Spicy Eggplant / Aubergine Pickle

Simple Spicy Indian Eggplant Pickle

This is a great way to deal with a glut of Aubergines (Eggplant) in the summer.  Scale the recipe up or down depending on how much of a glut you’ve got!  We love this as a chutney side served with curry and poppadoms but is also good (perhaps surprisingly) with cheese sandwiches too.

Ingredients for Aubergine Pickle

• 

  Spicy Aubergine Pickle

  2kg aubergine / eggplant cut into 2cm dice

• 125g green chillies chopped
• 2 garlic cloves crushed
• 600ml white wine or cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp chilli powder
• 2 tsp ground turmeric
• 310ml sesame oil
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 1tbsp fenugreek seeds
• 2 tbsp salt
• 250g sugar
• 5cm piece ginger finely grated (reserving juice)

Method

Mix the garlic and ground spices with 1 tbsp vinegar to form a paste.  Heat the sesame oil and fry the whole spices for a minute.  Add the spice paste and stir over a low heat till oil floats on top.  Add all the remaining ingredients and again stir over a low heat till oil floats on top.

Decant to sterilised jars, seal and store somewhere dark and cool.

Leave for one month before using.

Variations

We have successfully substituted up too a third of the aubergine for courgette / zucchini when the glut of those vegetables is getting serious too.   You might try peppers also.

For a more self sufficient future