Tomato Pickle

Tomato pickle is my grandma’s one of the signature recipes. She uses pure ‘Nattu thakkali'(Organic sour tomatoes) for preparing it. It is a perfect condiment for all kind of recipes but goes very well with Dosa.

My mom got me few Kilos of fresh organic tomatoes from the nearest farm at good price and she asked me to prepare this pickle. Till now, I tried tomato pickle only with my grandma’s live guidance and I didn’t want to take the risk with huge quantity of tomatoes. So, I tried it with half Kg of tomatoes on my own  to check the taste. It came out as expected and I made use of the remaining tomatoes later. Increase the recipe as per your requirement.

For large quantity of tomatoes, try using freshly ground red chilli powder and fenugreek seeds for perfect taste and aroma.

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15-20 minutes

Makes:  About 1 cup

Ingredients:

Tomato – 500 grams, firm and ripe

Tamarind – small blueberry size

Red chilli powder – 1 tablespoon

Gingelly Oil – 2 tablespoons

Mustard seeds and urad dal – 1/2 teaspoon

Salt – to taste

Asafoetida – a big pinch

Roasted Fenugreek powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Method:

1) Wash and wipe the tomatoes using kitchen towel.

2) Cut them into four pieces.

3) Put them in a mixer or grinder or food processor and blend it along with tamarind. Keep it aside.

4) Heat oil in a wide thick bottom pan / kadai. Add mustard seeds and urad dal.

5) Once the mustard seeds splutter, carefully pour the tomato paste to the pan.

6) Let it cook for 3 minutes. Add red chilli powder and salt. Cook again for 2 minutes.

7) Cover using the lid and reduce the flame to low.

8) Continue cooking till the oil oozes out from the sides of the pan and you don’t see any trace of water. It takes 10-15 minutes of time. Stir in between so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

9) Add roasted fenugreek powder and asafoetida. Mix well and turn the flame off.

10) Allow to cool to room temperature and store in a dry container.  Keep refrigerated for longer shelf life.

Notes:

1) Since the tomatoes I used tasted sour, I used only blueberry size tamarind. so, increase or decrease the tamarind quantity based on the sourness of the tomato.

2) If you don’t have roasted fenugreek powder, substitute it with fenugreek seeds.

3) While cooking the tomato paste, it might splash/splutter. So keep covered  and keep in low flame till it become thick.

Related Recipes

Kalakkai Pickle / Karonda Pickle / Bengal Currant Pickle