Looking for a quick tomato pickle to serve with rice, idli, dosa and upma? Look no further! This South Indian instant tomato pachadi is what you need! A spicy and tangy tamata pachadi is a must have condiment and is a 30 minutes recipe, excluding the cooling time.

Achar, uragaya, pachadi are different names for Indian pickles, depending on the language. In Telugu we call chutneys and pickles pachadi and to be more specific, pickles are nilluva pachadi. And in some parts of Telangana, nilluva pachadi is thokku.

Jar of tomato pickle, 2 tomatoes and red finger peppers on a wooden board.

This post was originally published in March 2011. It is republished with new content and images.

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About the recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
Serving & Storage
Tips
Substitutions
Tomato Pachadi Recipes
📖 Recipe

About the recipe

Mango pachadi or uragaya is the most common pickle in Telugu speaking states but we also have pickles with other vegetables and meats. Mango and lime pickles have the longest shelf life and other vegetables such as the tomato, dondakaya ava, carrot cauliflower pachadi have a short shelf life, although these last for months when refrigerated.

Traditionally, tomato pickle is prepared by sun drying tomatoes and then pickling it with Indian spices. This pickle has a very long shelf life. Today’s version is instant and is prepared by cooking tomatoes until soft and then making it into a pickle.

Second, fresh red chili paste and lime juice are used, unlike red chili powder and tamarind used in traditional method of preparing tamata nilluva pachadi. However, you can easily replace red chili paste and lime with chili powder and/or tamarind respectively.

Since the pickle is so easy to prepare, we usually prepare it in small quantities and make it year around when and as needed. Back home, folks usually make a big batch of red chili paste (pandu miram) when red chilies are available in abundance in the months of January and February.

Tomato pickle tastes great with pandu mirum and it also tastes great in chutneys and marinades. Replace green chilies with this pandu mirum in chutneys such as zucchini pachadi and add pandu mirum to marinades for some taste and color, like I did with grilled stuffed mackerel.

Ingredients

Tomato - use firm, ripe and sour tomatoes. I prefer red vine tomatoes but any variety works.

Oil - Recommend peanut oil but you can use vegetable, corn, canola or avocado oil.

Red Chili Paste - I usually get red chili paste from India. Every winter when red chilies are in season, my mom makes pandu miram (red chilies paste) and stores it for a year. I don't use it as much in my cooking except for the pickle and it usually stays good for couple of years in the refrigerator.

You can replace Indian red chili paste with red finger peppers paste. Finger peppers are not as fiery as the red chilies we get back home. You need to increase the quantity of finger pepper paste to meet the required spice level and even add some chili powder.

Spice Powders - roasted mustard seeds powder, roasted fenugreek seeds powder, cardamom and cloves powder.

Ginger Garlic Paste - you can make paste of ginger garlic or grind them separately. Make it fresh and when grinding separately, keep the garlic coarse.

Other ingredients - Lime Juice, salt and tadka ingredients which include dry red chilies, mustard, cumin seeds, curry leaves and turmeric.

Instructions

There are three parts to the preparation. First cook the tomatoes, then prepare the tadka and mix everything together. The prep work involves preparation of the spice powder and red chili paste, if you do not have pandu miram handy.

How to prepare pandu miram or red chili paste?

Twi varieties of chili pastes and a red finger peppers.

Wash red chilies or red finger peppers and pat dry. Remove the stack, cut into small pieces and grind the chilies to a fine paste with some salt. Transfer to a clean, dry glass jar with an airtight lid. This paste stays good for at least a year in the fridge. I stored red finger peppers upto a month. Never stored it beyond that.

Pandu miram in the above photo is from 2 years ago and you can see the paste is not as bright as it is in the ingredient shot. Ingredients photo is from 2 years ago when the mirum was fresh. Chili paste loses it's vibrant color as it ages. I made the red finger paste few days ago when preparing the pickle.

Tomato pickle preparation

Step 1: Lightly toast mustard and cumin seeds, cool and make a powder along with cardamoms and cloves. No need to toast cloves and cardamom but you can, if you wish. I did not.

Step 2: Wash, cut and cook tomatoes in some oil. Do not cover the pan.

Step 3: Cook tomatoes on medium - medium high flame until tomatoes are soft, all the juices evaporate and oil begins to separate from sides. Couple of minutes before turning of the flame, add spice powder to tomatoes, mix well and cook for couple of minutes. Remove from fire and let tomato mixture cool.

Step 4: Prepare a tempering with mustard seeds, cumin, dry chili, curry leaves, ginger garlic paste and turmeric. Add chili paste to tadka and sauté on medium to medium low flame for 3-5 minutes until both the pastes are cooked and oil begins to separate from the sides.

Mixing all the components for tomato pickle.

Step 5: Once the tempering is cool, add it to tomato mixture along with lime juice and salt. Mix everything together. Taste the pickle, adjust seasoning and lime juice to taste.

Step 6: Let the pickle cool completely and transfer to a clean glass bowl. There won't be much oil floating on the pickle. But that is ok. Next day you will see a layer of oil on top.

Check the recipe card below for detailed recipe.

Serving & Storage

Serve tomato pachadi with rice, idli, dosa, upma or with any tiffin. You can also eat it with sakinalu, which one of the must preparations for Sankranthi. Pickle has a shelf life of at least 10 days to a month. In the refrigerator, it stays fresh for almost a year or even longer. I usually refrigerate it within a week.

Tips

Recipe calls for less oil than usually used. Use more oil for a thick layer of oil floating on the top. Oil acts like a preservative and gives the pickle a longer shelf life. Since I refrigerate within 3-5 days, I use less oil.
Taste the pickle again after a few hours or next day and adjust chili, salt and lime. You can always add salt later too but try to adjust the chili and lime within a day or 2 max, of preparing the pickle.
If the pickle is not spicy enough, heat some oil, cook the chili paste in it, cool and add to the pickle. You can also add chili powder. Then no need to add more oil.
On the first day, pickle might look dry with less oil but don’t get tempted to add more. Let the pickle rest for a day. By next day you will see a layer of oil floating on top. If you still feel the need to add more oil, prepare a simple tadka with few mustard seeds and cumin, let the tadka cool completely before adding to the pickle.

Substitutions

Highly recommend using fiery hot red chilies and I prefer the chilies we get in India during winters. But if you do not have it, use red finger peppers paste or chili powder.
You can replace lime juice with tamarind. Cook tamarind along with tomatoes.

Tomato Pachadi Recipes

If you are looking for a pachadi (chutney) with tomatoes, here are a few tomato chutney combinations. First 3 pair well with rice as well as tiffins and the tomato perugu pachdi goes well with rice and pulaos.

If you like tamata thokku (pachadi), here are a few more nilliva pachadi recipes you may like.

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📖 Recipe

Tomato Pachadi

Tomato pandu mirchi pachadi is spicy, tangy instant South Indian tomato pickle. It is a quick, and easy tamata pachadi recipe which can be prepared in is a less than an hour. It goes well with rice, roti and most of the South Indian tiffins.

5 from 6 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Condiment

Cuisine: South Indian Cuisine

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 20

Servings:

Calories: 80kcal

Author: Usha Rao

Equipment

1 10" frying Pan or a kadai
1 small frying pan for toasting spices and tadka
1 Spice grinder
1 mixie or wet/dry spice grinder to prepare ginger garlic paste

Ingredients

Spice Mix

½ teaspoon Mustard Seeds
½ teaspoons Methi
4 Cardamoms
2 Cloves

Pickle

¼ cup Oil
1 pound Vine Ripe Tomatoes about 4 medium sized tomatoes
1 ½ - 2 tablespoons Salt adjust to taste
2 Limes or small lemons juiced or ½ cup lime Juice

Tadka

¼ cup Oil
Curry Leaves
½ teaspoon Mustard Seeds
½ teaspoon Cumin
2 Dry Red Chilies
⅓ cup Fresh Red Chili Paste check notes or the blog post for details.
1 ½ tablespoon Ginger Paste
2 ½ - 3 tablespoon Garlic paste
Turmeric

Instructions

Spice Mixture

In a small pan lightly toast mustard and methi seeds and let cool. Grind the seeds along with cardamom and cloves to a fine powder.

Cook Tomatoes

Wash the tomatoes and cut each tomato to 8 – 10 pieces, depending on the size of the tomato.
In a pan, heat oil and cook the tomatoes without covering for approximately 12 – 15 minutes, on medium - medium high flame. Tomatoes should become soft and the juices should evaporate. You may have to reduce the heat half way into cooking to avoid burning.
When the tomatoes are cooked and the juices have almost evaporated, add the above powder and give a good stir. Cook for another couple of minutes and turn off the heat. Let the tomato mixture cool.

Tadka

Take the remaining oil in another pan and heat it for the tempering.
When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, cumin and dry chili.
When the seeds splutter, add the curry leaves and sauté for a few seconds.
Add the ginger garlic paste, turmeric and cook for a minute.
Then add the chili paste and sauté on medium low flame for 3-5 minutes until the paste mixture is cooked.
Turn off the heat, let a mixture cool down for 5-10 minutes.

Pickle

Add prepared tadka to the tomato mixture along with lime juice. Mix everything well.
Taste the pickle, adjust salt and lime juice according to your taste.
Leave it the pan for few hours to cool. Then transfer to a clean, dry glass container. Pickle is ready to consume though leave it for a day or two for the flavors to blend in.
Next day do a taste test and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Leave it for a day or two on the shelf and then refrigerate.
Store it in a clean glass container and always use a dry spoon to serve. This way, the pickle stays fresh for almost a year.
It is a good condiment with yogurt and rice, idli & dosa.

Notes

How to make red chili paste

Wash red chilies or red finger peppers and pat dry. Remove the stack, cut into small pieces and grind the chilies to a fine paste with some salt.
Transfer to a clean, dry glass jar with an airtight lid. Red chili paste I get from India stays good for at least a year in the fridge. I stored red finger peppers up to a month. Never stored it beyond that.
10-12 red finger peppers yields about 1 cup of paste and I grind it with a tablespoon of salt.

Tips

Red Chili Paste - In above recipe, if you are using red finger paste, use ⅔ cup of paste and 2 tablespoons of chili powder. Add chili powder to tomato mixture along with lime juice and tadka. Do not add chili powder in tadka.
Oil - Recipe calls for less oil than usually used. You can use ¾ to 1 cup of oil if you want a thick layer of oil floating on the top. Oil acts like a preservative and gives the pickle a longer shelf life. Since I refrigerate within 3-5 days, I use less oil.
On the first day it might feel there is less oil in the pickle but don’t get tempted to add more. Let the pickle rest for a day. By next you will see a layer of oil floating on top. Then, if you feel the pickle requires more oil, prepare a simple tadka with required oil, cool it and add to pickle. For tadka you can use very few mustard and cumin seeds and pinch of turmeric.
Taste Testing - Taste the pickle again after a few hours or next day and adjust chili, salt and lime. You can always add salt later too but try to adjust the chili and lime within a day or 2 max.
Pickle Not Spicy - If the pickle is not spicy enough, heat some oil, cook the chili paste in it, cool and add to the pickle. You can also add chili powder and you need not add more oil , if the pickle already has enough oil.

Substitutions

Highly recommend using fiery hot red chilies and I prefer the chilies we get in India during winters. But if you do not have it, use red finger peppers paste or chili powder.
You can replace lime juice with tamarind. Cook tamarind along with tomatoes.

Nutrition

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Tomato Pickle

About the recipe

Ingredients

Instructions