Pinđur (pindjur)

A relish of the summer and autumn harvest

Pindjur, also written pinjur or pinđur, is a red-pepper relish of the Balkans. It is made from red bell peppers and tomatoes, usually with garlic, vegetable oil and salt, and often with aubergine. It is most often made in summer and autumn, when peppers and tomatoes are ripe, and it is kept for the winter. The Balkan Lunch Box recipe source places it in the zimnica, the food prepared for the winter, and notes that it is now eaten all year.

The relish is one of a family of red-pepper condiments that includes ajvar and lyutenitsa. Wikipedia lists the countries where it is commonly prepared as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo and North Macedonia. The recipe source says the relish originated in North Macedonia, a claim that the sources read do not date.

Tomatoes and peppers, cooked in two stages

The tomatoes and peppers are roasted first. The tomatoes are roasted until their skins shrivel, then peeled, mashed and cooked with sugar, white wine vinegar and salt for about an hour. The peppers are roasted until blistered, covered in a bowl, peeled, de-seeded and cut. They are added to the tomato base and cooked for about 45 minutes more. Parsley, garlic and a mild chilli go in last, for about 15 minutes.

The sources differ on how long the relish takes. Wikipedia describes the creation as a long process of baking for hours, while the recipe source calls its own method shorter than ajvar. Both descriptions are kept here; neither gives a single time for the whole process.

How pindjur differs from ajvar

Wikipedia treats pindjur as a close relative of ajvar: the two share peppers, garlic and oil. It describes ajvar as the smoother of the two, usually with a stronger taste and rarely made with aubergine, while pindjur more often includes it. The recipe source gives tomatoes as a defining base. In some regions the two names are used for the same relish.

In Kosovo, where it is called pinxhur, the relish is made only of tomatoes, hot red peppers, oil and garlic, which shows how much the recipe changes from place to place.

Jars and storage

The recipe source gives a jarring step with a short oven sterilisation of the jars. That is the source's own practice. It is not a validated canning method, and the sources read give no safe storage time, no acidity target and no processing time for a sealed jar. Anyone preserving pindjur should use a tested preservation method rather than rely on this page.