• Leo on December 09, 2022

  Love this book already. The writer really gets the need for easy, tasty food made with accessible ingredients. If you have a reasonable larder of spices the recipes in this book are a breeze. The good thing about this book is that leftovers are specifically mentioned. Very helpful.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Bengali salt & pepper potatoes with scrambled eggs

  • Futuregirl23 on February 02, 2023

    This was lovely, the eggs are so creamy!

• Tamilian lemon rice

  • SaraPlataan on April 26, 2025

    Great rice recipe. I used half of the lemon juice and used buddha's hand rind as I did not have eco lemon peel on hand. We ate it together with the mustard eggs on page 164. Big hit

• My mother's cashew nut pulao rice

  • Boffcat on October 16, 2023

    I found this a bit disappointingly bland, but it was a good accompaniment to other dishes, and popular. (NB I used wholegrain rice.)

• All-in-one aubergine, tomato & nigella seed curry

  • Leo on December 09, 2022

    This was a hit. So easy to put together and it tasted delicious. We had it as part of a meal with a dal and another curry. A bit light to have as a main dish.

  • monicahorridge on June 03, 2023

    Absolutely delicious and really easy! There’s a potential error in the instructions, which tells you to add of the oil and spices to the tomato layer, but then add additional spice mix to the aubergines; there was plenty of spice mix at the bottom of the dish so I managed to rub all the aubergines against it but it would have been easier to hold a bit back. This is going to be on repeat for us. Was perfect just with some buttered rice as suggested in the book.

  • Churchim808 on April 21, 2024

    This is good but I agree that the recipe isn't well written. I did substitute canned diced tomatoes, drained first of a few ounces of juice, for the cherry tomatoes. I also only had one large eggplant instead of a bunch of smaller eggplants. The recipe suggested substituting two large eggplants for the small eggplants but that would have been way too much. I agree that the spice mixture should be split between the tomatoes and the eggplant but I tossed most of it with the eggplant. This calls for 2 (!) teaspoons of flaky salt. I used 1.5 tsp of kosher and it was more than enough. Also, eggplant needs a lot of oil when cooking but the instructions had you adding three tablespoons of oil to the bottom and then just adding the eggplant on top. I tossed 2 of the three tablespoons of oil with the eggplant and spices. The final result is pretty good and fairly easy to make. I served it with some toasted and buttered bread, parsley and yogurt.

• Crisp-topped marinated sea bass with green chilli, lime and coriander

  • lilham on April 21, 2023

    Very easy and a good quick dinner. I served it with rice and green beans.

• Bengali-style mustard fish with crushed peas & spiced sweet potato

  • lilham on January 19, 2024

    This is quite bland. The kids didn’t like the mustard crumbs either. Won’t make again.

• Bengali five-spice roasted squash with carrots & pumpkin seeds

  • Futuregirl23 on February 04, 2023

    This was gorgeous, I’ve never tried the spice mix before but it really works. I think I could have done with a bigger portion but that may just be me!

• All-in-one red kidney bean curry with tomatoes & peppers

  • Apollonia on January 09, 2023

    This was pretty good--- not mind blowing, but quick, healthy, and filling. Served with yogurt and chapati (both nice accompaniments), and made ahead per recipe direction for best flavor.

• Padmini's tomato, onion & spinach curry

  • Futuregirl23 on February 13, 2023

    This was really tasty and easy to make. The spinach took longer to wilt than I thought it would. Really low calorie if that’s something you’re aiming for, the recipe is for 4 people but I reduced the amount of spinach slightly and split it two ways with some rice.

• South Indian Puy lentil & tenderstem broccoli stir fry

  • quinn_q3nqrr on February 28, 2026

    This is always a great one! And so quick!

• Beetroot, carrot & coconut dal

  • Leo on December 09, 2022

    Definitely worth making. The veg makes the dal more substantial. The spicing prevents the earthy favour of the beetroot from dominating.

  • Futuregirl23 on February 06, 2023

    This was gorgeous, really unusual. Needed the extra stock but not a lot.

• Keralan potato curry with chickpeas & coconut

  • snackbaby on July 02, 2023

    nice dish, esp. with some lemon or lime juice added at the end. I found the kala chana to be quite dry -- this might be due to the ones I bought (I cooked from scratch), but based on this impression I would rather make it again with regular chickpeas.

  • quinn_q3nqrr on April 13, 2026

    This was great! And really easy! Made a double portion which was necessary for 4 hungry mouths. Great for vegan + GF crowds if you switch out asafoetida for onion+garlic powder.

  • quinn_q3nqrr on May 10, 2026

    So good on a second cook! This is going to become a favourite.

• Sambhar

  • Futuregirl23 on February 23, 2023

    This was tremendous. So flavourful. I pressure cooked my lentils which reduced the cooking time considerably, and served with some shop bought idli. It might be that we’re a family of greedy people but this went 4 ways rather than 6.

• Mustard eggs with spring onions & turmeric (Didu's dimer jhal)

  • SaraPlataan on April 26, 2025

    Great simple original recipe. We'll definitely eat it many more times

• One-tin spiced cauliflower & potato curry with peas (Chechki)

  • SaraPlataan on February 08, 2026

    Simple, easy, delicious, good for weekday or as side dish. Next time I would add the Panch photon much later, as it tends to burn easily and and gets a bitter taste. I swapped the potatoes for sweet potatoes, which turned out really well

• Masoor dal

  • Boffcat on October 16, 2023

    The first time I made this I used the whey from homemade paneer in place of the cooking water - it significantly delayed the lentils softening, but was delicious. The second time I made as per the recipe, and it was fine though very plain. The portions are very small though, unless you're eating it as part of a much larger spread - a single quantity of the recipe would barely serve two.

• Bengali cabbage & potato curry (Ghonto)

  • snackbaby on July 02, 2023

    quick, easy, super flavorful!

• Prawn malai curry (Chingri macher malai curry)

  • Leo on December 09, 2022

    Easy dish to put together. Very simple. Few ingredients. I made the sauce a bit in advance then reheated it to cook the prawns just before serving.

• Malai kofta

  • Boffcat on October 16, 2023

    The kofta were absolutely delicious - and I say that as someone who doesn't normally like paneer. The tomato sauce was good too, but I'd happily use the kofta in a different sauce. The recipe was also surprisingly faff-free (even if, like me, you generally avoid deep frying), and if you make the components in advance it's a doddle to put together at the last minute to serve.