North Indian cuisine has a rich tradition of pickling fruits and vegetables to preserve them for months while enhancing their flavour. Far from being just a tasty complement to meals, Indian pickles also provide digestive health benefits.
Watching my family make pickles, throughout my childhood, I grew up wanting to learn the secrets behind them. Luckily for me, I managed to find these with time and pick up on interesting facts about them.
Here are five gut-nourishing North Indian pickles that will delight your taste buds:
Mixed Pickle
The mixed vegetable pickle is a nutritious medley of the season’s freshest harvest pickled in aromatic spices. Thinly sliced carrots, cauliflower florets, green chillies, and beans bathed in a piquant marinade of mustard oil, garlic, red chilli powder and fenugreek seeds for days results in a mouth-watering delicacy. This vitamin-enriched pickle complex with its sweet, sour and hot flavour notes perfectly complements rice, parathas, curries and lentils. The mixed vegetable pickle is the ultimate way to preserve the bounty of veggies for gut-healthy enjoyment around the year – makes you want to try it out immediately!
Benefits of Mixed Pickle:
- Mixed vegetable pickles offer a wide range of vitamins and minerals, supporting overall health and immunity.
- The fermentation process involved in making mixed vegetable pickles can contribute to gut health by promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria.
- Consuming mixed vegetable pickles may aid in digestion and improve nutrient absorption.
Mango Pickle
The mango pickle immortalises the king of fruits in India’s soul food. Raw mangoes are mixed with spices like fenugreek, red chilli, and mustard oil fermented in earthen pots, creating a tangy, hot flavour that you feel dancing on the tip of your tongue. This process gives it probiotic properties which aid in digestion. Tempered with curry leaves and mustard seeds for a final punch, this versatile pickle adds zest to rice, and flatbreads like parathas, or serves as a spicy-sour condiment for any meal.
Benefits of Mango Pickles:
- Mango pickles aid digestion due to their natural fermentation process.
- They boost immunity with their rich content of vitamins and antioxidants.
- It can also help regulate cholesterol levels, promoting heart health
Lemon Pickle
The bright yellow lemon pickle is a staple in North Indian households, with its punchy blend of sour, salty, and spicy flavours. Fresh lemons marinated in a zingy chutney of ground mustard, fenugreek, chilli and spices get a boost of zingy flavour from the addition of salt and turmeric – makes your mouth water while thinking about it, right? Traditionally set to ferment in the sun, this addictively sour-hot pickle pairs perfectly with rich curries, dal fry, and tandoori meats. Believed to stimulate digestive juices, the lemon pickle also delivers a burst of antioxidant Vitamin C to promote gut health – so pucker up and pass the parathas!
Benefits of Lemon Pickles:
- Supports digestion by stimulating digestive juices.
- Boosts immunity with its rich antioxidant Vitamin C content.
- Enhances gut health with its probiotic properties.
Garlic Pickle
You need to be a daredevil to try this out – with its sharp, pungent kick, as the garlic pickle is not for the faint-hearted. Plump garlic bulbs steeped in a fiery potion of red chilli powder, mustard oil, turmeric and salt for weeks transform into a lip-smacking accompaniment. A powerhouse of antimicrobial allicin and immune-boosting compounds, the fiery garlic pickle has decorated Indian thalis for centuries. Believed to ward off evil eyes and viruses alike, it is the ultimate weapon for spicing up rice, dal, parathas, and curries. One bite will leave your mouth buzzing and your immunity roaring – such is the mighty magic of the garlic pickle!
Benefits of Garlic Pickle:
- Boosts immunity with its antibacterial properties.
- Supports cardiovascular health by helping to regulate cholesterol levels.
- Aids digestion and reduces bloating and gas.
Green Chilli Pickle
Now, last but certainly not least, the fire of green chillies captured in a pickle is a staple across North Indian kitchens. Fresh green chillies marinating in a tongue-tingling mix of spices like fenugreek, garlic, mustard and curry leaves for days results in the green chilli pickle with its addictive spicy-sour taste. Rich in metabolism-boosting capsaicin, this fiery accompaniment not only turns up the heat in curries, dals, sandwiches and chaats but also helps relieve pain and throat infections. For all those of you, who love spice, the green chilli pickle delivers a heady punch of endorphin-releasing heat with every bite!
Benefits of Green Chilli Pickle:
- Green chilli pickles aid in boosting metabolism due to their capsaicin content.
- They contribute to pain relief and inflammation reduction, thanks to their natural analgesic properties.
- Consuming green chilli pickles may improve circulation and cardiovascular health due to their vasodilatory effects.
Conclusion
North Indian pickles tantalize the tastebuds with their tangy, sweet, sour, and spicy explosion of flavours. But they also nourish gut health by preserving diverse produce like mango, lemon, vegetables, garlic, and green chilis in aromatic spices and oils. These metabolism-boosting pickles promote digestion, immunity, and vitality while satisfying your palate. You can buy them from Farmdidi.
For the widest range of scrumptious North Indian pickles that serve as both delicious treats and gut-healthy medicine, buy from Farmdidi. Their artisanal pickles capture the diversity of Indian flavours in each jar.
Tags: FarmdidiGut healthIndian PicklesTaste Buds