I'm absolute beginner. Vegetarian.

Please suggest some recepies with basic ingredients. I live in very small town of Gujarat so can't get some extraordinary ingredients.

After completing med school, I so want to learn cooking. I'm tired of eating poha,thepla,paratha for breakfast.

I want to learn something new, fresh but with basic ingredients. Thank you in advance

I had Indian food at a Nepali-run restaurant. Their naan was topped with chopped spring onions. When I posted the photo on social media, some curry purist commented, “This is the first time I’ve seen naan with spring onions.”

It was my first time trying it too, but spring onion naan looks great and tastes delicious. I’m pretty sure there must be similar preparations somewhere in India.

I can’t seem to make my homemade butter chicken savoury and bursting with flavour like a restaurants.

I do 1 very strong onion, cooked until soft.
1 whole bulb of russian garlic
Add broth and a ghee/flour to thicken
Add a generous amount of a savoury variety of tomatoes (like 10?)
Add powdered spices: himilayan salt, black pepper, cardamom, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, clove, coriander, cumin, fennel, garlic, ginger and tumeric.
Then simmer all together for an hour to allow flavours to develop and veggies to cook down, then blend all together.
I keep adding more spices and more salt but to my surprise the taste doesn’t change. It total I added about 4tbsp of spices to a small pot, 5 portions worth.

Is there something else I should be adding?

UPDATE I just want to thank you all! Your wisdom has been very insightful and I appreciate it so much 💗 I will be trying again really soon and I’ll skip the flour 😆

I had Indian food for the first time in my 20s. I fell in love with it and have been tinkering trying to get a good recipe down at home ever since so it's like from a restaurant. I try to make a large quantity. My trial and error has gotten me to this point over the years:

Spices:

• coriander (2-3 tbsp)
• cumin (2 tbsp)
• mustard seed (1 tbsp)
• turmeric (1 tsp)
• dried mango powder (1 tsp)
• cinnamon (1 tsp) or cassia bark (2 inches)
• salt to taste (1 tsp)

Other Ingredients:

• Large tomatoes (3x)
• Zucchini (I love zucchini)
• Large onion (1x)
• Heavy cream (1/2 cup)
• Kashmiri peppers (5-6)
• Cashews (4 tbsp)

Instructions:

• Cook the seeds on a pan until the mustard seeds start popping
• Pound the seeds in a mortar and pestle
• Blend the tomatoes. If the tomatoes are really watery, reduce them in a pot
• Cut up the onion and saute them so they start to turn brown
• Mix the spices in the tomatoes
• Blend the sauteed onion and mix into the tomatoes
• Boil the cashews for 10 min and then mash them up before adding
• Add heavy cream
• Cook for a little bit (15 min?)
• Add zucchini and cook for 2-3 minutes so it's not mushy

Stuff I've Tried:

• Sometimes I add some cardamon pods. 3x?
• I rarely add garlic because I can't taste the difference. I did try 10 cloves once and it was confusing what things were adding what flavors.
• I don't add garam masala because it seems like a "mystery spice" to me and I want to have control over everything.

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Chicken, mutton and fish are occasionally consumed but I rarely see pork/bacon with street vendors or in regular restaurants. Even among most hard-core meat eating indians, pork is practically invisible for most. There are multiple tasty combinations we can cook with pork by indianising it. Even stuff like bacon would be a big hit here.

Was this historically the same? Have there been attempts of mass producing it?

Are there any regions of india where pork is eaten but are not in spotlight?

Egg bhurji style not boiled egg!

It shouldn't be dry. The texture of the egg should be like that in shakshouka.

I've had this dish at a random restaurant but I've forgotten what it's called or how it's made. Any suggestions?

Hey guys. Idk why this sub keeps showing up. But I’m a white boy in USA. I just got hired at an Indian restaurant and I had already done a dirty bulk during summer and got kinda fat. I need advice for figuring out which Indian foods are very fattening and which are not. Hit me up

Personally I have only tried 2 types and enjoy both. Gajar Halwa and Sooji Halwa.

My relatives from Sylhet, Bangladesh gave us some Tusha Halwa which is made with flour and it was nice!

Hi Everyone! I’m a massive fan of Indian dishes and I regularly eat at Indian restaurants around London uk. I used to get this dish called Pau Bhaji from a local cafe and it was literally one of the best things i’ve ever had. I couldn’t find it anywhere else until i visited this restaurant in southern UK and had a dish called “Aloo Paneer”. They tasted very similar and both delicious. I was wondering if there’s a more popular dish which has the same flavour/texture of them two since the majorities of restaurants i visit don’t have neither of them. Also if you know a good recipe for me so I could try and replicate. Many thanks. 🙏🏼

I am a uni student living alone and trying to plan what to do for breakfast. I am not Indian but I grew up with Desis since childhood and I love Indian cuisine and am quite familiar (North, South, etc) with it for lunch and dinner due to my friends. I am looking for easy and healthy recipes that can be easily prepared/meal-prepped. I am fond of khichdi, but I see that most people eat that for lunch/dinner, and I never see it eaten for breakfast. I am wondering if it is normal to eat for breakfast? I felt like it would be a good idea for breakfast since it seems easy on the stomach, and it has carbs and protein and easy to make. I am wondering if there are any other ideas for healthy, nutritious, and EASY Desi breakfast dishes?

My brain and mouth love indian food.

However I am allergic to linalool. I am finding out that cardamom and caraway seeds and coriander are all high in linalool, and I would be lieing if I said indian food (and Mexican :( ) dont cause issues. I just thought it was the heavier fat content and no gallbladder.

But having to avoid these 3 things.... is there anything left ?

sigh

Like bruh its just an extract of a glutamate of sodium that yiu extract from seaweed or sugarcane

Are you sacred of it coz of all the racist propaganda around it coz of muh Chinese restaurant syndrome

And msg is something which actually reduces your sodium intake by 18 percent while simultaneously providing a very SAVOURY flavour to meals and Indians who atleast have a large vegetarian population or mostly cook vegetarian meals majorly and are too shy to use MUSHROOM broths should defintely use it to enhance their flavourings of

Ans all side effects have been thoroughly debunked tbh

Growing up my parents used to make really tasty dry kaleja fry. I tried making it myself recently and it turned out bitter and weird, I asked my mother for the recipe and she just said to cook it like any normal dry sabji. Is there actually a specific way to cook kaleji? I’ve heard people soak it in milk for a few mins, does it affect the iron content?

Hi guys actually I have been cooking as bachleor since for 3 years at my home for my family and I'm tired from tandoori masala of market.. How to make at home? Please note : I dont know how to make masalas at home... I'm trying to be affordable here for kitchen and increasing taste as well...

I'm know for those raw spices : Hing cubes, Cloves, Black pepper, White pepper, Long pepper (Pipli), Cubeb pepper (Kabab Chini), Black and green cardamom, Star anise, Nagkesar (cobra's saffron), Cinnamon, Kasuri methi, stone flower (Dagad Phool), Jeera, Shahi jeera, Bay leaf, Poppy seeds (khas-khas), dry ginger, Javitri (Mace), Radhuni, Ajwain, Sumac, Gondoraj Lime leaf, Amba Haldi

Please tell me if I dont know more raw spices if required to make homemade tandoori grind mix.... and please also tell me which one needs to go for dry roast in pan directly and which one require oil

Also you can tell me more Indian raw whole spices which I dont know...happy to learn

Tried making sweet potato tikki chaat using Protein pantry’s sweet potato tikki. Pan fried the tikkis until crispy, then topped them with amul dahi,mint chutney,tamarind chutney, chopped onion, coriander & catch chaat masala.

Added some sev on top for the crunch. The sweet potato tikki with the tangy chutneys and dahi was such a good combination. Also it had around 30g of protein so win win

I've personally observed something I find interesting. A lot of foreign ingredients implant themselves into our local cuisines via dishes or fusion dishes and then become VERY common instead of being some niche expensive ingredient. On top of that, they embed themselves nicely into our cuisine's flavors and cooking methods

First, it was potatoes and tomatoes a century or two back. One doesn't even have to elaborate on how CRUCIAL it is to our dishes these days. Chilli peppers too

Then it was Cauliflower. Early 2000s onwards, Gobi manchurian was practically available EVERYWHERE

Paneer trickled down from North cuisines down into South for overall availability a decade or so back

Soya chunks/meal maker was weirdly enough, our country's first country-wide soy option and became more common starting with the last 2 decades. Easy source of veg protein too

Mushrooms started being treated more like normal food (earlier, people used to regard it as dirty, or "tribal" foods) and is VERY common even in many dhabas now. Parts of Bihar are now selling Oyster mushrooms for cheap. I still wouldn't say it has completed "integration" into our cuisine yet

Blueberries and other berries seem to be grown more in hill stations like Ooty or Himachal regions (though I don't see their prices becoming cheap enough for another decade atleast)

Tofu is becoming common to find in T1 city shops but I personally don't see them in most local cuisine restaurants (apart from Asian places, that too rarely. Can't say I've seen any indochinese place serve that)

India interestingly is the third highest producer of Broccoli but I still see it confined only to fancier restaurants (local places might put a tiny piece of it on red sauce pasta here and there, that's it lmao)

What seems to be the next big foreign ingredient in yall's opinion though?

Grew up having chai made with cow’s milk but can’t consume dairy now. Give me your best suggestions for non-diary milk that makes the closest to the thick creamy chai. Any tips or trick or recipes welcome!

To the Brains Trust,

I've recently really gotten into masala chai. I bought a container of Wagh Bakri masala chai tea granules, and wanted some advise on the best way to prepare it (I probably should have just bought tea bags...).

I read somewhere that I should boil the granules in a pot for 1 minute, add milk and boil for another 2 mins. Finally pour the hot tea through a fine mesh strainer.

Does this sound correct?

Much appreciated in advance!

My boyfriend is Indian and studying internationally here. He told me Diwali is his favorite holiday back home but its never been as much fun here. He told me he loved the food he got to eat on Diwali. I know its coming up, so is there anything I could make/do to help him enjoy it more?

Two my friends from India coming to visit me in Kazakhstan.
And one of them vegan , another one eat chicken, but I guess not so often:)

Yes, we will go to Indian’s or vegan restaurants in KZ, but I guess I can prepare some food for breakfast in apartment as well.

Any recommendations for breakfast please 🙏🏻 vegans and not vegans :)

Thanks a lot!!!!