This is an easy and the BEST Andhra style tomato pickle recipe. It is tangy, spicy, and garlicky and goes well with idli, dosa, pongal, curd rice, plain rice or roti, and paratha.
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❤️You’ll Love This Recipe
Instant Version: This tomato pickle recipe is quick to make as we are cooking tomatoes with tamarind, then grinding them into a paste with some spices and garlic, and tempering is made on top. While the traditional method of making tomato pickle is a no-cook version and is made using sun-dried tomatoes.
Quick to make: So in short, my instant version of tomato pickle gets ready in 45 minutes. While the traditional method requires days as sun-drying tomatoes take a longer period.
Taste: Spicy, hot, and tangy with the right amount of garlic flavor.
Scalable: This tomato pickle recipe can be doubled, tripled, or even halved as required.
🧾Ingredient Notes
Here is a pic of the ingredients you’ll need to make this delicious tomato pickle recipe.
Tomatoes:
- Use Roma or Plum tomatoes. Stay away from beefsteak or salad tomatoes as they are more watery.
- Always choose red and ripe tomatoes. Unripe tomatoes can make pickle more sour.
Tamarind:
- Seedless tamarind is used to make things easy. If your tamarind is not seedless then you need to remove the pulp by soaking it in water. That adds one extra step.
- Tamarind gives a tangy taste as well as acts as a preservative to increase shelf life.
- Mustard seeds & Fenugreek seeds: Both are dry roasted and powdered, then added into the pickle for the signature pickle flavor.
- Garlic: Few cloves are ground into a paste along with cooked tomatoes. Plus, a few cloves are added to hot oil for tempering.
- Red chili powder: This makes the pickle spicy. You can adjust the amount as per your preferred spice level. The given amount below makes tomato pickle medium spicy.
- Salt: acts as a preservative as well as brings out the pickle flavor.
- Sesame oil (gingelly oil): In South Indian pickle recipes sesame oil is used while in North Indian pickles mustard oil is used.
- Curry leaves: It adds a nice flavor and aroma to the pickle.
Also, dried red chilis, mustard seeds, and hing are used in tempering tomato pickle.
👩🍳Step By Step Photo Instructions
1) Take chopped tomatoes and seedless tamarind in a large pan. Turn the heat on to medium.
2) Cover it and cook until tomatoes are soft and mushy and most of the moisture is evaporated.
While tomatoes are cooking, let’s make mustard powder and methi powder.
3) For that, take mustard seeds in a small pan and dry roast them on medium-low heat until they start to splutter. Also, you’ll notice that mustard seeds get lighter in color. Remove it to a bowl and keep it aside.
4) In the same pan, dry roast the methi seeds until they turn light brown in color.
5) Remove it to the same bowl and let it cool down completely.
6) While these two seeds are cooling, go back to the tomatoes. You can see this in image 6. Tomatoes are soft and mushy, but it has a lot of water left.
7) Keep cooking until all the water is gone and the mixture becomes a thick paste. Let the mixture cool down slightly.
8) Transfer the cooked tomato-tamarind mixture into the grinder. Add salt, red chili powder and garlic cloves.
9) Make a smooth paste without adding any water. If needed scrap the sides and grind again.
10) Back to roasted seeds. once cooled, grind into a fine powder using a spice grinder (coffee grinder).
11) To make a tempering, heat oil in a large pan. Once hot add mustard seeds and let them splutter.
12) Add garlic cloves and saute for a minute.
13) Add dried red chilies and curry leaves, and immediately cover the pan with a lid to avoid oil spluttering mess because of curry leaves. Fry until curry leaves are fried well.
14) Add hing.
15, 16) Immediately add prepared tomato paste and mix well.
17) Add prepared mustard and fenugreek powder.
18) Mix and cook for 4-5 minutes with stirring occasionally or until oil starts to ooze out.
Let the pickle cool down completely before storing it in a glass jar.
💭Expert Tips
- If your tamarind is not seedless then soak it in warm water, squeeze out all the pulp, strain the pulp and add it while the tomatoes are halfway cooked. Because I used seedless tamarind, I cooked and grind along with tomatoes.
- The acidity in the tamarind helps to preserve the tomato pickle for longer. So do not skip or reduce the amount of it.
🥣 Storage & Shelf Life:
- Tomato pickle stays good in the refrigerator for 5-6 months if followed below tips.
- Store it in a clean, dry (moisture-free), air-tight glass jar or container. A day before, wash the jar well and let it dry out completely. You can keep it under the sun for an hour.
- Always use a clean, dry spoon to take the pickle.
- If you have made the big batch then store some pickle in a small jar for everyday use. So you don’t need to open the big jar every day and this way it increases its shelf life.
- As soon as you take out the portion needed, immediately close the jar with a lid and put it back into the refrigerator.
🍽 Serving Ideas
- Tomato pickle tastes best when mixed with piping hot steamed rice and a drizzle of ghee.
- This can be served with curd rice.
- This pickle tastes good as a side with idli, dosa, uttapam, pongal, paniyaram, etc.
- It can be served as a side along with any meal e.g. roti-sabzi, dal-rice, paratha, etc.
Other pickle recipes
Did you try this tomato pickle recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a review in the comment section below.
📋 Recipe Card
Tomato Pickle Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 kg Tomatoes (~2lb), washed and cut into large chunks
- 50 grams Tamarind seedless (~3 tablespoons tightly packed)
- 1 tablespoon Mustard seeds
- 1 tablespoon Fenugreek seeds (methi dana)
- 50 grams Garlic (~ ⅓ cup cloves or 7-8 fat cloves of garlic)
- 50 grams Red chili powder (½ cup)
- 50 grams Salt (2 ½ tablespoons)
For Tempering:
- 1 cup Sesame oil Gingelly oil
- 1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
- 3-4 cloves Garlic
- 6 Dried red chilies
- 20 Curry leaves
- ½ teaspoon Hing (Asafoetida)
Instructions
- Take chopped tomatoes and seedless tamarind in a large pan. Turn the heat on medium, cover it and cook until tomatoes are soft, mushy and most of the moisture is evaporated. The mixture should look like a thick paste. Let the cooked mixture cool down slightly.
- While tomatoes are cooking, let’s make mustard powder and methi powder. For that, take mustard seeds in a small pan and dry roast them on medium-low heat until they start to splutter. Also, you’ll notice that mustard seeds get lighter in color. Remove it to a bowl and keep it aside.
- In the same pan, dry roast the methi seeds until they turn light brown in color. Remove it to the same bowl and let it cool down completely.
- Grind into a fine powder using a spice/coffee grinder and keep it aside.
- Now tomato mixture is cooled slightly, transfer the cooked tomato-tamarind mixture into the grinder. Add salt, red chili powder and garlic cloves.
- Make a smooth paste without adding any water. If needed scrap the sides and grind again.
- To make a tempering, heat oil in a large pan. Once hot add mustard seeds and let them splutter.
- Add garlic cloves and saute for a minute.
- Add dried red chilies and curry leaves, and immediately cover the pan with a lid to avoid oil spluttering mess because of curry leaves. Fry until curry leaves are fried well.
- Add hing.
- Immediately add prepared tomato paste and mix well.
- Add prepared mustard and fenugreek powder. Mix and cook for 4-5 minutes with stirring occasionally or until oil starts to ooze out.
- Let the tomato pickle cool down completely then store it in a glass jar.
Notes
- If your tamarind is not seedless then soak it in warm water, squeeze out all the pulp, strain the pulp and add it while the tomatoes are halfway cooked. Because I used seedless tamarind, I cooked and grind along with tomatoes.
- Use ripe tomatoes (preferably roma, plum tomatoes).
- Tomato pickle stays good in the refrigerator for 5-6 months if followed below tips.
- Store it in a clean, dry (moisture-free), air-tight glass jar or container. A day before, wash the jar well and let it dry out completely. You can keep it under the sun for an hour.
- Always use a clean, dry spoon to take the pickle.
- As soon as you take out the portion needed, immediately close the jar with a lid and put it back into the refrigerator.
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