Green chutney, hari chutney, is not a sandwich. It is the coriander-mint paste that makes a huge share of Indian sandwiches and street snacks taste the way they do, and it earns an entry here as infrastructure rather than as a dish. At its core it is fresh cilantro and mint blitzed with green chili, garlic, and lemon into a loose, bright, sharply herbal spread. It is the green layer inside a Bombay sandwich, the smear under the cheese in a grilled toastie, the drizzle over chaat, and the dip beside a plate of fritters. Where it goes, it does the same job: cuts richness, adds heat, and pushes everything fresher.
There is no cooking, but there is technique, and most of it is about keeping it green and balanced. The herbs are washed and dried so the chutney doesn't go watery, then ground with green chili, garlic, lemon juice, and salt, with just enough liquid to move the blade. Lemon does double duty, seasoning it and slowing the oxidation that turns a vivid green paste a dull army brown within hours. Good execution lands it loose enough to spread but not runny, balanced so no single element bullies the rest, and used fresh while the color and the raw-herb lift are still there. Sloppy versions are bitter from stalky old coriander, harsh from raw garlic that was never tempered against acid and salt, blown out on chili so the herb flavor vanishes, or made too far ahead and served grey and flat. On a sandwich the failure mode is mostly quantity: too little and the bread tastes of nothing, too much and it weeps into the crumb and turns it soggy.
Recipes vary by household and by what the chutney has to partner. Roasted chana dal or peanuts thicken it into a clingy paste that holds inside a pressed sandwich without running. A spoon of yogurt or coconut rounds the edge for milder palates; tamarind or sugar nudges it sweet-sour for chaat. Cumin, ginger, or a pinch of black salt shift it toward digestive-snack territory. Mumbai's classic sandwich green is on the thicker, garlicky, chili-forward side; a chaat-stall green tends looser and tangier. The dish it most often anchors, the Bombay sandwich, deserves its own article rather than being crowded in here.