Indian Pickle Recipes - Achaar

Spicy Hot Indian Pickle Recipe
Lonche - Uppinkai - Oorgai

Indian Pickle Recipes are a must for any food lover. Be it a festival meal or an everyday meal, a variety of pickles are served.

Pickles are known as Achaar (Hindi), Lonche (marathi), Uppinkai (Kannada) , Oorgai or uragai (Tamil) in Indian languages.

Pickles are made from green mangoes, lime, green chilies, garlic, vegetables such as carrots, cauliflowers, gooseberries, mixed pickle etc. You can see some of the main ingredients/varieties.

Neighbors help each other in making pickles when large quantities are to be made. Sometimes 2 or 3 friends make the pickles together and then the goodies are shared too.

What fun to chat with friends while making the pickles.

Most are spicy pickles. But there are some sweet pickles too.

So there is a pick of pickles for all food lovers. Some have a shorter shelf life while other are used for years. But all of them are yummy and increase the enjoyment of a meal..

Amla - gooseberry pickle

Doesn't your mouth water looking at the amla - gooseberry pickle in the image?

Summer months are busy months for the women folk. Mangoes are in season and many special dishes are made from raw as well as ripe mangoes. Mango pickle is a part of that.

Now a days, you can buy the pickle bottles in market but the taste and the fun of making the homemade pickle will be missing.

How are the pickles stored? What kind of pickle jars / bottles are used?

Bitter orange - sour orange - idlimbu pickle

Pickles are made with great care as they are supposed to last a year at least.

Best ingredients are chosen, cleaned.

Jars and bottles are washed and sun dried.

Any moisture can spoil the pickle so special care is taken.

Large pickle jar for longterm storage

When pickle is made in large quantity, it is stored in suitable large containers.

A small quantity is kept in a smaller bottle or jar for regular use.

Housewives are very possessive and careful about opening and filling the small jar from the larger container.

Small pickle jar daily use

Most people use porcelain, terracotta or stone jars. But now a days glass bottles are used too.

The traditional ceramic - porcelain jars were commonly used with a cloth tightly tied at the top to keep out moisture and insects as the lids were loose.

Glass bottles have a advantage of having tight fitting lids.

I love to look at different kinds of pickle jars when I go shopping. The traditional porcelain and terracotta jars make me want to make more kinds of pickles.

I prefer to make my own pickles and my family loves them.

Given below are a few Indian homemade pickle recipes that I make. Hope you and your family enjoys them.