Quickie Amba (Pickled Mango Condiment) – Recipe
A few weeks ago, I visited Shauna and Dan on Vashon to shoot a video about the sabich recipe in my cookbook. Sabich is an absurdly delicious Iraqi-Jewish eggplant sandwich with fried eggplant, Israeli salad, hummus, tahina, hardboiled egg, cucumber pickle, and amba. Since those guys are gluten-free, we ate it as a salad instead, which I might even like better. But I hear they might have a gluten-free pita coming in their next book, so stay tuned. We had an absolutely lovely day, sitting on their all-too-relaxing patio soaking up the sun, talking food and blogs and kids and life, and cooking and eating, and oh yeah, shooting a video. (I’ll let you know when it is up on their site.)
But what is amba, you ask? Well, it is a sort of pickled mango condiment, and it isn’t all that easy to find. In fact, I’ve seen it only once in America, and I didn’t have any on hand for the video. So I thought I’d try to come up with a reasonable substitute, and actually I like this version better than the original – so much so that I’m going to put it on the cookbook errata page.
In fact, this is well worth making for any Middle Eastern meal. I used it the other night to complement a simple rice and chickpea pilaf, and I’d happily eat it with these chickpea cakes or even a tagine. It uses preserved lemon and harissa but you should have them in your kitchen anyhow, they are a whole lot of delicious in small packages. I’ve linked products from Mustapha’s Moroccan because I use them and like them a lot.
Quickie Amba (Pickled Mango Condiment)
Vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and kosher
Makes enough to serve at a meal for 6, easily
- 1/2 mango, finely diced (slightly underripe is better, but not rock hard)
- 1/4 preserved lemon, pips removed, minced (check ingredients if you need gluten free)
- 1 teaspoon harissa (check ingredients if you need gluten free)
- Toss together all ingredients. Taste and add more lemon or harissa if you think it needs it. Add salt if needed. Serve at room temperature; keeps in refrigerator for a few days.
I grew up in Israel and Amba may be my favorite condiment (well, a close second to horseradish). It’s great on sandwiches (instead of mustard) and I also eat it with a simple Moroccan recipe that I make– meatballs, sweet peas (canned), onions and powder Israeli chicken broth (by Osem).
I tend to find it in specialty Israeli / Middle Eastern stores… there is usually a few in every major city.
I am excited to try this recipe.
Homemade amba ,wow:) I like to add amba sometimes to salad dressings.
It’s my first time to see this recipe, but I was drawn to “Mango” soon as I saw it as a main ingredient. Delish! Thanks for sharing, Michael!
MMM… in Hawai’i, we eat pickled mango off the ying yang. It’s a tad tart but sweet too. We make it with vinegar, fresh (slightly under ripe) mangoes, and li hing mui powder. It’s a childhood favorite!
Lin hing mui powder! I just had to google that, and I’d estimate it will be less than a day before I own some! Sounds right up my alley. If you’ve had umeboshi plum, is the taste similar?
They love pickled mango in Madagascar, too! In northwestern Mada they call it manga achard and it’s the same except for using green mangoes and adding some sliced onion to the lemon brine.
delicious post one of my favourite way to eat mangos pickled we call mango amba
This sounds like an awesome recipe! YUM! Thanks for sharing. 🙂 I am a vegetarian, but my hubby and kids are not. I always have to bring out the best dishes if I want to all of us to go meatless for a meal. This recipe will be very popular I am sure!
I also blog about the meatless diet and energized life at http://www.thelivelyvegetarian.blogspot.com if you are interested.
Thanks again!
Amba-Haldi is also the Gujarati (Indian) word for a fresh turmeric pickle. Further, Amba is the Gujarati word for mango. Indians love their own version of mango pickle – like Gor-Keri or Methiyu!
Wow! I know of various Indian mango pickles but didn’t know the word came from Gujarat. I assume there is an ancient trade route story in there somewhere.
You can get it in any Israeli grocery store at major cities like Miami, New York, LA.
I’m Iraqi Jewish and growing up, umba was always on the table for our cultural dishes. I get mine from my local Turkish mini market. Love it. I’ll give this recipe a go some day