For most of us in India, limes are lemons and lemons are limes. As weird as that statement might seem to some of you, as far as our recipes and the vendors at our markets are concerned, they’re one and the same thing. That must sound odd for people who know they’re two different things entirely but for us, they’re all lemons. They’re sour and they can be juiced or pickled or whatever!
After a lot of thought and research, I have come to the conclusion that our lemons are actually limes, even though our markets keep selling us a mix of green/ yellow and thick/ thin skinned “lemons”. If anyone has any thoughts or conclusive information about whether our lemons are actually lemons or limes, please leave a comment.
In our home, limes are usually juiced to make absolutely refreshing summer drinks or used to add a tang to many of our spicy dishes including rasam, pav bhaji and chaats. Then, of course, they’re pickled. Depending on which part of India you are in, limes are pickled with a variety of spices and can be either salty or sweet. They can be so good that you would be spoiled for choice, as is the case with all Indian style pickles.
This particular pickle must be the simplest way of pickling limes. My father, like the rest of his side of the family, loved spicy food. I still remember my paternal grandmother would keep aside half portions of everything she cooked and would add the spice (read chillies!) to other other half. The “less” spicy half portions were reserved for us children and the odd adult who couldn’t tolerate the “heat”, while the rest of the family indulged in their fondness for spicy food.
Since we could never tolerate the levels of “fire” my father was used to, he would usually supplement what he termed “bland” meals with spicy pickles and this arrangement suited us all. However this salted lime and ginger pickle was one of the few non-spicy pickle favourites of his. So much so, that in our home he was the only one who made this pickle. Of course, one could argue that he picked the easiest pickle to make and left all the rest of the cooking to our mother!
There really isn’t much of a recipe to make this pickle proportion-wise. I am giving an approximate recipe but you may use it more a set of instructions for reference and adjust the salt and the green chillies to your taste. A slight increase or decrease of the ingredients will not make much of a difference.
It is important to let the ingredients sort of marinate and the lemon pieces become soft and pulpy in texture. Then have this pickle with cooked rice and freshly made plain yogurt for an absolutely delicious fuss-free and simple comforting meal.
I might be biased in this observation because I am a Palakkad Iyer for whom “thayir chaadham/ curd rice” (which is what we call our yogurt and rice) is the ultimate comfort food, so take my recommendation at your own risk!
Salted Limes Ginger With Green Chillies.
Salted Limes With Ginger And Green Chillies: A Simple Indian Style Pickle
Ingredients
- 6 limes (washed, dried and cut into eights)
- 1 lime Juice of
- 2 2 ginger u201d pieces of about bits of , chopped into small pieces / julienne
- 3 or 4 green chillies long , chopped
- 2 to 3 tsps salt
Instructions
- Take a clean and dry glass jar. Put a layer or two of the lime pieces into the jar along with half of the ginger and green chillies. Sprinkle about a tsp of salt over this. Put in some more of the lime pieces, the remaining ginger and chillies and some more salt. Put in all the remaining lime pieces and the last of the salt. Lastly, add the juice of 1 lime also to this There is no hard and fast rule about this process. This is just a way of ensuring a more equal distribution of the ingredients.
- Your jar should be almost full, but leave a bit of space at the top before closing the jar. This will allow the contents of the jar to move about easily when you need to shake/ agitate it.
- Shake the jar a few times to ensure everything gets mixed well. Do this about 3 times a day, and leave the ingredients to work their magic.
- The salt will draw the juice out of the lime pieces and also soften the skin. The ginger will initially turn a beautiful pink colour before losing it to become pale after a day or so. After about 3 or 4 days, the pickle will become a bit mushy looking.
- Now it is ready for use. Once done, the salt in the pickle should ensure that it keeps at room temperature, but you can always refrigerate to be on the safer side.
I'm Aparna and My Diverse Kitchen is my ovo-lacto vegetarian food blog where you'll find recipes, food stories & photography. I've been blogging since 2007 and believe the kitchen, and the dining table (by extension) is really the heart of a home. 
OOOOhhhhhhhhhh….I do remember this one!!! He would make it all the time and many a time, we’d go for it, before it had marinated to the degree it needed to!! Another one, bookmarked!
Tongue tickling pickle..
I have a bottle of this pickle in my fridge right now. Made it from Mandira’s recipe. Gosh, it is so good isn’t it. I treat it like gold! 🙂 Lovely pics.
Yum..this is one of my favorites–I don’t like the red chilly based one.Its been ages since I tasted this.
Looks delicious!! I can just imagine how well that will go with curd rice!!
Looks absolutly delicious. Love the wonderful pic too !!
Looks absolutly delicious. Love the wonderful pic too !!
This simple pickle is a must have in my fridge too … just the cuts are different and that depends on my mood when i am chopping ..:)
Nice to have it with curd rice.Nice and clear pictures of the ingredients in bottle.
This reminds me of the ‘aadrak-muli’ my mom makes. The recipe is d same, but she adds ‘muli’ to this. Its a must have in winters, with urad dal khichidi. Yummm 🙂
totally agree with u aparna! nothing to beat the thayir sadam- lemon pickle combo ! great recipe
It is the opposite here… lemons are not recognized in markets, except in upper class supermarkets.. and they are extremely expensive.. while limes are abundantly available anywhere and anytime of the year. Lime is indeed heart and soul of Thai food…I am just curious about pickling limes and ginger, must be very tasteful!!Sawadee from bangkok,Kris
Lemon,Lime vs Lime,Lemon…neverending confusion.call-it-what-you-want, pickled and coupled with thayir saadham, they do make a hit combo.Wondering if you seriously arranged the chillis, ginger pieces and lime cuts in the bottle to bring out a beautiful pattern.
Alright I read it fully, you have arranged initially:)
I knew you would recognise it, Veena. :)Its is Cynthia, at least to me. ;-)Divya, I like the one with chilli powder too with curd rice but this is the one I prefer.Thanks, Smita. :)Adrak-muli is new to me, Shipra. Of course, you get lovely “muli” in the North during winter.That’s interesting, Kris.Try this pickle and see how you like it.Actually I did not arrange it like I mentioned in the recipe, Lata. I was in a hurry and just dumped everything in a glass bowl (see my 2nd pic) and filled the jar. It was just my luck that it turned out well in the picture. 🙂
Wonderful! I love Indian pickles. Very inspiring post! I wonder if there is a canning book with all South Asian flavours, the books here (Canada/US) are all so timid in the taste department.
Mouth watering recipe.. looks perfect !!
The tanginess jumps out of the picture. So to add to the confusion, the limes (lemons) you used in thsi recipe are yellow, so I’m thinking they are lemons? Thats my rule of thumb: yellow = lemon. green = lime. =)
wow, the pic is making my mouth water. I have never had anything like this. Surely, I had lime pickle hour and sour version and sweet and sour version as well. But, this is new. Thanks for sharing.
This one sounds very simple and tasty pickle!
I would add green pepper to this – I just love it!
looks so yummy dear…..
Pickles. I am always amazed at the diverse ranges of pickes in Indian cuisine!!
i love this pickle..tho’ we didn’t add ginger to this..thanks..pbhttp://kamalkitchen.blogspot.c…
If you want to use the pickle immediately(like what they do for marriages), you have to season mustard seeds, saute greenchillies, ginger and lime piecesin the pressurecooker vessel, close the lid and just cook for 1 whistle.It comes out very well, Aparna.
You must be finding them timid because you enjoy spice, Natashya.:) Have sent you a mail. Let me see what I can find for you.Ann, that doesn’t work of me. 🙁 I have seen green ones and yellow ones that look like one or the other!Sra, green pepper would be mind blowing. :)Anh, we do have a tremendous variety of pickles in India. :)Mala, I’ve seen this pickle made that way. :)I like that too, but this one which takes its time to mature has an entirely different taste.
I used to love this pickle (Im a huge fan of thayir chaadam too!) but now for some reason I find the big pieces intrusive and too much flavour to handle -signs of old age ?The green chillies look gorgeous and Im sure that my heat seeking hubby would love this too…
This looks so interesting and tasty, Aparna. What would you suggest to serve it with?Best, Sandie
Miri, if you up the chillies I think your husband is guaranteed to like it! :)Sandie, here we serve it with rice and plain yogurt. This really brings out the flavours of the pickle.
my mom makes this so often, and we all love it. I love to have it with hot rice or kanji, and when sick with fever or cold, nothing makes a meal more comforting than this to the taste buds:-)
What about exposure to the direct sunlight for as much time as possible during day and adding a pinch of salt daily for first three days to complete the proper pickling process. My mother always did this and said you can start eating it after four days for best taste.
I’m aware of pickling by exposure to the sun, but usually we don’t open the bottle/ jar during the pickling process. So this method of adding more salt on each of the three days is new to me.
Madam thanks was searching this pickles without oil I will try..rajiv
Can i keep this in the Sun for half a day ? Or does it have to be stored immediately in a cool place or refrigerator?
You can definitely keep it in the sun, if you would like to do so.
I just now came across this recipe.
Could you please send me “Neer Elumichangai” Oorugai recipe? I am also a Palakkad Iyer! I had an authentic recipe for this and it was awesome tasting. Unfortunately, I have misplaced the recipe.
Thanks a million.
Lovely!! My parents are from palghat they make this pickle when they have a whim to do so and it’s my fav with curd rice n plain boiled dal and one veg side …I made the same today with a gigantic grape fruit generously given by my friend from her farm ! Hoping to see if it compares to the lime lemon version ☺️