Spicy Carrot Pickle
Spicy Carrot Pickle
I am a pickle obsessive. I admit it.
Give me a good vegetable pickle and I can turn an ordinary meal into a feast. In the “English ploughman’s lunch from a country pub” style I like pickle with cheese and cold meat and like an Indian I add pickle to my plate of curry but this particular pickle I’ve discovered makes eggy things like zucchini slice and vegetable based fritters taste particularly good.
I was inspired by Greg and Lucy Malouf’s Spicy Carrot Pickle recipe from their vegetarian book New Feasts. Some ingredients I omitted to make the recipe fit into my FODMAP diet but I added replacements because it’s big flavours that count in this recipe.
This carrot pickle is sharp, pungent, sweet, sour, hot and spicy. It was elegant and delicious dolloped on sweet corn fritters and served to friends as hors d’oevres.
Spicy Pungent Carrot Pickle
spice paste:
1 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 heaped teaspoon sea salt
1 heaped teaspoon dried chilli flakes
50g fresh ginger peeled and grated
1 teaspoon dried turmeric
1/2 teaspoon asafoetida
60g brown sugar
1 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon onion infused oil
2 teaspoons garlic infused oil
1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoons cumin seeds
6 curry leaves, fresh is best
1/4 cup boiling water
200 mls apple cider vinegar
500g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tablespoon pungent mustard oil
To make the spice paste firstly grind the seeds to a powder. Add the ginger and pound to a paste, then add the salt, turmeric, asafoetida, chilli and sugar.
Heat the oils in a wide pan, then add the cumin and mustard seeds and fry until they pop.
Add the curry leaves and fry until translucent.
Add the spice paste and cook, stirring for 2 minutes.
Add the water and cider vinegar and bring to a vigorous simmer.
Add the carrots and lime juice and stir well.
Lower the heat and gently simmer the carrots until all the moisture has evaporated.
By the end of the cooking time the carrots should be soft, but still retain some texture.
Stir through the pungent mustard oil.
Spoon into sterilised jars and seal immediately. A vacuum will form as the pickle cools.
Store up to 3 months.
Makes 2 small jars of delicious pickle
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16 comments on “Spicy Carrot Pickle”
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Creative Commons Copyright Licence
Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
That sounds wonderful. And the corn fritters, too!
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Thanks Michelle, they were a great match
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We just finished some leftover corn fritters for dinner and I could have done with some of this tasty sounding pickle! Will put mustard oil on my shopping list.
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Arrg, having issues with the App, my replies to your comments keep evaporating! Anyway do get yourself some pungent mustard oil, it adds an amazing dimension of flavour
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Another one to bookmark. I wonder if I can get mustard oil in Athens? Will have a look at this wonderful Aladdin’s cave of a shop near the Central Market. They seem to have every spice imaginable. The combo with corn fritters is inspired. I can taste it now. Very excited as I have just found wood fired καλαμπόκι (corn) meal in Northern Greece (where maize is a common crop) that will make wonderful corn muffins – that will go equally well with this pickle.
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Finding ingredients away from your old haunts can be a challenge, enjoy the search..
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Thanks for this recipe. Pickles are my new skill to learn in the second half of this year, and I will certainly try these as carrots are an absolute favourite. margaret
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Hi Margaret. Pickles are quite simple to make. It’s just a matter of getting the balance of sugar salt vinegar and chilli right to suit your palate and act as a preservative
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Oh Lord! Another marked ‘Sandra’ going atop the pile in the kitchen! I have not bee o’that’grand in the ‘pickle-stakes’ either: yours just make sense and get the saliva [sorry!] flowing! Asafoetida . . . . you may be too young but there was this, methinks, US vegetarian cook with marvellous recipes on Oz TV way back who always included it ere I realized it was ‘hing powder’ 🙂 !!
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The word usage difference between “English” speaking nations is bizarre. I don’t remember that instance, but I do recall trying desperately to determine what aragula (rocket) was in the late 80s. No special skills needed to make this but it’s a great embellishment
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Yum! Like you, I’m mad for pickles. They can so easily elevate a dish. This one looks delicious. And served with corn fritters – will have to try.
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Carrots make a great pickle, enjoy….
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Wow, this sounds delicious … bookmarking, thanks!
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You’re welcome, enjoy….
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I’m not much of a pickle fan at all, but this does sound quite delicious. Yet another thing to go on the “I must try that some time” list…
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I have one of those lists, long as my arm. Hope you like it…
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