Easy Carrot Pickle Goan Style

Homemade Carrot Pickle Recipe

Today I have yet another lip-smacking tasty Goan pickle for you – An easy carrot pickle recipe that’s quick to make and not too complicated. If you liked my brinjal pickle and tendli pickle, I guarantee you’ll absolutely love this pickle too.

Just make sure the level of the oil reaches the top of the carrot pickle. If it doesn’t, then heat another 2-3 tbsp of oil to smoking point, cool it completely, and then pour it on top of the pickle. We have to keep the bottle partly open till the pickle cools completely, after which, the lid can be screwed on. I assure you, it will be hard to resist the delicious aroma of the pickle spices, but you’ll have to wait, thankfully, for a short time.

Let the Goan carrot pickle mature for around 3-4 days and then, just dig in, and enjoy your mouth-watering homemade carrot pickle. When stored properly, it will stay good outside the fridge for months. But to be on the safe side, move it to the fridge after around three weeks. That is, if you’ve somehow not finished it already!

Ingredients

400g carrots

1 ½ tsp salt

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 light green (less spicy) chillies

6 Kashmiri chillies

16 medium-size garlic cloves

2-inch long ginger piece

8 cloves

½ cup + additional 2 tbsp vinegar

½ tsp fenugreek seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 ½ tsp cumin seeds

½ tsp peppercorns

1 tsp chilli powder

¼ cup sugar

½ tsp salt

½ cup oil

Procedure

1. Wash, peel, wipe dry, and chop carrots into sticks around 1 ½ inch long.
2. Mix them with the salt and turmeric powder, spread them out on a thali / tray, and air dry them for around 2 hours or cover them with a thin napkin and sun-dry them for an hour. After that, if any liquid separates from the carrots, put them on a strainer and drain the liquid away.
3. Slice approx. half of the garlic cloves into 2 parts each, and finely chop the rest. Slice half of the ginger piece and finely chop the rest of it.
4. In addition, wash and wipe dry the light green chillies, and chop them into ½ inch pieces. These chillies are less spicy. Air dry them for a few minutes.
5. To a grinder jar, transfer the Kashmiri chillies, sliced garlic cloves, sliced ginger pieces, and the cloves. Grind all of this to a paste with around half of the vinegar.
6. Dry roast the fenugreek seeds on medium heat for around a minute or till they change colour slightly. Now add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and peppercorns and dry roast these along with the fenugreek seeds for around 2 minutes without burning the spices.
7. Let these cool to room temperature and then grind them to a fine powder in your mixer-grinder.
8. In a pan, heat the oil well on medium heat. To it, add the chopped green chillies and sauté these for a minute till they change colour. Add the chopped ginger and garlic and sauté this for a few seconds. Then add in the masala paste. Rinse the grinder jar with the rest of the vinegar and add this to the pan as well. Sauté the masala for 1 – 2 minutes and then add in the ground dry spice mix. Sauté everything for a minute or so and then add in the chopped carrot pieces.
9. Rinse the bowl in which the masala paste had been transferred after grinding it with an additional 2 tbsp of vinegar and add this to the pan. Add the chilli powder. If you want a spicier pickle, you could make that 2 tsp. Add the sugar. I had powdered this so it could dissolve quicker. Then add ½ tsp salt. Mix everything.
10. Let the carrots cook on medium-low heat with occasional stirring for around 10 minutes. And then sample the pickle and adjust its taste if necessary.
11. Turn off the heat. Let the pickle cool for around 5-6 minutes and then transfer it to a sterilised glass bottle. The level of the oil should be up to the top of the pickle. If it’s not, then heat another 2-3 tbsp of oil to smoking point, and then pour it on top of the hot pickle.
12. Keep the bottle partly open till the pickle cools completely, after which, the lid can be fixed on the bottle.
13. Let the pickle mature for around 3-4 days.

Enjoy!