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Acar - Indonesian Pickle
Easy 30-minute Indonesian pickle with cucumber, carrot, shallot, and bird-eye chilies. Serve with Indonesian fried rice, fried noodles, satay, martabak, and soto.
Acar is the most popular Indonesian pickle. We serve this as a side dish to accompany nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice), mi goreng (Indonesian stir-fried noodles), sate/satay, martabak, and soto. It will perk up even the most humble instant noodles/ramen.
Those new to pickling anything, making acar is a good introduction. It doesn’t require fancy tools, and all the ingredients for the vegetables and pickling juice are widely available no matter where you are in the world.
Ingredients for acar (Indonesian pickle)
1. Vegetables for acar: cucumber, carrot, shallot, and red chilies
We will not cook any of these vegetables, so you must use the freshest possible ingredients so your acar will be delicious and has a long shelf-life.
You can use garden cucumber (the most common variety in the US), Kirby cucumber (pickling cucumber), or even English cucumber. If your cucumber is waxed, be sure to give it a good scrub to remove the wax. Alternatively, you can peel the cucumber too though I love the dark green color of the peel and would rather scrub than peel.
2. Pickling juice: water, sugar, salt, and vinegar
You can use distilled white vinegar, or if you are feeling fancy, try cane sugar vinegar or rice vinegar. Since cane sugar and rice vinegar are both milder compared to distilled white vinegar, you will need to use more when using these.
Step-by-step to prepare Indonesian pickle
1. Prep the vegetables
Scrub/peel the cucumber, remove the seeds, and cut it into small cubes. Peel carrot and shallot and cut them into small cubes. Chop red chilies. Please make sure that the cucumber, carrot, and shallot are all about the same size.
2. Salt the vegetables
Sprinkle chopped vegetables with about a teaspoon of salt in a mixing bowl and set aside for 10 minutes. Salting reduces the water content from the vegetables and makes the pickle crispier. Salt chilies separately if you don’t want a spicy pickle.
Wash the vegetables under running water and strain with a colander. Set aside.
3. Pickle the vegetables
Boil water, sugar, salt, and vinegar in a pot until sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat and add all the vegetables into the pot.
After 10 minutes of resting period, transfer the pickle to clean glass jars. You should be able to fill four 8-ounce glass jars. Let the pickle cool slightly before storing it in the fridge.
Storing and serving Indonesian pickle
Store acar in the fridge. It is best to rest the pickle for at least one day to develop the flavor before serving.
Storing the pickle in multiple smaller jars will prolong their shelf lives. An unopened jar should stay fresh for up to two months. Once open, please consume the pickle within one week.
Acar - Indonesian Pickle
Ingredients
- 2 small cucumber, remove the seeds and cut into cubes
- 2 small carrot, peeled and cut into cubes
- 25 Thai/bird-eye chili, remove the stems and chopped
- 3 French shallot (or 15 Chinese/Asian shallot), peeled and half each shallot
- 500 ml (2 cup) water
- 150 gram (3/4 cup) sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon white vinegar, or 3 tablespoon cane sugar/rice vinegar
Instructions
- Prep the vegetables: Scrub/peel the cucumber, remove the seeds, and cut it into small cubes. Peel carrot and shallot and cut them into small cubes. Chop red chilies. Please make sure that the cucumber, carrot, and shallot are all about the same size. You should get about 3 cups of vegetables.
- Salt the vegetables: Sprinkle chopped vegetables with about a teaspoon of salt in a mixing bowl and set aside for 10 minutes. Salting reduces the water content from the vegetables and makes the pickle crispier. Salt chilies separately if you don’t want a spicy pickle. Wash the vegetables under running water and strain with a colander. Set aside.
- Pickle the vegetables: Boil water, sugar, salt, and vinegar in a pot until sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat and add all the vegetables into the pot. After 10 minutes of resting period, transfer the pickle to clean glass jars. You should be able to fill four 8-ounce glass jars.
- Storing and serving the pickle: Let the pickle cool slightly before storing it in the fridge. It is best to rest the pickle for at least one day to develop the flavor before serving. An unopened jar should stay fresh for up to two months. Once open, please consume the pickle within one week.
Comments
I made cucumber-dill pickle last summer, but I miss Acar. I will definitely make this soon. Thank you, and keep the good work! :)
Thanks for the encouragement Yenni, will do :) And yes, I guess to Indonesians, the best pickle will always be acar ♥
You know what Anita, i used to consume this pickle with instant noodle for my breakfast supper too.... slightly reduce my guilty feelling, hehehe
Me too, me too, haha :D
i try to make yours pickle , only thats i add a bit more vinegar , more sugar , , yum !!
Yup, I sometimes tweak the pickling liquid slightly as well, especially if I switch to a difference brand of vinegar :)
Miss Anita, liquid nya Harus nuggu dingin gak? Hehe Thanks yah
Tidak perlu tunggu dingin Ling. Cheers!
Thanks a lot for reply me...appreciate that.
I lived in Jakarta when I was a child, and am always on the lookout for authentic dishes. This acar recipe was just what I needed to accompany my nasi goreng. Thanks!
I am happy you like the recipe. I also have this with mie goreng, soto betawi, and martabak :)
Selamat sore Anita. We had dinner yesterday (April 2 2016) for my mother-in-law - she was 92 and my sister-in-law made us a delicious indonesian curry with sate and acar - I couldn't for the life of me remember the name 'acar' but googled around and your recipe came up. I am glad I found your website - thanks.
You are welcome Scott. And that dinner sounds very lovely :)
Hey, anita. Just wondering, can I use japanese rice vinegar to make acar? I read it can be use to pickle vegetable, but I'm not quite sure it applies to acar as well.
Yes, you can use Japanese rice vinegar too. If it feels too mild, you can always use 3 tablespoons of vinegar instead of 2 tablespoons.
Excellent recipe. I would serve this minimum 2 days later as by then the flavours from the shallots, chilli, sugar and vinegar would have infused into the liquid and the vegetables. Thanks for the recipe.
You are welcome Guhan! I too try to wait it out a bit, even in a hurry, I would usually give it an overnight rest in the fridge to develop the flavor.
Is it alright to use normal (finely cut) onions (bawang putih) to replace the shallots?
I have never tried regular yellow onion before, but I have tried using red onion (not shallot). If you can find red onion, I think it would be a better substitute.
Awesome pickle recipe for Summer!
I made this Indonesian pickle recipe and it was delicious! It tastes exactly like the one I had when I visited Indonesia a few years ago. Thank you so much for a delicious recipe!
Yum! Sweet and crunchy, just how we like it! Served these with our favourite fried rice and we all enjoyed your recipe a lot! Thanks :)
These pickled veggies look and sounds so tasty. I definitely would love to add some of these to salads and bowls.
Such a great pickle and so easy to do. Perfect for the summer!
There are many ways to make and your recipe looks so vibrant and pretty but shrimp paste is not in your recipe. Acar is a whole other level of yummy with belacan.
As you said, there are many ways to prepare acar. I choose to share the simplest recipe so hopefully more people can try making Indonesian acar at home. Also, most acar we get as accompaniment for nasi goreng, mi goreng, soto, sate, e.t.c. is exactly the acar that I share in this recipe.
It's a good starter recipe, but in my opinion, it needs more kick to it to make it more Indo (like the one I got in different restaurants in Jakarta years ago for nasi goreng, ikan lele goreng with nasi putih etc...). The amount of sugar was too high negating the vinegar and salt levels in your recipe (or amount of vinegar and salt was too low). Following your sugar amount in your recipe, I had to bump up the rice vinegar (ran out of white vinegar and only had Murakan Rice Vinegar) to 8 tablespoons and add another teaspoon of salt to make it more restaurant authentic.
Anita, thanks for this recipe. Does the stinky smell from the heinz distilled white vinegar go away after boiling? If not what brand do you use? I tried making acar without your recipe but doesn’t turn out good and after 1-2 weeks the carrots tasted and smelled acidic and gassy. Do you know what’s the shelf life of the acar?
Hi Sylvia, I love using sugar cane vinegar when making Indonesian acar, like Datu Putih vinegar since my local Asian store carries this brand. If your local store doesn't have it, you can use the Amazon link to order it online.
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