Delicious cranberry achar /cranberry pickle made with spices and hint of honey. Absolute treat with sweetness and spiciness.
I made this Cranberry achar with some left over cranberry after making Cranberry proscecco Margarita and cranberry oatmeal cookies, I don’t want to make more sweet recipes, and decided on this achar.
What is an Achar/ Pickle ?
It is an Indian style pickle usually contains, oil, spices like chili powder, mustard powder, fenugreek and salt.
I have been in quest of cracking this cranberry achar for long time. Yes last year also I tried but failed miserably. When I asked hubby he told go ahead and try it, maximum you are going to lose some more cranberries. But I also think the only way to get something right is to keep trying.
While growing up in Kerala, India, we had a similar fruit Lololikka/Lovlolika/Scrambery in the backyard; which grandma used to pickle with salt and bird eye chili.
My technique to eat pickles was to washing them in running water and to remove all the chillies; and after salt and heat is adjusted according to my taste bud I will eat.
Last year I think I didn’t cook the cranberries really well, so it ended up getting spoiled very soon. So this time, I took some extra steps to make sure that they taste great and also has some good shelf life as Indian pickle does.
Indian version of pickle is entirely different from the pickle available in the store here in US.
Our pickles are spicy with red hot chili powder, salty and heavily oily as oil is the one which preserve them from spoiling. Some time there is little vinegar added, but grandma rarely used it in her recipes.
Ingredients to make cranberry achar
Fresh cranberries
Thai chilies,
Red chili powder
Turmeric powder
Salt
Indian Sesame Seed oil
Mustard seeds
Curry leaves
Red chilies
Instructions
First you need to heat little oil and cook the cranberries, this step will ensure the shelf life.
Chopped cranberries with thai chili and ginger
Heat oil
To this add chopped cranberries, thai chilies and curry leaves and cook
After cooking until cranberries soft,
Add salt
Heat oil in another pan and add mustard seeds when it popped switch off the flame and add spices
Add oil-spice mixture into cooked cranberries
Add honey and mix once again and store it in air-tight container.
Cranberry achaar ready to serve
Tips
For this cranberry pickle, first I cooked the cranberries until they become soft then added chili powder and spices. Finally adjusted the sourness of cranberries with little touch of honey. You can do that with your favorite sweetener. This is keeper recipe, give it a try, it is spicy and sour with a touch of sweetness from honey.
Cranberry Achar/ Cranberry Pickle
Ingredients
- 7.60 oz 216g / fresh cranberries little less than a cup
- 2 Thai green chilies
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon fenugreek powder
- ¼ teaspoon Asafoetida
- ¼ cup sesame seed oil
- ¼ teaspoon honey
- ¾ teaspoon mustard seeds
- 2 sprig of curry leaves
Instructions
- Heat two tablespoon oil in a thick bottom pan
- and add washed, pat dried cranberries chopped into half, ginger and green chilies, salt and 2 sprigs of curry leaves into the pan.
- And cook until cranberries become soft, remove from the flame and set aside
- In another pan heat rest of the oil and add mustard seeds when it starts to pop switch off the flame and add chili powder, turmeric, asafoetida, fenugreek powder
- and mix well then add this mixture to cooked cranberry-chili mixture.
- Also add ½ teaspoon honey and mix well.
Notes
Nutrition
12
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Vidya says
Can we make it with dried cranberry
Swathi says
No it will be too sweet
Gail Montero says
I love spicy cranberry condiments so this is right up my alley. A must-try!
Julie says
What an incredible recipe for cranberry pickle! I was looking for something unique to try this year and this fit the bill perfectly.
Natalie says
What an interesting recipe. I think I never tried this before but I will now. Sounds delicious. I just saved the recipe to make it this weekend. Thanks!
Allyssa says
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing cranberry pickle recipe! Will surely have this again! It's really easy to make and it tasted so delicious! Highly recommended!
Glenda says
Love, love, love spicy pickles! This looks like it would be just my kind of recipe. Thanks, Swathi, for sharing it!
Mullai Madavan says
Nice interesting combination... achar cranberry looks colorful and will be a delight to the tastebuds!
Torviewtoronto says
the colour of the achar is wonderful Happy New Year
tigerfish says
How creative to make cranberry achar!
Happy New Year to you and your family.
kushi says
Even I prepared it few days back 🙂 Love your version.. looks so yummy!
marudhuskitchen says
super colorful pickle....yummy
beena says
Tempting colorful pickle
Vineetha says
ur blog looks so festive with lot of cranberry posts..achar looks so colourful. Wishing u a happy new year Swathi !
Rafeeda says
Achaar with cranberries is just so interesting...