Have you ordered Indian food so many times that you’d like to start making it yourself? Or would you prefer to try another cuisine tonight? With a few simple tips, you can discover easy Indian cooking and make things easier for yourself!
Even if you have the least knowledge of Indian food, you must already show big eyes as it is one of the most complex and known cuisine around the world. It’s a burst of flavors, but you don’t know how to reproduce such flavorful dishes. How am I able to cook tasty Indian meals without making a hole in my wallet, you may think?
Well, I’m here to help you start your culinary journey, and together we’ll dive into several aspects of Indian cuisine so you can begin smoothly.
In this article, I’ll show you how to start easy Indian cooking without breaking the bank, without hard-to-find ingredients, and without spending hours in the kitchen. You’ll discover basic spices, essential ingredients, and four easy recipes to try tonight.
➡️ You can find a few recipes HERE to get started if you want to skip my yapping.
How I Learned To Love Spices (And Cook Indian Food)
Before I met my husband, Indian food never touched my palette and I use to really hate spicy food.
For the small story, when I was doing my bachelor studies, I used to have a roommate who loved to tease me with her spicy frozen red chilies. She used to always cook with it. And do you know what happened when she left? She gave me her red chilies as a joke and I started using them. Yes, I USED all of them in my cooking. And I finished by loving it. All the thanks to this amazing cuisine and the search for simple good tastes.
I always grew up with Western cuisine. Of course, it’s delicious, but at that time I was vegetarian and everything seemed a bit bland (remember, I didn’t know how to cook). These blended flavors completely changed my perception of food.
Indian food make you find out one thing about you; you start seeking for THE good taste that leaves your tummy satisfied. Of course, cooking is a skill like any other ones: it requires time and practice. But if you’re willing to impress your friends, family and especially yourself, let’s dive in!
1) With Which Ingredients Are You Cooking The Most?
Before you even start to cook, you need to know what would you like to cook Indian food with. Honestly, everything can be adapted to your diet. Most of Indian homes will eat their meals with chapati, which is a flatbread made out of whole flour grains and/or rice. But whole flour is one of the thousand sorts of chapatis you can ever make, same as the rice. That’s why, feel free to change according to your taste and diet.
The absolute must for Indian cooking is however the spices. Spices are essential to enhance or develop taste in the dish (e.g. turmeric, red chili powder, cumin, coriander, …). So, what do you already have in your pantry?
To start cooking Indian food properly, you need to know what you buy most often. Make a list of the ingredients you use the most during the week. I’m sure you reuse the same recipes week after week. Here’s a list of useful ingredients that many people already have on hand:
- Legumes & Basic Ingredients: pasta, rice, toast, lentils
- Vegetables: potatoes, tomatoes, onions, carrots, bell peppers, ginger, garlic, etc.
- Meat: I strongly recommend chicken and eggs
- Dairy products: plain yogurt, Greek yogurt, cream
So, what do you have?
I am assuring you that you can make a delicious meal with any of these ingredients, alone or in combination!
2) What About The Spices?
Indian cooking is a mix-and-match. It all depends on the spices you’re cooking with. If you do a certain combination of spices, but the ingredients remain the same, you’ll end up with two different tastes..! Isn’t it amazing?
But let’s start with the best-known Indian cuisine, with ingredients that are easy to find in Europe: North Indian cooking! No strange vegetables, no unusual spices, everything can be found in a regular supermarket. Why? Because northern India has a climate very similar to Europe. So it’s easier to start cooking Indian food, since you can easily find the same ingredients.
Start Simple.
And to start simple, there are a few spices that are called the basic spices. Here, they are two types of spices: whole or powdered spices. Whole spices will be mostly used at the beginning of the cooking process to flavor the oil. Powdered spices are being used in between.
Ground spices to have:
- Turmeric powder
- Red chili powder
- Coriander powder
- Garam masala powder
Essential whole spices:
- Cumin seeds
- Mustard seeds (might be a bit complicated to find, so it’s okay not to have it)
- Black pepper (but powder is also OK)
Easy Indian Recipes To Make
Now that you gathered all your ingredients and bought all the needed spices, what dish should you even start with? Indian cooking is full with different ways of cooking one dish! That’s why it is amazing that it allows you to explore your taste, dish after dish, until you find what suits you the best!
Indian cooking is a playground for experiment!
Let’s see which recipes you can make with these ingredients that you can find on my blog (I’ll add more as my recipes are published):
Lentil Curry (Dal) and Rice:
Dal is a staple in every Indian household. Lentils (red, yellow, green) and basic spices are only needed for this dish. The most interesting again? Every region in India has its own version of dal: with vegetables, thick or thin, spicy or really mild, etc. Once you learn the base method, you can adapt endlessly!
Most of the Indian households cook dal in a pressure cooker. It’s true, it’s quicker and practical. However, in Europe it’s rare to find one. No one really uses a pressure cooker, so the bigger your lentils are, the longer they will take to cook! For bigger lentils, it is recommended to soak them overnight.
For that, I would recommend to start with masoor dal, moong dal or the most common green lentils we have in European supermarkets.
Masala Omelet
Because we love to have a good dose of protein, eggs are an amazing way to enjoy Indian food without going to a specific Asian supermarket.
Again, it is great to have a twist if you like to have eggs for breakfast. Masala omelet is not only good to start the morning, but also perfect for a quick lunch or when we don’t feel like cooking.
I usually love my masala omelet with green chilies, coriander and salt/pepper. It gives such an Indian flavor without adding powdered spices. However, this recipe can be highly customized so feel free to explore my different suggestions.
Egg Bhurji
To stay in the theme of eggs and if you’re tired of masala omelet, you can decide to make the scramble version of it. You will need a bit more of patience, but this recipe is quick under 30 minutes.
You can add it on top of your crusty sourdough bread and a small salad, it can easily become a continental way of eating it. In India, we will be mostly eating egg bhurj with pav, or normal toasties, but having a green salad would pair perfectly with the flavor of this scrambled egg recipe.
Chicken Karahi
My previous recipes were mostly planned to be part of a personal meal planning, but chicken karahi is personally one of the best recipe to cook when you have guests. In under 30 minutes, you prepare a juicy and spicy chicken recipe that no one would have yet tried.
It doesn’t require specific spices and it is even recommended to use whole canned tomatoes you can easily find in the supermarket to enhance the flavors of the gravy.
4) YouTube, Your Good Friend For Easy Indian Cooking
YouTube is a goldmine for finding recipes, but it can quickly become overwhelming. That’s why I want to share a few YouTube channels that I highly recommend and that are perfect for beginners. I’m also suggesting 1 or 2 easy recipes to try for each of them (Click on the name to visit their channel):
- Aloo Matar (potatoes and green peas)
- Khichidi (soup of rice and lentils)
- Zucchini curry
- Gobi Manchurian (indo-chinese cauliflower gravy recipe)
- Chicken Reshmi Kebab (grilled chicken Reshmi style)
- Aloo Palak (potatoes and spinach)
So, have I made you want to give Indian cooking a try? With a bit of curiosity and a few spices, you can make amazing, delicious dishes that are totally worth it! So grab your pan, get your spices ready, and go for it!
Enjoy your meal and happy culinary exploration!
Share how your experience went!
➡️ You can check my Instagram page @chai_and_fondue to have the latest news of my life in Mumbai!
Super helpful guide for beginners 👌
Thank you!! 😀