Green Chilli Pickle (Hari Mirch ka Achar)

This green chilli pickle, or hari mirch ka achar, is a South Asian style pickle that’s also known as sour green chillies amongst families in Singapore and Malaysia.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Hari Mirch ka Achar Recipe

Let’s take a look at the Hindi name, first, shall we?

• hari – green (the plural form, singular is hara)
• mirch = chilli (plural can be mirche or mirchi)
• achar = you might know this already, it means pickle, and is a word used in many parts of the world. In Malay, the modern spelling is acar ( the h was dropped in Malay spelling many years ago).
• ka = preposition showing a relationship between words, of

Hari Mirch ka Achar = Green Chilli Pickle
Can also be pronounced hari mirch ka achaar, showing you where the emphasis on the achar is.

This green mirch pickle is pretty sour, with spicy and earthy flavours, from the chillies, the mustard oil and the spices used.

Best part? There is no added sugar, it’s vegan and gluten free.

Green Chilli Pickle Recipe

It’s a very easy recipe to make. Mine is a little different from most of the recipes found online. I don’t dry roast my spices, nor do I grind them with a pestle and mortar. I fry the whole spices in hot oil, and the process of making our hari mirch ka achar takes only minutes.

This is how I’ve always made it. I can’t remember if it was my grandma or my mum who used to make it. I know grandma always had jars of homemade sambal and acar on the kitchen counter, sitting close to the stove. My mum, on the other hand, would make them as and when needed, in small portions.

This is what we’ll be doing:

1. Sterilise the jar you’ll be using, click here to read more on how to sterilise jars. You could also just wash the jar in very hot water and leave it to dry, if that’s easier.
2. Slice the chillies into 5cm/2 inch lengths.
3. Peel the garlic and leave them whole. Slice the ginger.
4. Heat the oil and fry the spices for 30 seconds.
5. Add the ground turmeric, garlic, ginger and chillies and cook for 1 minute.
6. Take off the heat and stir in the salt, vinegar and lime juice (or lemon juice).

Easy, right?

Hari Mirch ka Achar Ingredients

Green Chillies

This will determine how hot your green chilli pickle is. I’m using some generic chillies I picked up from the local ethnic store that sells everything! They’re medium spicy, so I get a nice hit of heat with each bite.

I’ve made this with birds eye chillies, without cutting them, and that was really amazing too.

You can use pretty much any mild or hot green chilli you like: jalapenos, serrano peppers, or really spicy one like ghost peppers or scorpions. The latter two will produce a really spicy green chilli achar.

Can you use red chillies to make red chilli pickle this way? Sure you can. But then your mirchi pickle will be red chilli pickle or laal mirch ka achar! The Hindi word for red is laal.

I’ve also made this with a mix of red and green chillies, in which case, we’d call it mirch ka achar. So no mention of colours.

Mustard Oil

Mustard oil, with its strong aroma of mustard, is the traditional oil of choice for this green chilli pickle. It’s pungent and is a little peppery, injecting a bite into whatever you’re using it for.

It’s easily available at South Asian stores if you have one near you. Failing that, go online. Here’s my Amazon affiliate link for mustard if that’s how you roll.

If you don’t fancy, or can’t get mustard oil, your best bet is a flavourless, neutral oil. Vegetable oil and peanut oil will work best. I’ve never been a fan of using olive oil for South Asian dishes as I think the flavour is all wrong. But if you don’t mind it, you could also use light olive oil, not extra virgin.

Aromatics

We add a little garlic and ginger to the mix. Leaving the garlic whole ensures that it doesn’t overpower our mirchi achar, instead, it just lends flavour.

The big pieces of garlic and ginger, along with the pickled green chillies, will soften and mellow as the days go by. Their flavour will infuse the oil, and they’ll take on the character of the spices used, making for a more well rounded pickle overall, just bursting with so many flavours.

This is why green chilli achar will taste so much better after the first few days.

Spices in our Green Chilli Pickle

The traditional hari mirch pickle uses the usual South Asian spices to make up the pickle masala. Here are the common ones used:

• fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)
• mustard seeds (sarason)
• cumin seeds (jeera)
• fennel seeds (saunf)
• coriander seeds (dhaniye)
• turmeric powder (or even fresh) (haldi)
• asafoetida (heeng)

I’m not using all of them, sticking with just the first 4 and ground turmeric. I’m also not a fan of the lingering flavour and aroma of fenugreek, so am only using a tiny amount in today’s hari mirch achar.

Sometimes, I also use Indian curry leaves in this, especially when I need to trim my plant down and have to find ways to use it. This way it becomes more of a green chilli pickle South Indian style.

Having said that, hari mirch ka achar isn’t really a North Indian pickle. You’ll find similar pepper pickles all across the subcontinent. Even in Sri Lanka.

How to Serve Green Chilli Pickle?

This green chilli pickle is perfect with all manner of South Asian dishes, whether that’s Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan in inclination. You’ll find many ideas on the South Asian recipes page here on LinsFood.

My favourite thing to eat this green chilli relish with? Dal! In any shape or form. But it goes well with curries, naturally, just as it does with chapati, parata, nan – if you can handle the heat.

I’ve been a bit remiss on the dal front, I realised. I have a recipe for lamb dalcha that I’ll be publishing over on my other blog in a couple of days. Just the way my mum used to make it, only, I’m using lamb instead of mutton. I’ll link up here when that’s done.

I also use this spicy pickle in wraps and sandwiches, whatever those sandwiches may be. It’s fantastic with eggs, in a sandwich or not. Makes a mean flavoured omelette.

It also goes well with Indo-Chinese flavours.

How Long will it Last?

Once you open your jar or chilli pickle for the first time, keep it in the fridge and your hari mirch ka achar will last happily for a month, as long as you ensure that the solids are submerged in oil.

Unopened, it will keep in a cool, dark place for 6 months. Give it a water bath, and it will last a year or two, unopened. Once opened, store it in the fridge.

Right then, shall we get our aprons on?