Indian Lemon/Lime Pickles
Adapted from Usha’s Pickle Digest: The Perfect Pickle Recipe Book Paperback – November 2, 1998.
Ingredients
- 1.1 kg (2 1/2 pounds) lemon/lime (peels, halves, whole) preferably organic, saved over time in the freezer
- 156 ml (2/3 cup) fine salt
- 22 ml (1 ½ tablespoons) turmeric powder
- 22 ml (1 ½ tablespoons) fenugreek seeds or powder (can be bought online, at spice stores or Indian grocery stores)
- 518 ml (2 cups + 3 tablespoons) peanut or sesame oil
- 78 ml (1/3 cup) black mustard seeds
- 156 ml (2/3 cup) chili powder
- 10 ml (2 teaspoons) asafoetida (optional, can be bought online or at Indian grocery stores)
Adjust spices and ingredients to the quantity of lemon/lime you have saved.
Preparation
Day 1
Defrost lemon rinds (picture 1).
Cut lemon in bite size pieces (small dice roughly .6 cm/¼ inch), slightly larger cuts are okay too. (picture 2) Transfer to a large glass container with a fitted lid. Make sure the container can handle hot liquid.
Sprinkle salt on top of the cut lemon. Stir and set aside at room temperature for 2 days. (picture 3).
Stir a couple of times each day.
Day 3
Add turmeric, stir and set aside for 2 more days.
Continue stirring a couples of times each day.
Day 5
In a medium size frying pan toast the fenugreek seeds to a dark brown color under low-medium flame. Grind them. If using ground fenugreek, toast to the same color. (picture 4)
In the same pan heat the 3 tablespoons of oil, add the mustard seeds, stir. When a few seeds start to sputter (popping sound), add chili powder and stir for a couple of minutes to roast the chili powder.
Add to the lemon mixture with the ground fenugreek and asafoetida, if using.
Heat oil to 177°C (350°F) (frying temperature). Pour the hot oil onto the lemon mixture, mix well and let stand to cool. Oil should come .6 to 1.3 cm (¼ to ½ inch) above the mixture. If the mixture looks dry you can add oil as needed. Over time the maceration will perfume the oil. (picture 5)
Store the pickles in jars. Pickles will last several weeks in the fridge. They freeze well for several months. (picture 6)
Tips:
NOTES: If you are not using organic limes or lemons, wash them thoroughly before juicing them or using part of their rind in other recipes.
Save unused lemons / limes in an airtight bag in the freezer until you have enough. Keep adding to the bag.
Indian pickles are meant to be spicy hot. If you have a low resistance to chili you can reduce it to a tolerable amount.
Salt amount can be reduced.
The recipe is fairly versatile, play with it, you have nothing to lose, you were going to throw the rinds away anyway!
2 thoughts on “Indian Lemon/Lime Pickles”
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Patrick Coue
Patrick Coue is the founder of https://www.voyageactually.com/, a native of France, and an avid professional traveler for three decades.
He grew up in the country outside of Nantes, close to the Atlantic Coast (a culturally mixed border region between Brittany and the Loire Valley). For many years he lived in Paris, in Marseilles, in Montpellier, on the French Riviera in Cannes and in Metz, in Eastern France.
Patrick went to restaurant school when he was a teenager and worked in restaurants as a chef in Brittany, Paris, and in the South of France.
He holds the coveted French National Tour Guide Card (Guide-Interprète National), the official certification in France to allow him to legally serve as a guide throughout the country in sites and museums.
While guiding groups around the world (USA, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador and India, to name a few), he decided to pursue graduate studies in Art History at the University of Delaware. He went on to teach college level Art History and Culinary Arts. He is best known for his popular class, called “The Visual Culture of Food” that exposed students to the history of food and evolution of taste through the lens of art history.
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Hi!
So Indian Pickles do Not include Cucumbers At All based on the recipes. Is this a Pickled Relish???
Cynthia in
Ft Worth, TX
Hi Cynthia! Thanks for your question. Pickles — even in American recipes — don’t always include cucumbers and aren’t always vinegary. This is not an American-style pickled relish, but it is wonderful and will pair especially well with Indian foods. We hope you’ll try it and let us know how you like it!