Lemon pickle (nimbu ka achar)
Preparation Time
18 minutes
Cooking Time
8 minutes
Difficulty Level
easy
Meal Type
Lunch
Serves 24
Key Ingredients
- Black Mustard Seeds
About This Recipe
Nimbu ka achar is the lemon pickle made in many Indian homes: ripe lemons cut into wedges, layered with salt and left in the sun, then finished with a tempering of mustard seeds and hing in mustard oil. Some households stop at salt and turmeric; others add jaggery or fenugreek. This version is the plain pantry one, built on the small black mustard seeds (rai) grown in Rajasthan and Bengal and on cold pressed mustard oil.
Salt does the preserving, at 15 percent of the lemon weight: 6 tablespoons of rock salt (about 90 g) to the 12 lemons, about 600 g in all. It draws juice out of the fruit until the wedges sit in their own brine, and 10 to 12 days of sun soften the rind. The tempering is added once the sun stage is done, so the mustard seeds and hing keep their bite instead of fading through it.
The finished pickle has soft-skinned wedges in a salty, gently hot masala, with the lemon's tartness running through every spoonful. Use ripe, thin-skinned lemons; thick skins take longer to soften. Cut the red chilli powder to a teaspoon for a mild jar; the hing can be skipped altogether, and salt, turmeric and sun do the job alone. See the mustard seeds guide for the seed itself, and how to use mustard seeds beyond the pickle jar.
Ingredient List
Serving Size:
1x
2x
3x
For the pickle
- Lemons, ripe and thin-skinned — 12 pieces
- Rock salt — 6 tbsp
Spice mix
- Black Mustard Seeds — 1 tbsp
- Turmeric Powder — 1 tbsp
- Red chilli powder — 1 tbsp
Tempering
- Mustard oil (cold pressed) — 3 tbsp
- Black Mustard Seeds — 1 tsp
- Hing (asafoetida) powder — 1/2 tsp
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Serving Suggestions
Spoon it over dal-rice, plain khichdi or curd rice, or set a small mound beside parathas and theplas; a little goes a long way against mild food. A wedge and some of its masala also stand in for a squeeze of lemon over chaat. Store the jar in a cool, dry spot and always take the pickle out with a clean, dry spoon. Bring the jar indoors on wet days even after the sun stage is over.
Tips for Cooking Lemon pickle (nimbu ka achar)
One wet spoon or a single damp lemon can spoil the whole jar, so dry everything before it touches the fruit. Keep the muslin cover tied on for the whole sun stage; it lets the brine breathe while keeping dust out. Shake the jar once a day so the salt moves through every wedge, and hold the first taste until the full 10 to 12 days are done.
Chef’s Note
The salt-and-sun stage is the recipe: salt pulls juice from the wedges until the jar becomes its own brine, and the sun finishes what the salt starts. A two-tablespoon serving comes to about 21 kcal and 2.1 g of fat, almost all of it from the mustard oil; the lemon itself is left out of the count.
Per serving (approx.): 21 kcal, protein 0.2 g, carbs 0.4 g, fat 2.1 g, fibre 0.2 g. Computed from IFCT 2017 / USDA values for the listed quantities. Measures: 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml.
Happy Cooking
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ByCOWBERRY
Sep 11, 2026
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