Instant Lemon Pickle
This homemade lemon pickle recipe is so easy to make, packed with bold spice flavors and it’s so much better than bottled stuff! Made with fresh lemon, pickle masala, and sugar.
Ingredients
- 10 lemons small-sized
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp red chilli powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup pickle masala using store bought
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup oil using sesame oil/mustard oil
- pinch of hing
Instructions
- Add 3 cups of water to the pot, add the lemon and cook for 10 minutes on medium flame.
- Drain the lemon and cut them into small pieces. While the lemons are still warm, add in all the spices (salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and pickle masala) and sugar, give it a good mix until well combined.
- You will notice the juice getting released as you mix and forming a nice sauce. The sauce has a tendency to thicken as it cools.
- In another pan, heat oil and add pinch of hing. Adding it to the pickle and mix well.
- The Instant Lemon pickle is ready to be served. At this point, the peel may have a slight bite but the more it sits the better it will taste.
Notes
- Lemons with thin skin or Meyer lemons work best for this recipe.
- Thicker skinned lemons will take longer to cook and marinate. May also have slight bitter taste.
- Take time to deseed the lemons. The seeds can impart a bitter taste to the pickle and hence better to take those out.
- Adjust sugar based on how bitter the lemon skin is.
- You can use white sugar, brown sugar or even jaggery for this pickle but the later two will change the color of this pickle (more towards brown).
- Use your favorite pickle masala, either homemade or store-bought. I have used store-bought one for this recipe. There could be slight taste variations in the store bought ones so adjust the salt and spice levels to your liking.
- The cooked pickle peel might still have a bite to it at this point but it only gets better and soft as it ages!!
- To prevent the pickle from spoiling, always use a clean dry spoon every-time and keep it refrigerated.