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    Home » Recipes » PICKLES

    Instant lemon pickle recipe | South Indian style

    November 15, 2016 by Raks Anand 22 Comments / Jump to Recipe

    Instant lemon pickle is made by pressure cooking lemon and seasoning it with spices, instead of marinating lemon in salt and wait for few days.

    instant lemon pickle
    Jump to:
    • Top tip
    • Recipe card
    • Stepwise photos

    This method is usually done in marriages as this can be done instantly. Lemon pickle is my favorite among the  pickles. Even mango pickle comes next.

    I love neer nellikkai and vadumanga too but when it comes to these sort of thick pickles it is lemon pickle. Ever since I got married, mom will make lemon pickle and mango thokku and pass it to me.

    I make mango thokku often as it is easy as well as Vj’s favorite. But this is the first time I prepared lemon pickle. This can be prepared with very less oil. So it has to be kept in fridge and consumed in a month.

    But since we make this very less, it will not be a problem. Few days back asked mom how to make lemon pickle as I got sick and could not eat anything properly. I felt like having mom’s lemon pickle, so decided to make my own.

    instant lemon pickle south Indian

    We are not fan of store bought pickles, the flavors we make at home is the best and cant even compare both. Usually make quick and easy thokku like mango thokku, tomato thokku or neer nellikkai.

    Once I tried a brand from Malaysia called Lingam in which the lemon pickle was so very similar to homemade ones. Sadly it is not available these days.

    I thought Vj won't be liking lemon pickle that much, but when he had yesterday, he told he liked it very much. Since this is very easy to make, I guess can make often too here after.  Click here - Check out all the pickle recipes

    Top tip

    • The cookbook I have says for a lemon, its 2 long red chillies or 1 teaspoon red chilli powder (if store bought).
    • The salt should be same as the red chilli powder (only if store bought is used).
    • And I use rock salt (kal uppu)I have fenugreek seeds (vendhayam/ methi seeds) roasted and powdered kept ready, so used it.
    • My mom says, elders roast the red chillies, asafoetida (katti perungayam) and methi seeds and powder it, add to the pickle. But I like raw red chilli flavor a lot.

    Click here to read elumichai oorugai in tamil

    Recipe card

    instant lemon pickle
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    Instant lemon pickle

    Instant lemon pickle (elumichai oorugai) is made by pressure cooking lemon and seasoning it with spices, instead of marinating lemon in salt and wait for few days.
    Course Condiments
    Cuisine Indian, South Indian
    Prep Time 15 minutes
    Cook Time 20 minutes
    Servings 1 Cup
    Cup measurements

    Ingredients

    • 10 Lemon Indian small variety
    • 20 Red chilli long variety
    • ¼ teaspoon Asafoetida
    • ½ teaspoon Turmeric
    • 1 teaspoon Fenugreek seeds roast and powder
    • Salt – As needed

    To temper

    • 1 tablespoon Sesame oil
    • ½ teaspoon Mustard
    • ¼ teaspoon Asafoetida
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions

    • Pierce the lemon with a knife or any sharp item and pressure cook it for 2 whistles with half the salt and very less water.
    • Once done, cool down and chop the lemon. Remove any seeds in it.
    • Powder red chillies coarsely. I like it coarse just like my mom does, but if you want you can powder finely too.
    • Heat kadai with oil and temper with mustard and asafoetida. Add the chopped lemon along with the pulp/juice if any.
    • Add required salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, asafoetida, fenugreek seeds powder. Mix to coat the lemon. Just cook until the excess moisture goes off.

    Notes

    • Use bright red chillies for more attractive colour. The one I used was dark in colour.
    • Adding asafoetida (Perungayam/ hing) half while tempering and half as such gives wonderful flavour.
    • Let the red chilli be crisp so that it gets powdered easily. So you can sun dry it.
    • Keep refrigerated always.
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    Stepwise photos

    1. Pierce the lemon with a knife or any sharp item and pressure cook it for 2 whistles with half the salt and very less water.

    step 1 pierce

    2. Once done, cool down and chop the lemon. Remove any seeds in it.

    step 2 cook, chop

    3. Powder red chillies coarsely. I like it coarse just like my mom does, but if you want you can powder finely too.

    step-3-chilli

    4. Heat kadai with oil and temper with mustard and asafoetida. Add the chopped lemon along with the pulp/juice if any.

    step-4-temper

    5. Add required salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, asafoetida, fenugreek seeds powder. Mix to coat the lemon. Just cook until the excess moisture goes off.

    step-5-stir

    Serve with Curd rice (thayir sadam) the best. I like pickles only with curd rice, but many like it with rasam, parathas, upmas too.

    lemon pickle recipe

    More PICKLES

    • Cut mango pickle recipe | South Indian style
    • Nellikai oorugai recipe | Indian Gooseberry pickle
    • Tomato jam recipe | Indian travel food recipes
    • Green chilli pickle (North Indian style)

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Ani Paul

      November 15, 2016 at 3:05 pm

      Thanks so much for the recipe,looks very interesting

      Reply
    2. Prabha

      November 15, 2016 at 10:33 pm

      Very interesting recipe...will try it for sure..How long it will stay?

      Reply
    3. Raks anand

      November 16, 2016 at 12:31 am

      A month in fridge. Should always be refrigerated.

      Reply
    4. lakshmi

      November 16, 2016 at 6:13 am

      I tried now as i was having all things ready in my hand. Lemon is cooked but thuvarpu was very high.what could have been the mistake?

      Reply
    5. Varsha Manikandan

      November 16, 2016 at 7:02 am

      Hi raks, i follow ur recipes. Can we chop the lemon and then cook for two whistles.because it will be difficult to cut lemon after cooking. Any specific reason to pierce and cook lemon.

      Reply
    6. Hima Bindu

      November 16, 2016 at 8:54 am

      Won't cooking lemon make it bitter?

      Reply
    7. Raks anand

      November 16, 2016 at 10:43 am

      Hope you cooked with salt. If you taste as such it will be like that, but if you add enough salt and red chilli it will be balanced. Also give a day standing time. If it is still bitter, try adding more salt and red chilli and add 1/4 tsp sugar or 1/2 tsp jaggery. Sautee in oil again it will be alright

      Reply
      • Kiruthika Sasikumar

        April 16, 2020 at 6:17 pm

        I was a very starter in making pickle . I tried it today , it came out very well. I was very happy.

        Reply
        • Raks Anand

          April 16, 2020 at 7:46 pm

          Thanks for your feedback

          Reply
    8. Raks anand

      November 16, 2016 at 10:43 am

      If we salt and spice it right, it wont be bitter.

      Reply
    9. Raks anand

      November 16, 2016 at 10:45 am

      Yes you can just give a whistle or two, I was afraid we will loose more pulp if we cut and then cook. My mom asked to pierce, so i followed the same blindly.

      Reply
    10. Preethi Durai

      November 16, 2016 at 3:08 pm

      Hi raks . Can we add the remaining water and juice in the cooker while cooking the pickle..

      Reply
    11. Raks anand

      November 16, 2016 at 3:25 pm

      Yes sure

      Reply
    12. Laxmi Namratha

      November 22, 2016 at 3:01 pm

      Hi raks,
      The pickle I prepared tastes very very bitter. I have added enough salt and chilli but it still tastes very bitter.

      Reply
    13. Raks anand

      November 22, 2016 at 3:05 pm

      Laxmi, please add lots of chilli and salt, for pickles it has to be more. My mom makes this pickle same way for years and never turns bitter.

      Reply
    14. Archana rjn

      November 05, 2017 at 12:12 am

      Hi Raks, I have plenty of lemon peaks left, can I cut them up in pieces and follow the above steps?

      Reply
    15. Raks anand

      November 05, 2017 at 12:57 am

      Hi, I am sorry What is lemon peaks?

      Reply
    16. Sandhya

      July 02, 2018 at 7:39 am

      Hi raks, my pickle seems to be very dry. Do we have to add more oil? Or it just needs standing time.?

      Reply
    17. Raks Kitchen

      July 03, 2018 at 8:34 am

      You can add the water that is there after pressure cooking. Adding more oil will help too 🙂

      Reply
    18. aiysha

      August 06, 2019 at 12:14 am

      Hey..
      What if i want to make it sweet? At which stage do i add sugar or shall i make sugar syrup?

      Reply
      • Raks Anand

        August 08, 2019 at 11:46 am

        I am not sure about adding sugar/ syrup to this. Yet I suppose it is added towards the end.

        Reply
    19. Button Curry

      April 04, 2020 at 6:36 pm

      Love this pickle with sambar or rasam rice.

      Reply

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    Raks anand

    Hi, I'm Rajeswari Vijayanand! I am the person behind Rakskitchen, sharing recipes with pictures & videos.

    More about me →

    Popular

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    Summer recipes

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