Carrot pickle recipe | Gajar ka achar

Carrot pickle recipe or gajar ka achar – an instant Andhra style pickle that can be made under 10 minutes. In most Andhra homes, a typical meal always consists of a hot pickle to go with rice and dal. We make pickles with many kinds of veggies like Carrot, cabbage, beetroot, Cauliflower, tomato, drumstick and even with leafy greens like gongura.

There are so many ways a pickle is made and this carrot pickle is made similar to the avakaya, a popular andhra pickle variety made with raw mangoes. This is not a traditional Andhra recipe, but roughly adapted from the mango pickle i shared before.

The pickle tastes hot, spicy and slightly tangy that comes from the lemon juice. This pickle stays good for about 4 to 7 days if refrigerated and handled with moist free hands. It goes good with plain rice, paratha or dal khichdi. Eating pickles in moderation helps to boost the appetite, so i serve this to the kids as well.

I made this pickle sometime back when I made dal khichdi and Lassi. I had no stock of the regular pickle to go with it. I had few carrots, so made this quick instant pickle.

All the ingredients used to make this pickle can be increased or decreased to suit your taste. The recipe can be doubled as well, just keep an eye on the salt you use.

I have used ginger in this carrot pickle, it can be replaced with garlic if you like. Ginger goes good in this pickle and is good to have during the cold days.

How to make carrot pickle recipe

1. Wash and peel carrot. Dry it completely, wipe off with a clean kitchen tissue or cloth, just to keep it free from moisture. Chop to tiny cubes, set aside. Do the same with garlic or ginger.

Heat a pan and lightly roast methi seeds until they turn fragrant. Transfer to a plate. Switch off the stove.

To the same pan, add mustard seeds and stir until they turn warm. Do not fry them. Cool them and powder together. If you have mustard and methi powder already, you can skip this.

2. Heat oil in a pan.

3. Make sure the oil is hot first, add ginger or garlic and carrots. Off the stove. We are not cooking further. Toss the carrots and ginger in this hot oil. This step is only to increase the shelf life otherwise the pickle may go bad with in 20 to 24 hours.

4. Add salt, turmeric, chili powder, mustard and methi powder. I had methi and mustard powder done separately, so i used it. To have more gravy in the pickle, double the quantity of red chili powder, methi seeds powder, mustard powder. Add salt and oil only as needed.

5. Mix up everything well. Check the spice and salt. When you taste you must get the salt, hot and pungent taste from the pickle. Adjust as needed.

Watch the quantity of methi powder, adding a lot can make the pickle taste bitter. Cool completely  then add lemon juice for the tang. You can also add a bit of amchur if you do not have lemon juice. But the flavor would change. If the pickle looks dry, add more oil.

Store carrot pickle in a clean air tight glass or ceramic jar. Avoid plastic containers including tupperware. Day by day the pickle turns dry since there would be no moisture released by carrots. So may need to add oil as needed just before serving.

For more Pickle recipes, check
Instant mango pickle
Mango avakaya
Tomato pickle

Andhra Style carrot pickle recipe