Spicy Lemon Pickle (Instant version)
Finger licking, healthy, tasty, yet simple instant Spicy Lemon Pickle recipe from Senthil's Kitchen!
Ingredients
- 3 Lemons boiled, cut into small pieces
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 2 Red chilies broken
- 1/2 tbsp Jaggery powder
- 1/2 cup Sesame oil
To make pickle powder
- 5 Red chilies
- 2 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tsp Methi seeds
- 1 tbsp Chili powder
- 1 tsp Sambar powder optional
- 1 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 tsp Hing powder
- Salt to taste
Instructions
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Boil the lemons in hot water for about 5 mins. Cut the lemon into tiny pieces, remove seeds.
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Grind the pickle powder ingredients to a semi-coarse consistency in a food processor (mixie).
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Heat half cup sesame oil in a pan and when it is hot, add 1 tsp mustard seeds and when it splutters (you can also chose not to let the mustard splutter...), add broken red chili pieces and fry for few seconds, and then add the pickle powder and give a quick stir for about 15 seconds in low flame. Add the cut lemon pieces and jaggery and fry for about 3 mins till all moisture is gone and oil oozes out. Adjust salt (and sweetness) if required.
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Cool the contents for 30 mins and transfer into a bottle and store in the fridge. If you are going to finish it off in a day or two, refrigeration is not needed.
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Please read the Notes section for exciting tips and variations to this recipe.
Recipe Notes
- Sesame oil (preferably cold pressed) is the soul of any South Indian pickle, use in liberal amounts. You can also try mustard oil if you want a different taste.
- Sambar powder adds an interesting twist to any pickle recipe, feel free to add some sambar powder when making any pickle. You can even fully substitute sambar powder instead of the pickle powder, pickle made with just sambar powder tastes amazing, trust me!
- You can slightly increase the amount of mustard and methi seeds in the pickle powder mix and see if you like the higher concentration of mustard and methi flavors in your pickle. You can also use yellow mustard seeds if you do not want your pickle to be of darker color.
- If you want your pickle to be less sour, you can squeeze out and remove some juice. My mom does this sometimes (if we end up with very juicy lemons) and the removed juice is put to good use (lemon rice).
- More jaggery can be added to the pickle if you want a sweeter version.