Recipes

50 Indian Recipes We Love From Tikka Masala to Tandoori Cauliflower

Forget takeout with these 50 recipes for delicious Indian food at home.

Who needs takeout when you can bring home the sultry spices of the Indian kitchen?

Most of the ingredients called for in these recipes are available in supermarkets. If there’s something you can’t find, go to a local Indian market or order online.

  • Butter Chicken recipe
    Alex Lau
    1/50

    Butter Chicken

    The butter sauce for this recipe was developed in the early 20th century in Delhi as a way to soften leftover tandoori chicken with tomatoes, butter, and cream.

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  • Image may contain Dish Food Meal Platter and Plant
    Peden & Munk
    2/50

    Aloo Chaat

    It’s worth visiting an Indian grocer for a couple of ingredients: chaat masala, which is a sour-salty mix of ground spices, and the thin, crunchy seasoned noodles called sev, which add texture to the finished dish.

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  • Image may contain Plant Food Produce Dish Meal Animal Seafood Sea Life and Lobster
    Peden + Munk
    5/50

    “Tandoori” Carrots with Vadouvan Spice and Yogurt

    What’s vadouvan, you ask? It’s just one of our new favorite exotic spice blends, a French-Indian formula that includes onion, shallots, and garlic added to a currylike mix.

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  • Curried meatball recipe
    Marcus Nilsson
    6/50

    Curried Meatballs

    The texture of the raw meatballs is very soft. Don’t worry; it’s the reason they’re so tender when cooked. This dish comes from Mr. Curry, a Brooklyn pop-up from chef Rebecca Collerton that celebrates the rich Indian food scene of England, where she grew up.

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  • Onion naan piled on a decorative platter on a table with a white tablecloth.
    7/50

    Onion Naan

    Like any bread, prepping this onion naan recipe takes a little time. The good news: each cooks up in under 5 minutes.

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  • This image may contain Plant Food Produce and Vegetable
    Peden + Munk
    8/50

    Chickpea Sundal

    Serve this light snack warm, room temp, or cold; just make sure you give it a generous dose of acid and salt.

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  • Image may contain Plant Food Vegetable Animal Seafood Sea Life Lobster Wok and Frying Pan
    Peden + Munk
    11/50

    Grilled Mustard Broccoli

    This is not your average side dish recipe: The broccoli is slathered in a spiced yogurt sauce, then grilled for even more flavor.

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  • Image may contain Food Egg Bowl Drink Juice and Beverage
    Alex Lau
    12/50

    Hot Turmeric Latte

    While ground spices will work, the medicinal properties will be diminished, and the finished texture less silky smooth.

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  • Image may contain Food
    Eva Kolenko
    15/50

    Indian-Spiced Fennel Pickles

    Consider the crunch: You want to choose a vegetable that’s naturally firm, like fennel. The fresher it is, the crisper it will stay.

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  • chicken tikka masala recipe
    Photo by Alex Lau, food styling by Judy Mancini
    16/50

    Chicken Tikka Masala

    For this chicken tikka masala recipe, the yogurt helps tenderize the chicken; the garlic, ginger, and spices in the marinade infuse it with lots of flavor.

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  • Image may contain Plant Food Dish Meal Pizza Produce Vegetable and Curry
    José Picayo
    17/50

    Paneer Curry with Peas

    Paneer, a fresh, mild Indian cheese, stands in for the meat in this delicious vegetarian main course. When you’re shopping for the peas, look for fresh shelling peas (sometimes called English peas) that have vibrant green pods full of small round peas. Larger peas are sometimes starchy instead of sweet and crisp.

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  • Image may contain Plant Drink Tea Beverage Pottery Saucer Jewelry Ring Accessories and Accessory
    Photo by Alex Lau
    18/50

    BA's Best Masala Chai

    This chai is definitively ginger-forward. Feel free to add a little more maple syrup if you like it on the sweeter side. This is part of BA's Best, a collection of our essential recipes.

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  • Image may contain Cutlery Spoon Plant Human Person Food Produce and Vegetable
    Alex Lau
    19/50

    Ginger Cashew Chicken Curry

    Instead of chicken, this curry recipe is really good with boneless pork chops. Cut into ½" pieces and proceed as written. Check out step-by-step photos here.

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  • Image may contain Plant Food Produce Vegetable Lentil and Bean
    Michael Graydon and Nikole Herriott
    20/50

    Chickpea and Eggplant Curry With Mint Chutney

    The ingredient list for a curry can be a little daunting with all those spices, but the technique isn’t very far from a pasta sauce: you just toast the whole spices and then move on to a sort of sofrito of onion, garlic, and ginger. From that flavor base, you add tomatoes and whatever veggies you desire. At the end, a quick chutney, really just a rough chopped blend of herbs and coconut, gives the stew a bright pop of flavor (the way a few torn basil leaves make that tomato sauce sing).

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  • Image may contain Food
    Marcus Nilsson
    29/50

    Sweet-and-Sour Tomato Chutney

    Think of this as Indian-spiced ketchup, and use it in all the same ways.

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  • Image may contain Plant Food Dish Meal and Produce
    Photograph by Alex Lau, food styling by Susie Theodorou, prop styling by Sophie Strangio
    30/50

    Chana Masala

    “I went through a big Indian phase years ago and made this recipe so many times that I had to take about a decade off from making it. I’ve happily rediscovered it—a quick vegetarian main dish, perfect for hectic weeknights.” —Allie Lewis Clapp, food editor

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