Quick Sour Lime Pickle Recipe

Sour Lime Pickle and Sour Lime Pickle Crush

Here are two ways of making a quick sour lime pickle recipe. One is a delicious instant sour lime pickle. The other is a tasty lime pickle crush. To make both these mouth-watering instant lime pickles you absolutely have to use thin-skinned sour limes if you don’t want the lime skins to become too hard. I have made these pickles with a mix of sugar and jaggery. But you could make them by using just sugar or just jaggery. Do make both. The instant sour lime pickles can be enjoyed from the very next day without having to wait for weeks for them to mature.

You might also like to check out two of my other lip-smacking good pickles. The Goan brinjal pickle and the Goan tendli pickle are both super-delicious and hugely popular.

Recipe 1 (Sour lime pickle)

Ingredients

300g sour limes (8 Nos)

165g (¾ cup) sugar

165g (¾ cup) grated jaggery

2 tsp regular chilli powder

¼ tsp turmeric powder

¼ tsp hing (asafoetida)

1 ½ tsp roasted and ground cumin

1 ½ tsp salt

1 ¼ tsp black salt

Procedure

1. Wash and dry the sour limes. They absolutely have to be thin-skinned sour limes. That is, you should be able to press them a little; they shouldn’t be too hard. (Thick-skinned sour limes will make the pickle bitter and the skins too will be tough and hard.) Cut each sour lime into 8 pieces and remove the seeds from each piece.
2. Next, transfer the cut sour lime pieces to a cooker vessel and cover it with a lid.
3. Pressure cook the sour lime pieces. When the cooker comes to full pressure, reduce the heat to low and let the lime pieces cook under pressure for around 12 minutes. For a larger quantity of sour limes, you’ll have to cook them under pressure for a little longer.
4. Remove the cooker vessel from the pressure cooker. Check that the skin of the lime pieces has softened. Strain off the separated liquid into a steel vessel or a steel/non-stick kadai.
5. Then, to this liquid, add the sugar and jaggery. Stir and heat this mix on medium-low heat for around 4 – 5 minutes till the syrup thickens.
6. Next, add the chilli powder, turmeric powder, hing, ground cumin, salt, and black salt and boil the syrup for a couple of minutes.
7. Stir in the sour lime pieces and immediately turn off the heat. (Don’t boil the lime pieces in the pickle syrup or else the skins will become somewhat hard.)
8. Finally, adjust the taste of the pickle if necessary.
9. Let it cool to room temperature. It will thicken further as it cools. Then transfer it to a dry, sterilised bottle.

The pickle can be enjoyed right away, but will taste even better after a few days.

This being an instant pickle, the skin will be slightly firm and won’t be as soft as in the traditionally made lime pickle that matures and softens slowly over several weeks. Nevertheless, it is a tasty pickle and you’ll enjoy it.

When stored properly, it will stay good in the fridge for at least 3 – 4 months.

Enjoy!

Recipe 2 (Sour lime pickle crush)

Ingredients

220g sour limes (6 Nos)

165g (¾ cup) sugar

165g (¾ cup) grated jaggery

1 ½ tsp regular chilli powder

¼ tsp turmeric powder

A pinch of hing (asafoetida)

1 tsp salt

1 ½ tsp black salt

Procedure

1. Wash and dry the sour limes. Then cut each one into 8 pieces and remove the seeds.
2. Transfer the cut lime pieces to a steel bowl with a lid and freeze them by keeping them in the freezer for at least 3 hours.
3. Then, coarsely grind the frozen lime pieces in a grinder. Freezing the lime pieces first prevents them from being ground to a paste.
4. Transfer the coarsely ground lime pieces to a steel vessel or a steel/non-stick pan or kadai.
5. Next, mix in the sugar and jaggery and start heating the mix on medium heat. The weight of the sugar + jaggery should be roughly one and a half times the weight of the sour limes.
6. When the sugar and jaggery dissolve, add the chilli powder, turmeric powder, hing, salt, and black salt.
7. Cook the lime pickle crush for around 7 – 8 minutes on medium-low heat till it thickens.
8. Finally, adjust the taste if necessary and turn off the heat.
9. Let the pickle crush cool. It will thicken further as it cools. Then transfer it to a dry, sterilised glass bottle.

The pickle crush can be enjoyed right away.

The slight hint of bitterness will reduce and vanish completely in 4 – 5 days.

When stored properly, the crush will stay good in the fridge for 2 months or even longer.

Enjoy!