end now …. I am glad I was here to at least some of the crop …..I came across a book my sister had on Indian cooking – Mrs. Balbir Singh is the author and I thought you will love it ‘cos it has tonnes of recipes on Indian preserves and chutneys….I don’t know about the other recipes in that but preserves and chutneys looked amazing…

    Also, read somewhere that mangoes and nigella seeds go very well together…never tried tat combination myself though…

    great and beautiful post…lovely pictures too – the colours of the mango and the chillies are just gorgeous….

    1. Thank you, Shilpa, for digging out this old recipe and for the compliments! This is one of my favourite savoury preserves. Mangoes are perfect with chili… I also like the fact that I don’t need any pectin or long cooking to make the sauce thick enough: mixed mangoes are already dense enough.
      The book you talk about sounds amazing. Somehow Indian chutneys and preserves are very difficult to find in both books and on the internet. Do you think it’s available on amazon? I will check!
      I think I haven’t tried pairing mangoes with nigella yet. Thank you for the advice! I am touched you remembered I am a nigella fan 🙂
      (I made another batch of the tomato chutney last weekend!).

  2. Let me know if you can’t find that book. I will be happy to post a copy to you…honestly, not a problem. Yes, I do remember your fondness for Nigella seeds 🙂 My mum tells me that mango preserve is made with nigella seeds and I absolutely love that. I will send you the recipe of both the lemon peel pickle and the mango wit nigella seeds preserve

    1. Shilpa, you are so sweet and kind! I would never bother you with such a thing! (I have checked and the only existing copies are from the 70s, so I think I will try to “hunt” it on the second hand bookshops on internet). I would be grateful for both preserves recipes! Lemons are cheap and mangoes are often on special prices too! I don’t know how to thank you, Shilpa…

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