Pickles or Achaar are made to extend the shelf life of seasonal fruits and vegetables. The technique of fermenting (pickling) originated from India.
Today every Indian region boasts of some sort of lip-smacking pickles. We’ve got some of the best ones from the south Indian region here.
One of Andhra’s best pickles, Avakaya is made with raw unripe green mangoes, spices and garlic. It is spicy and hot due to the generous amount of chilli powder.
A ‘cooked down’ pickle from Tamil Nadu, thokku is a versatile pickle which has multiple variants of this pickle including Mango thokku, tomato thokku and even a prawn thokku.
Almost every coastal region across Southern India has its own version of prawn pickle but Andhra’s Royyala Pachadi is particularly delicious.
This pickle is made with bite-sized tender mangoes that are first ‘brined’ for a few weeks before it is added to a burst of spices.
Mahali kizhangu is the Tamil name for Indian sarsaparilla, a root vegetable rich in health benefits. The curd mahali is a popular version where the root is added in a mixture of sour curd, turmeric, red chillies and mustard seeds.