Oil Less Lemon Pickle

Lemon PIckle Without Jaggery

Lemom Pickle With Jaggery

My granny used to say older the lemon pickle without oil more is its medicinal value. Thus in her home and later in my mom’s home lemon pickle used to be stored in porcelain containers tightly packed and sealed. The container which used to open used to be at least a year old. Lemon pickle has its medicinal value only when red chilies are not added to it. I prefer my lemon pickle to be sweet, sour and hot. Oil is not used in this simple but tasty pickle. I love making pickles. For me working in kitchen is best stress buster and watching the reactions of my family members when they devour the food/pickle/cakes/puddings is the most joyous moment. This pickle requires very few ingredients and equally less time and labor.

Preparation Time: 30-40 min.

Maturing Time: 20-30 days

Servings: Makes 500 gm. pickle (Approx.)

Ingredients Required For Making Lemon Pickle:

• 30-35 Ripe Yellow Lemons (Medium Size) / 500 gm. Ripe Yellow Lemons
• 100 gm. Red Chili Powder / To taste
• 100 gm. Red Kashmiri Chili Powder
• 4-5 Teaspoons of Turmeric Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon pure Asafoetida powder
• Salt to taste

Direction For Making Lemon Pickle:

• Wash and wipe the surface of lemons dry.
• Keep the cleaned lemons under the sun / fan for 30 minutes to make sure they are dry.
• Squeeze the juice of 10 lemons and keep the juice for later use.
• Cut the lemon rind left after taking out the juice from lemons, into pieces (I cut them to strips).
• Cut off little bit of top and bottom end, of the remaining lemons.(The end where stalk is attached and the opposite end).
• Cut the lemons to 4 pieces if they are medium size or eight pieces if they are big.
• In a bowl take:
• Salt
• Turmeric powder
• Red chili powder
• Kashmiri Mirch powder
• Asafoetida
• Mix the ingredients nicely
• Take all lemon pieces and pieces of lemon rind in a big stainless steel container and add the spices mixture to it.
• Mix nicely.
• Add lemon juice and mix.

Lemon Pieces With Speces etc.

• Cover the container with lemon and spices mixture with a muslin cloth and place under the sun for 10-15 days. Make sure the container is kept inside in the night time.
• The lemons will start changing the color and will start becoming soft.

Ready to be Botteled

• Put this partially matured pickle in a glass / porcelain container and place the lid tightly.

Pickle Bottled and Ready for More Sun Heating and Maturing

• Keep daily under the sun for 15 days more. Now the pickle container can be left out in night time also if it is kept in safe place. The cooling in night and heating by sun in day time does wonder to the pickle.
• After one month you can consume the ready pickle, but I prefer to keep it in my shelf for 2-3 months before I allow the pickle to be consumed. Because longer it is allowed to mature softer the lemon pieces become and the spices mix with the lemon pieces very nicely.

Matured Lemon Pickle After Three Months

Enjoy the oil free lemon pickle with stuffed paranthas / dal-Chawal / biryani …..

Tips:

• Use only stainless / wooden utensils to make pickle.
• Check the purity of all spices for purity they are the main culprit for the pickle getting spoilt. (If not pure)
• Make sure all lemons are yellow and unblemished.
• Dry the lemons properly else the pickle will go bad,
• Check the hotness of chili powder before adding. Each brand has different hotness. I prefer making my own chili powder from whole deseeded chilies to ensure purity.
• Do not use marketed asafoetida powder as it has maida in it and can cause the pickle to spoil. If you do not get pure asafoetida powder then omit it.
• Kashmiri chili powder is for giving color it can be avoided. In that case the color of pickle will be dullish.
• Make sure all containers and equipment as well as your hands are dry while machining pickle.

Suggested Variations:

• After two to three months when the lemon pieces are soft and the pickle is juicy 250 gm. finely broken jaggery can be added to get sweet and sour taste. I keep two containers one with jaggery other without jaggery to cater for the taste of family members.

Matured Lemon Pickle With Jaggery

• 50 gm. Ajwain (Caraway seeds) can be added after cleaning them. (Rub with cloth).
• 20-30 ml. of Vinegar can be added to ensure that in rainy weather the pickle does not spoil. I use apple cider if I it starts raining during maturing time (First one month).
• Deseeded, roasted whole red chilies can be added to the lemon and spices mixture. The juicy tangy red chili tastes awesome.