Garlic pickle recipe with lemon, spice powder and very less oil. Super easy procedure with full video, stepwise pictures. Just need 5 days to get ready and goes well with curd rice.
My mom in law told me this recipe 3 years back, which I typed in a notepad and kept. But somehow not convinced to try. I have not tried garlic pickle at all earlier. Big no for store bought pickles, except for a very south Indian stylish lemon pickle if I see, I pick for my own consumption. Otherwise make small batches of pickles like mostly neer nellikai, vadumanga, mango thokku, tomato thokku, instant mango pickle, narthangai pachadi.
So when I made a quick trip to India 2 weeks back, I tasted this pickle for first time and loved it. Vj too liked. There was no too much of garlic smell or kaaram. So decided to try it out when I come back to Singapore for our own use. So far, past couple of years, luckily we used to get Indian garlic, which has small cloves. Now, when I wanted smallest cloves of garlic, for making this pickle, I checked in nearby groceries, to my disappointment there was only malai poondu (large variety).
Happy that at least I had Indian garlic. So used it cut into two or three and made this pickle, made post too. If you get garlic that are small, it is best for this pickle. Otherwise you can try with what you get. Check out this video on how to peel garlic, earlier I posted for garlic cheese dosa. It works best for large variety I guess.
Keep refrigerated. Use within a month.
Recipe card
Easy garlic pickle recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup Garlic small variety peeled
- 5 Lemon Indian small variety
- Salt
To roast, powder
- 12 red chillies
- ⅛ teaspoon Asafoetida
- ¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- 1 teaspoon oil
To temper
- 1 teaspoon oil
- ½ teaspoon mustard
Instructions
- Peel garlic. Cut into two if it is big.In a kadai, heat 1 teaspoon oil and roast red chillies, asafoetida, fenugreek seeds in medium flame.
- Once fenugreek seeds are golden roasted, remove everything in a plate for cooling.
- Grind once cooled into a powder along with salt.
- In a pickling jar, preferably porcelain or glass, take peeled garlic.
- Add the powdered spice mix and squeeze all the lemon over it. Lemon should me more, enough to completely coat the garlic along with spice mix.
- In a kadai, heat a teaspoon of oil and temper mustard. Mix to the pickle.
- Keep aside for 4-5 day, shaking or mixing everyday. First day, it is okay to leave it outside. Later refrigerate, give it a good mix everyday and keep in sun for a while. This ensures the garlic getting soaked in spices & lemon juice. Then it is ready to enjoy.
Video
Notes
- Use (south)Indian small variety garlic. If big, cut each clove into 2-3 for easily getting soaked.
- Give it a mix each day for evenness in taste.
- For lazy version, just mix store bought chilli powder, lemon, garlic and salt. No tempering too.
- Tastes better when it gets soaked more.
- Use half spicy chillies and half kashmiri red chillies for super bright red colour.
- My red chillies are medium spiced.
- Let the lemon and red chilli be balanced with salt all together for best taste.
- Add lemon, salt generously for more shelf life.
How to make garlic pickle stepwise pictures:
- Peel garlic. Cut into two if it is big.
- In a kadai, heat 1 teaspoon oil and roast red chillies, asafoetida, fenugreek seeds in medium flame. Once fenugreek seeds are golden roasted, remove everything in a plate for cooling.
- Grind once cooled into a powder along with salt.
- In a pickling jar, preferably porcelain or glass, take peeled garlic. Add the powdered spice mix.
- Squeeze all the lemon over it. Lemon should me more, enough to completely coat the garlic along with spice mix.
- In a kadai, heat a teaspoon of oil and temper mustard. Mix to the pickle. Keep aside for 4-5 day, shaking or mixing everyday. First day, it is okay to leave it outside. Later refrigerate, give it a good mix everyday and keep in sun for a while. This ensures the garlic getting soaked in spices & lemon juice. Then it is ready to enjoy.
Enjoy the garlic pickle with curd rice. As it is mixed and soaked with lemon, the garlic smell is just balanced. Keep refrigerated. Use within a month.
Charumathy says
Can this be done without lemon as am allergic to citrus fruits?
Raks Anand says
I think you have to look for other recipes using tamarind. I am not sure about the proportions
Anita says
Hi,
In those 5 days, should it be kept out in sun or kept in fridge?
Thanks
Raks Anand says
You can keep outside for one day, but make sure to handle properly. After that, you can take out, mix, keep in sun for an hour or so and then return to refrigerator. This is to ensure it gets soaked. Given the acidity, it won't get spoilt. I will update this in the post as well 🙂