Carrot sweet pickle

Carrot pickle has become our new favorite now. Carrot is one of my most favorite vegetables. So I used to prepare carrot pachadi (raitha) in order to include more carrots. But recently my hubby dear started preferring cooked foods over raw. So I have to stick with carrot poriyal varieties often. See below for more carrot recipes from my kitchen.  Instead of regular stir fry, I made a pickle using carrot, just like how we do the mango pickle and believe me, this tastes and smells just like mango pickle. This is a sweet version of Tamilnadu pickle. Hope you all love this !

Recipe inspiration : Priya's Carrot pickle. Thanks Priya ! Almost 6 years back while reading your recipe only, I came to know that we can make pickle with carrots too. I kept that in my mind, but now only I tried it :) It tastes amazing dear. Thanks !

Carrot pickle with methi thepla and beetroot raita

Peel and cut the carrots in to rounds.

Chop into small squares. I have used a Vidalia onion chopper from 'Bed Bath and Beyond '  stores. That makes the chopping easier.

chopped carrot.

My homemade puliyotharai powder. I always keep this in freezer.

Lime / lemon for pickle

Sauteed carrot

Add jaggery or brown sugar, salt after the carrot is almost cooked.

Switch off and let cool. add lemon juice.

Store the carrot pickle in  an airtight container. 

carrot pickle with methi thepla and beetroot pachadi.

Sweet carrot pickle
Ingredients:
Carrot - 2 big (300 gm)
brown sugar - 1 tbsp (heaped)
red chili powder - 1 tsp
sesame oil - 1/4 cup
mustard seed, fenugreek seed - 1/2 tsp each
hing powder - 1/4 tsp
salt - to taste (1.5 tsp)
lemon  1 1/2 (big)

To powder : (puliyotharai powder) *
Methi / fenugreek seed - 1/2 tsp
mustard (kadugu) seed - 1 tsp
hing - tiny piece (like a black pepper)

Method:
Peel and rinse the carrots.  Wipe and clean without any moisture. 
Cube the carrots. 
Heat a drop of oil in a wok. Fry the mustard, methi and hing till mustard pops. Powder these together. 
Now heat the 1/4 cup sesame oil in a wok. Add mustard, fenugreek and let the mustard crackle. Sprinkle the hing powder.
Put the chopped carrots and stir well. Cook covered till tender crisp stage. Then add the dry chilly powder, salt and saute.  Put jaggery / brown sugar, prepared powder mix well and switch off.
Add  juice of  1 1/2  to 2 lemons and mix well.Check for salt and let cool completely.
Store in clean bottles. Let cool completely. secure with a lid and keep refrigerated. Stays good for a week to 10 days. (It never lasts longer than that in my house, so I don't know the maximum shelf-life of this pickle). 

Serving suggestion:
Serve as side dish with curd rice or any rice or roti.

Note:
*  I have used a vegetable chopper in this recipe.
It takes less than 5 minutes to cube a lot of carrots, if we use a good quality vegetable chopper.  Believe me, using a vegetable chopper makes our life more pleasant :) 
** I make this powder for puliyotharai  (see ingredients) and keep it in freezer up to 3 months. This is my pickling masala powder as well.
*** Always  use good quality sesame oil  (any oil) in this recipe, because the beta-carotene in the carrot is a fat soluble vitamin and it becomes more available to our body (becomes Vitamin A).  Carrot becomes more nutritious food while cooking.
I have used Lakshmi brand sesame oil here.

Other carrot recipes:
Tomato carrot soup
Carrot kuLi paniyaram
Vegetable uthappam
Moovarna poriyal
Carrot usili
Carrot paratha
Simple beans carrot poriyal
Vegetable biriyani with carrot pachadi
carrot halwa