Amla Achar Recipe- Indian Gooseberry Pickle

Name: Amla Achar Recipe- Indian Gooseberry Pickle
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 500 gm Raw Amla (Indian gooseberry); 1.5 tbsp Mustard Oil (sarson ka tel); 5 piece whole red chilly; 2 tsp Jeera (Cumin seeds); 2 tsp Mustard Seeds (Rai Black) (can use yellow mustard ); 2 tsp Methre (Fenugreek seeds); 2 tsp Saunf (fennel seeds); 1 tsp Turmeric powder (haldi); 2 tsp red chilly powder (can adjust); 1 tsp Saunf Powder; 3-4 cups water (or as much to dip the amla for boiling); 1/2 tsp Heeng (asoeftida); 1 small green chilly (optional); salt as per taste

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This Amla Pickle recipe is flavored with Indian spices- dried red chilies, fenugreek seeds, Fennel seeds, and Turmeric, and is super-easy recipe that helps you create a quick Amla Achar.

amla pickle recipe instant amla ka achar

Amla Achar Recipe is a popular Indian pickle recipe made from fresh amla fruit or Indian gooseberries and flavored with Indian whole spices.

Indian gooseberry/ Amla or Nellikai is a small round fruit with light-green translucent skin. They are small in size and taste sour.

I have seen people staying away from Amla due to its tangy and sour taste. Most of us had Amla Muraaba (sweetened amla) all our childhood. Since everyone can't eat candies or Murraba, I came up with a simple and quick recipe to make an instant amla ka achar.

This is spicy pickle and if you don't like spicy, try my sweet amla pickle recipe. While one may make sweet amla pickle as well, this is a spicy version of it.

You may also like Amla Juice Recipe, Amla Murabba Gooseberry Jam, Amla Avocado chutney.

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Ingredients Overview
How To Make Amla Achar (Detailed Steps)
Storage Suggestions
Different Ways to include Amla in Daily Diet
Expert Tips
Recipe FAQs
Stories From Kitchen
Amla Achar Recipe- Indian Gooseberry Pickle

Ingredients Overview

Amla: The fresh Amla or Indian Gooseberry would be needed for this recipe. You may try getting the one which are less spotty. This Amla Pickle can be preserved naturally for a few weeks. It's recommened to use the best quality. I have procured them from local vegetable vendor.
Indian Whole Spices: Jeera, Saunf (Fennel Seeds), Mustard seeds (Rai), Methre (Fenugreek seeds), Sabut Lal Mirch (Dried red chilly whole). Other spices include fresh Green chilly and Hing. I have used normal salt. Salt is the important ingredient as it acts as natural preservative. I have used black mustard seeds. One may also use yellow mustard seeds.
Mustard oil: I always prefer using mustard oil for making achar owing to its anti fungal and antibacterial properties. Using mustard oil ensures that any bacterial or mold growth is prohibited. Honestly, I have no clue which other oil can be used for making pickles because we have used mustard oil for pickles since ages. You may try sesame oil, though if you don't like the strong flavor of mustard. but then the perish-ability condition might change for this recipe.

How To Make Amla Achar (Detailed Steps)

Step 1 Wash, Dry Amla and Make Spice Blend

Gather all the whole spices and raw amla. Boil Amla in water for 5 min max. Sieve it and let it dry. In the meantime, grind the spices: jeera, methre, saunf, mustard seeds, dried red chilly. Let the mixture be coarse (dardara).

Step 2 Chop Amla

Take mustard oil in heavy-bottomed Kadai/Pan and heat it on full flame. When the oil changes color from dark yellow to light yellow, switch off the flame. While it cools off, strain boiled amla to a colander / Sieve. Dry them on a kitchen cloth and chop them off in desired shapes by removing the seed.

Step 3 Temper The Amla

Add green chilly, hing to warm mustard oil. Make sure the oil is NOT hot or else spices would burnt off. Add ground coarse spices and add amla. Add salt as per taste. Mix well.

Cover with lid and cook for 2-3 min.

Step 4 Serve It.

The tangy and spicy amla achar is ready and this recipe is amazing and it goes well with paratha and poori! Enjoy!

Storage Suggestions

This Instant Pickle would be good for about 2-3 weeks at room temperature in winter (for about a week in the refrigerator in summer) and can be stored in an airtight dry container with a lid (pl. avoid plastics and use glass jars or traditional Indian ceramic jars for pickle).

Different Ways to include Amla in Daily Diet

Fresh Amla Juice: Blend raw amla and sieve it for fresh juice. Add a little salt, maple syrup, and black pepper as amla would taste very sour in raw form.
Amla Jam: Grate fresh and raw Amla. You can chop it too. Cook it for 5-10 minutes on simmer. Add jaggery / sugar and cook for 10 minutes. This can be preserved for 2-3 months. Make sure amla are dried after the wash.
Add 2 teaspoon grated raw amla in every vegetable or dal you make.
Add a portion of amla in vegetable soups.

Expert Tips

Boil amla before using it. This ensures that Amla Achar won't need much cooking time and hence not much oil.
Make sure to pat dry amla after boiling. We need everything: amla, utensils, etc to be dried enough as moisture in any of these may spoil the Achar sooner than expected.
Transfer this Amla achar to a container with lid (dried before using) and the amla achar must be cooled off and then transferred.

Recipe FAQs

How do you preserve Amla for the whole year?

This recipe of Amla Achar is made moisture free and is made in mustard oil and will be good for months in winters at room temperature and in summers, when kept in refrigerator. You have to be careful that at no step moisture is added or else the achar will have fungal growth after a week.

Stories From Kitchen

As much as I love homemade pickles, I never buy market ones. Their overloaded salt and oil repel me really hard.

Before my daughter was born, I used to make achar for my husband. Hormones made me crazy for tikki and achar after having her.

I tried several recipes but trust me, the best ones had always been of my mother-in-law. She was adept in making pickles. I learned every process from her. Drying up the vegetables, spoons, jars everything in sun before starting the whole achar-making process.

Now its a therapy for me!

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