Nimbu ka aachar is an all season, all time favourite achar of my family and mine too. I remember, when i used to go to school, my mother made me simple ghee roasted paranthas and packed with nimbu ka achar for lunch. I loved it and my friends loved it even more, everyday they will fight for the achar and i used to enjoy that a lot. Its such a simple pickle and that too without oil without preservatives. This recipe is my mother’s , i had to learn it from her and so i did.
This sweet and sour lemon pickle calls for lots of spices, jaggery, sugar and salt. Sugar, jaggery and salt keeps this pickle preserved without any preservatives. It has a shelf life of about 3 to 4 years but it takes atleast 1 month for this pickle to get ready to eat. Lemons as they older in this masalas, they will change colour from yellow to brown and then black. Darker the pickle get, it tastes even better. This pickle is very good for digestion also. You can also add dry dates (chuaras) in this pickle for dry dates pickle.
Recipe Type : Food Preservation – Pickle
Cuisine: Indian
Time: 2 hours + 1 month
Shelf Life: 3-4 years
Ingredients
- 4 kg Lemon (Nimbu)
- 3/4th cup Fenugreek seeds (Danamethi)
- 1/2 cup Fennel seeds (Saunf)
- 1/3 cup Carom seeds (Ajwain)
- 1 cup Red chili powder (lal mirch)
- 1/4 cup Turmeric powder (Haldi)
- 1/4 cup Cumin seeds (zeera)
- 1/4 cup Garam masala
- 1 tsp Asafoetida (HIng)
- 3 cups Common salt (Safed namak)
- 1 cup Black Salt (Kala namak)
- 2 kg Jaggery (gud)
- 1 kg Sugar (chini)
- 100 gms Ginger (grated thick)
Method (Step by step nimbu ka khatta meetha aachar recipe)
- First of all wash all lemons very well and then let them dry on a clean cloth for 2 hours.
2. Now cut each lemon into 8 pieces or4 as per your wish, and remove as many seeds as you can.
3. Prepare all the other ingredients. (I used measuring cups to measure all the masalas)
4. Put all the masalas and seasonings one by one in the lemons except jaggery.
5. Now cut jaggery into small pieces and add to the lemons and masala.
6. Mix all the masalas, jaggery and lemons very well with two big spoons. Jaggery has a tendency to stick, dont worry about that, it will become syrup after sometime. I added ginger now as i forgot to add it before.
7. Lemon pickle is ready, now fill it in clean jars and cover. Keep this pickle in sunlight for 15-20 days. It will be ready in approx 1 month.
Notes:
- If you dont want so much masala, you can reduce it to your liking.
- You can entirely use sugar instead of jaggery.
- Keep this pickle in glass jars or china clay jars if possible.
- Always use jars cleaned with boiled water for pickles.
- Use clean and dry spoon to take out the pickle.
- It may take more than one month also for lemons to get ready.
- You can add more ginger if you like.
- Add in Dry chuaras (dates), in this masala to make dates pickle.
Yum
Follow us on Facebook (@monikasfoodiediaries ), Instagram(Foodiediariesmoni )or twitter (Foodiediaries_M).
Comments
comments
