Padma Lakshmi Shares Her Grandmother's Lemon Pickle Recipe

Indian-American celebrity chef and model Padma Lakshmi often shares special recipes from her South Asian roots with her international audiences. Most recently, the author shared the recipe for lemon pickles on Instagram. The 51-year-old television personality revealed that she learned the delicious recipe from her grandmother.

The creator of Taste The Nation begins by showing a jar of lemons that have been seasoned with sea salt for over six months. Padma shared that she also added green chillies and ginger pieces while the lemon pieces were being marinated. Sharing the reel, Padma mentioned in the caption, “This is a classic recipe for a puckering, hot pickle that I learned from my granny, Jima. This is super easy to make, but it does require some planning ahead since the lemons take 6 months to pickle.”

To make this recipe one would require the following ingredients:

1. 6 lemons
2. 6 Tbs coarse sea salt
3. 2-3 Tbs neutral oil
4. 5 big black cardamom pods
5. 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
6. 1/2 tsp fennel or anise seeds
7. 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
8. 3 heaping tsp cayenne
9. 1 tsp turmeric
10. 1/2 tsp asafetida

Through her new post, Padma showed how she roasted the dry spices for a while before grinding them in a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle. After grinding the roasted spices into a coarse powder, she added oil to a pan. The spices were then added to the hot oil and stirred for about ten to 12 minutes. When the colour was changed to a darker brown the heat was turned off. She then added the lemon and salt mixture to the spices and stirred it well.

Padma’s favourite way of enjoying this classic Indian cuisine condiment is with a “big bowl of thayir sadam (yoghurt rice).”