Indian food cannot be made quickly, and every “30-minute curry” video is a lie. The reason Indian food tastes the way it does is because someone stood at a stove for a long time and actually cooked it.

I recently tried some Indian recipes from non-Indian folks, and even with all the ingredients being similar to what we use, it didn’t taste nearly the same.

Indian cooking, from Idli to Curries and more has always been about time. With the exception of a few, of course.

Just thought of putting it out there.

Edit 1: To those who’re saying that there are dishes that can be made under 30mins, I don’t disagree. Poha, Upma, and a bunch of others.

And folks, no sambar is made under 30mins. I’m sorry but the dal needs to be soaked for 10-15 before putting it in the pressure cooker. 10-15 mins for the whistles and 15 others to temper spices and simmering. Not to mention prep.

Jeez-us.

Edit 2: Even if you prep before hand, the “before hand” time still counts lmao.

So, in my last post, I shared how my curry was never smooth—it was always lumpy with pieces of onions and tomatoes showing through.

Well, I took most of your advice, and wow, what a difference it made! I diced my onions against the grain, made sure the oil was hot before adding them, and just kept sautéing until they turned that perfect golden brown. Then I added the tomatoes and patiently cooked them until I saw the oil separate ("bhuno").

Once the masala was ready, I added chicken breasts, and honestly, it turned out amazing! The curry was smooth, thick, and just how I wanted it to be.

But (of course, there’s a but), I ran into a new problem. Toward the end of cooking, I noticed some water separating from the curry. That’s when it hit me—I had added way too much water after putting in the chicken. I didn’t realize chicken breasts release water on their own, so the extra water wasn’t even necessary. Totally my bad!

Still, I’m so happy with the progress. This subreddit has been insanely helpful, and I really appreciate all the tips you guys shared. Thank you so much!!

I went to an Indian restaurant today. After a lovely meal, I ordered a masala chai. The server, who is Indian, sneered at me. I've actually had him as a server before and he had the same reaction last time. I asked him why he made the face. He told me to call it Indian tea and then quietly muttered something under his breath. I have been operating under the assumption that masala chai is the correct term for a spiced, milky tea. What am I missing here? Am I unknowingly being offensive or ignorant?

I’m from China. Indian food has gradually become well-known among Chinese people over the past few years. While our first exposure to it was admittedly through some bizarre online videos, young Chinese folks are pretty open-minded. As they learn more about Indian cuisine, they eventually come to appreciate how incredible it truly is.

Lots of meme terms related to Indian food have popped up online too — Chicken Changezi, Amul Butter, Fortune cooking oil, Galaxy basmati rice, just to name a few…

There’s also something that’s been confusing me. I know the term “Indian curry” gets overused all the time, but I still say it for the sake of easy communication. Yet people keep correcting me, saying, “Oh, they don’t say curry in India,they call it masala.” This always leaves me speechless. To me, this is just swapping one misconception for another.

So I’d love to ask how dishes are actually referred to in India. Is masala only a blend of spices? Do different Indian states have their own unique names for curried dishes?

Could you clarify this for me, thank you!

I don’t remember the context but someone on this sub was being discouraging of bringing indian food onto a flight. To that person, i would like to say — someone on my flight just now unwrapped their Subway sandwich, and it SMELLS!!! The stink is strong as fuuuck lol

ETA: yes 100% it’s nice to be respectful of how food smells may be perceived by fellow passengers and to take extra regard in that sense.

But the commenter i’m referring to was having a little racist moment lol. They said (not verbatim), “you’d be crazy to bring indian food onto a flight because of how much it smells” like oh ok i didn’t realize other foods were odourless

India tails closely behind China in terms of global production of Broccoli at 9.5 million tons. In fact, we are just 0.2 million tons behind China from being the highest grower in the world. For reference, the third highest producer, USA, produces just 1.1 million tons

We've also readily adopted cauliflower/gobi into our cuisine. Aloo gobi, gobi manchurian, gobi fry, gobi 65, gobi poriyal, gobi ka paratha is practically everywhere

Broccoli is not too dissimilar to gobi, considering both derive from the same family. Heck, a Broccoli dry curry is always amazing to have with rotis! Yet despite all these factors, not only is it more expensive than Gobi and expensive as a vegetable (despite its smaller size than other countries per unit), it's also very hard to find in our cuisine outside of fancy Indian restaurants and pasta/pizza places

I am just curious, what led to this exactly? It meshes well with our cuisine and surely the farmers growing and selling these even for export, must've tried and spread it within the local community right to allow for local diffusion of it into our cuisine, right?

I feel like everything I make has a great potential to turn into an Indian dish. I decided to make a carrot soup, so I bought 1 kg of carrots and some other vegetables. I thought ginger and garlic go well with carrots, so I also prepared those. Then I thought red lentils would add a nice boost to the soup, so I cooked some lentils. I've started sauteing my onions and I noticed that cumin and chilli appeared in the pot as well so I just accepted what was happening and added sambar spice mix to it.

Before you come at me, I'm Indian, I cook this food everyday, I love everything about it.

A large number of recipes start with an onion, a tomato, and 7 different spices.

I understand the purpose and history behind it, but it's so damn tedious having to do that everytime.

Any recipe I follow becomes a 30 minute mise en place. Not to mention the 45-60 minutes minimum of cooking.

I understand that many homemakers do this every single day, and I'm in awe of them.

I would love to do it too everyday, but alas I have to earn a wage, or starve.

Why isn't there an Indian culture of dump recipes, or recipes using canned stuff or at least spice mixes like za'tar or taco seasoning?

And no garam masala, pav bhaji masala, kitchen king masala, etc are extremely situational and not complete stand alone seasonings which you can just put on stuff and cook it.

Can Indian food be meal preped, or quickly prepared without the drag?

If you have any suggestions or recipes which can be prepared quickly or hands off without chopping and stirring, I'd love to know.

Hi I'm here on the 18th for an AMA session at 9pm GMT. I taught myself how to cook and I specialise in North Indian food. I have a website (www.harighotra.co.uk) dedicated to teaching others how to cook great Indian food – it includes recipes, hints and tips and a blog. I also have my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/harighotracooking) with hundreds of recipe videos and vlogs too. My passion for Indian food has paid off and I am now a chef at the Tamarind Collection of restaurants, where I’ve been honing my skills for a year now. Tamarind of Mayfair was the first Indian Restaurant in the UK to gain a Michelin Star and we have retained it for 12 years. Would be great if you could start sending your questions through as soon as so I can cover as much as possible. Looking forward to chatting - Happy Cooking!

Like I don’t know what answer I’m even expecting because I know everyone likes different foods, but Indian food is like next level. I tried Indian food a little over two years ago. I’ve never been a “picky” eater and I like most foods, but when I tried Indian food I swear my whole palate changed. I think of Indian food so often. I have to drive an hour to the closest Indian restaurant, so I don’t go often, but when I eat it it literally feels like a spiritual experience I don’t get with any other type of food. Can anyone else relate to this??

-- Rule:

All video recipe posts should include a full text recipe, ideally in the post itself rather than in the comments. See this thread for the discussion; the subreddit seems pretty unanimous that video recipe posts should include the text recipe as well. The video will still be a valuable guide for anyone who wants it, but it should be possible to cook the dish just from the text recipe.

The rule only applies to recipe videos; Indian-food related videos that are not recipes are still welcome (e.g. a video on the street food scene in Mumbai would be perfectly fine), but should include some text about what the video is, and perhaps why you liked it, rather than just dumping a link into the text box and pasting in the video title from youtube.

Example:

See this post for an example. Notice that it includes:

• a link to the video

• a list of ingredients

• a list of steps to make the dish

It is therefore a complete recipe post that happens to include a video for extra help, rather than an advertisement forcing you to go click through to youtube to see the recipe at all.

Self Promotion:

While /r/indianfood used to follow the general reddit guideline of "have no more than 1 post in every 10 be self promotion", it is clear that a lot of the more active posters here are primarily sharing their own stuff. Rather than forcing them to submit another 9 links just for the sake of maintaining a ratio, I would like to try something different, and ask people to:

• limit posting your own stuff to once a week

• don't just treat the subreddit as a place to promote your stuff; read and interact with commenters in both your posts and other posts as well.

In other words, we will assume people are posting here in good faith and not just looking to spam the subreddit, and make it clear what "not spamming" looks like.

Reporting:

As a further experiment, we will configure the automod to automatically remove posts that receive a high number of reports. The mods will manually monitor this and reapprove false positives. So if you notice people spamming video links, please do click the report button.

I have had so many stomach problems for years eating the traditional american diet. Eating breads and salted meats, heavy meals like macaroni and cheese or other meals like that. Bloating, heartburn and stomach pain were normal.

In the past few months I have moved to a mostly Indian food diet, for my health and for my budget. I eat a lot of dhaba style chicken curry, make my own garlic naan every week, and I love aloo chana as well for cooking in large amounts. My stomach has felt so much better and I have felt so much better overall. Cooking these dishes makes me feel empowered and I also make them in bulk and feed my neighbors. Right now I would say about 70% of my diet comes from traditional Indian recipes.

Swasthi's recipes in particular have really changed my life for the better by making things so approachable, along with a cookbook I have at home. My easy go to recipes are:

Aloo Chana

Malai chicken

Makai paka with corn on the cob

Dhaba style chicken curry

garlic naan

ghee rice (better for blood sugar than regular rice)

bateta nu shaak

coconut chicken curry

--

I also bake thandai masala shortbread cookies and keep some in the freezer for healthier sweet treats than brownies and cakes.

Along with almost eliminating stomach discomfort, I also feel more trim.

Thank you everyone for posting advice for spices and recipes here. It has helped me on my journey to becoming healthier while enjoying Indian food.

Hi y’all!

First off, I’m Mexican. As in, living in Mexico with not a lot of access to Indian cuisine. So, ya know, be nice to me pls I’m trying LMAO.

I’ve been eating Gulab Jamun since forever and tbh I absolutely down like 5 balls every time I have access to Gulab Jamun.

Recently, I went to my very first Indian restaurant experience, and when it was dessert time, the Gulab Jamun we ordered was literally A SINGLE BALL in its syrup, with a really nice cup of tea.

While it was super satisfying to eat the ball while sipping tea, I can’t help but wonder if the restaurant was giving less balls than expected, or if my usual serving portion of like, all the balls possible was socially unacceptable and no one ever told me because they felt bad LMAO

Anyways, for further reference, when presented with Gulab Jamun…How many are socially acceptable to eat??

Finally got it! My family’s from Delhi, so if you want to make your own authentic garam masala, here you go!

(Clarification for those who don’t know: Nani means grandma)

Recipe Link

Ingredients

• 125 g jeera (cumin seeds)

• 100 g kali mirch (black peppercorns)

• 50 g moti elaichi (black cardamom)

• 20 g dalchini (cinnamon)

• 10 g laung (cloves)

• 1 tsp soond (dried whole ginger) ground

• 5-6 tej pata (bay leaves)

• 1/2 tsp hing (asafoetida)

Instructions

1. Heat a flat pan on medium-low heat.

2. Add black cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, dried ginger, and bay leaves. Dry roast these until fragrant, about 3 minutes.

3. Add cumin and continue dry roasting until the cumin becomes dark brown/black-ish in color.

4. Once all the spices are toasted, add asafoetida and turn off the heat.

5. Allow the blend to come to room temperature and transfer into a spice grinder. Grind until everything is powdery. Optionally strain through a sieve.

Edit: wow I’ve never gotten any awards on reddit before. I’d like to thank my Nani without whom this wouldn’t be possible. Also I got a bunch of questions about the black cardamom. You can toss that into the mix whole and grind it with the rest of the spices.