Lime Juice Pickle

Nine months ago, when I went to India, mom had made this lime juice pickle/chutney. She use to prepare it very often when we were growing up had not made it in recent years. Usually amma makes it in small quantities as it is so easy and can be prepared whenever required, as limes are available year round. Yes, it i not lime pickle but lime juice pickle. This pickle is made with lime juice and no lime pieces, unlike the regular lime pickle. I brought some pickle back with me and it was sitting in the fridge for almost 8 months until 5 weeks ago. I ate it once in a while and U never touched. Last month, we were again on this eating healthy binge, which usually lasts only a few weeks. So during this binge, oatmeal was our breakfast, brown rice took over white rice, grilled fish and meats with steamed vegetables made it to our dining table everyday. Sadly, this binge only lasted 2 weeks as we had visitors and stopped out healthy diet binge.

Anyways, during those 2 weeks, one day I mixed this lime pickle with my oatmeal and U wanted to try it too. Amma told me to temper this pickle before eating but since I was the only one eating it, I did not bother. U liked the fact that it has zero oil in it and tasted it. He fell in love with it and finished the pickle in a week.. 😮 There was very little, may be little less than 2 cups of pickle… nonetheless, he finished it in a week and ate it as a side dish with every meal. More than the taste, he liked the fact that this pickle did not have any oil in it 🙂

I got the recipe from amma and made it again. The first time it was ok and we finished it too and couple of days ago I made it again and it came out better than the first try.

Printable Recipe

• List 1
  • 6 Limes juiced or 1 Cup Lime Juice
  • 1 tsp dry roasted Fenugreek seeds powder
  • 1 ½ tsp Mustard Seed Powder
  • 2 ½ tbsp Salt (adjust to taste & I used Mortin Iodized Salt)
  • ¼ tsp Turmeric powder
• List 2
  • 2 ½ tbsp Chili Powder (adjust to taste)
  • 1 ½ tbsp dry roasted Sesame Seed powder
• Tempering
  • Oil
  • Cumin
  • Mustard
  • Dry Chilies
  • Curry Leaves

• Mix the ingredients listed under list 1. Mix all the spices well so that there are no lumps in the lime juice. Let the spices and juice mixture ferment or sit for 3-4 days at room temperature. I only left it for a day.
• On day 2, (mom said 4th or 5th day) mix the second list of ingredients to the juice mixture.


• I was not going to temper the pickle but as I was going to take pictures for the blog, I tempered it :)In a pan take some oil and temper it with the ingredients listed for tempering.  I was out of curry leaves and did not use it today.
• It can be served with rice, upma and makes tasteless oatmeal flavorful and eatable… 🙂
• Stays good for at least 10 days at room temperature.  However, I refrigerated it after a week.

I am sending this over to Ammaji’s Recipes, who is hosting her first blog event, Spicy Fiery Chutneys. What would be a better entry than this Lime Juice Pickle.  I also sending it to Pickles & Chutneys at Mom’s Recipes