Notes about Recipes in this book

• Asparagus & pea salad

  • ldebuys on April 26, 2026

    This tasted light and fresh and springy! I liked the balance of the warm spices in the dressing and the chopped mint.

• Chickpea salad, three ways: with spicy chicken

  • Ro_ on April 07, 2020

    I made all of the variations and served them together. Would do again, potentially the potatoes would be nicer on the side. Had no fresh mango so used a mix of mint sauce and mango chutney for the dressing.

• Mango & mint salad

  • Ro_ on September 24, 2020

    This was delicious, but didn't end up looking as pretty in the photo in the book - partly because I think I ended up with too much sauce for the amount of salad, but partly because I'm pretty sure the photo in the book shows the un-tossed salad, with the dressing just drizzled on. Either way, I will make this again, it's a lovely summery dish, the sweet notes make a nice change from the types of salad I usually eat.

• Chicken salad with yogurt dressing

  • Ro_ on June 22, 2020

    The flavours of the chicken in the yoghurty-curry dressing were delicious. However I think the salad could have benefitted from more different vegetables - rather than just lettuce and radishes, I think next time I'd add some more stuff like cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced cucumber etc to make a bigger meal of it.

• Aubergine coconut curry

  • Lepa on May 29, 2020

    This was okay but probably not a repeat. I didn't use the hot chili because we were eating with kids so that may have impacted how we felt about this.

  • Ro_ on February 27, 2025

    Pretty much the same as the last comment - this was OK but a bit meh. I think it was missing maybe some sweetness and a few more flavour notes. Also the potato was kind of weird in it.

• Cumin potatoes

  • Lepa on May 13, 2019

    These are simple to prepare and very good. I only used 1/2 of a seeded green chili and 1/2 the chili powder so kids could eat it. Adults slathered the potatoes with Brooklyn Delhi's tomato achar, one of my favorite condiments, and it was brilliant with these potatoes.

• Cabbage, pea & carrot sabji

  • Ro_ on March 09, 2023

    This was a nice, healthy weeknight side, also an easy one to throw together especially considering I bought pre-shredded cabbage. However, I think I prefer having the carrot grated too, and a higher ratio of carrot to cabbage than was in this recipe.

  • aschacht on April 03, 2026

    Much tastier than the sum of its parts! Added a little extra seasoning.

• Smoky aubergine with peas

  • Ro_ on March 23, 2023

    I ended up adding some chopped tomatoes to this dish to bulk it out and make it wetter, as I was serving it with rice and was worried it would be dry. I think in doing this though I lost some of the smokiness of the aubergine. I think generally this is quite a simple dish that probably needs to be served with something else (other than just rice) in order to make a full, interesting meal of it.

• Sweet potato yogurt curry

  • Ro_ on January 05, 2023

    I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. I thought the sweet potato wouldn't cook through and the curry would be too dry based on the scant amount of liquid/sauce there seemed to be at first, but in fact it turned out perfectly in terms of texture and consistency. I added a few more splodges of yogurt over the dish while serving, which I would do again.

• Masala cauliflower potatoes

  • Lepa on May 22, 2019

    This looked promising but despite all the spices going into it, this dish was a bit bland. Madhur Jaffrey has a version of cauliflower and peas that is much easier to make and much tastier.

• Cashew & tomato curry, four ways: with chicken

  • Ro_ on April 19, 2020

    I made this with both the chicken and potato additions. It was delicious: my family loved the smooth, nutty sauce and the whole thing wasn't too spicy. I added coconut milk instead of double cream as I had some to use up, but otherwise stuck to the recipe. Would definitely repeat this one.

• Butternut squash, chickpea & spinach soup

  • Astrid5555 on February 01, 2021

    Ok, nothing special, quite bland.

• Five lentils

  • Margret on January 08, 2023

    Good

  • infoforerk on November 12, 2025

    I've made this a couple of times now and it is just delicious! Simple and delicious!

• Spicy chickpeas, four ways: with green beans

  • Ro_ on March 28, 2023

    I made this as a side dish for some plain chicken. The flavours and texture were great, but my big complaint is that a teaspoon of salt was too much as the finished dish was much too salty for my taste. Next time would add half this amount. It will teach me to salt blindly according to recipe measures instead of to taste!

• Black lentils with red kidney beans

  • Lepa on June 30, 2019

    I was craving a warm, spicy dal and this just didn't do it for me. The texture wasn't as smooth and creamy as other dals. I also didn't love the flavor profile here, which was heavy on the garam masala and black cardamom. I think it could have used some ginger or mustard or other warming spices. I like the idea of this dish but didn't love the result.

  • ldebuys on January 01, 2026

    Quite good! I kick-started the bean soaking by soaking them in boiling hot water, which sped things up a bit. The black cardamom added really lovely flavor, but I was hoping for a bit more depth.

• Chana dal with roasted aubergine

  • infoforerk on August 10, 2025

    Nice. Could use more spice. Could add more quantity and variety of roasted vegetables.

• Red lentils with spinach

  • FatsyRoller on February 01, 2023

    A real go-to. Varying the amount of liquid gives you either a soup, a soft dal that is nice over rice, a slightly thicker one that works well with naan, or even a lentil-y spread. Amped up the salt and added more cumin, garlic and chiles.

• Red kidney bean curry

  • Lepa on May 13, 2019

    Kidney bean curry is one of my family's favorite dishes and this is the third version I have tried (others are from Madhur Jaffrey and Meera Sodha). We liked this version but Sodha's is still my favorite. I served this with naan, yogurt and mango chutney (the combination with this curry is amazing) and also with potatoes. Such a satisfying dinner!

  • Ro_ on April 14, 2020

    This was nice but not the best kidney bean curry recipe I've ever tried. I used tinned kidney beans and found I needed to add a lot of liquid to get a sauce as depicted in the picture.

• Black-eyed beans with cavolo nero

  • Rabates on May 31, 2026

    Easy but lengthy, beans have to be presoaked and then take an hour or so to cook. If I did it again I’d pressure cook them to speed it up. Needs more salt than the recipe specifies. But very tasty.

• Chana dal with okra & coconut

  • Idril on March 09, 2025

    Very nice - I used only 200g dal and so it was a little too salty in the lentils, I wish I had seasoned a bit more gradually. But a very tasty dish, served with lemon rice. Don’t cook the okra down too much, but cook them long enough to get rid of slime.

• Beetroot sabji with moong dal

  • Idril on June 30, 2024

    Pleasant and simple, would make it again as written.

• Tamarind fish curry

  • greedyrosie on January 26, 2023

    This was fairly mediocre. In terms of ingredients, fairly simple but having to purée onions, garlic and ginger seperately just made it feel like hard work for not enough flavour payoff. Especially not midweek.

  • Clog on June 07, 2024

    I agree with greedyrose; pretty average.

• Spicy masala roast chicken

  • Ro_ on May 05, 2020

    I liked the simplicity and ease of this dish: just whizz up the marinade, stick it on the chicken legs and bung into the oven for an hour. The flavours weren't totally outstanding, just "nice enough".

• Chicken & potato in pickling spices

  • Foodycat on April 16, 2025

    I wasn't sure what to expect from this - from the recipe I think it's a dry fry rather than a curry with sauce, but I did end up having to add quite a lot of water to stop it from burning. Really delicious flavour though! And very tender chicken. I'm not sure how much using chicken on the bone adds, since it's a pretty short cook time, but it was very succulent and juicy.

• Whole tandoori-style chicken

  • Ro_ on April 25, 2023

    Delicious and easy! The chicken was really moist and tender, thanks to the double marinade and especially the spicy yoghurt under the skin, I think. I used some of the juices to make a gravy, and served with rice and oven baked saffron tomatoes. Will make again.

• Coconut chicken curry

  • Ro_ on November 10, 2022

    Simple and delicious curry. I made a few minor tweaks to the recipe based on what I had available (chilli powder instead of fresh, deboned chicken thighs instead of on the bone, a smidge of dairy cream to supplement the slightly smaller amount of coconut milk I had) but I think these were all fine and it's a very flexible sort of recipe. My partner requested to have this one again.

• Chicken with kale & yogurt

  • TrishaCP on August 17, 2020

    This dish is healthy but extremely delicious. The real star was the turmeric- I can’t always find fresh turmeric in the store but I would say it is vital to this dish. It really adds a nice punch of flavor. I doubled the kale and liked that ratio of greens to the chicken and spices. I didn’t bother measuring the yogurt at the end, I just added enough to make a saucy consistency. Served with rice.

  • Ro_ on January 15, 2023

    I used spinach instead of kale (as suggested in the blurb) and ground turmeric instead of fresh. The curry was simple to make and tasty, would make again.

  • Clog on April 11, 2024

    Excecllent. Works very nicely with sour cream too.

• Basic chapatti

  • Ro_ on February 19, 2023

    I couldn't get chapatti flour for love nor money, but read that you could use half plain flour half wholemeal flour for something roughly equivalent, so did that. This was a simple recipe with a delicious end product! These were perfect for scooping up the sauce from the Moghul chicken korma I made.

• Baked chicken biryani

  • Ro_ on January 02, 2023

    Delicious! The flavour of the rice, and indeed the chicken, was subtle but very tasty and it really did feel like a healthy, nourishing dish. I didn't have rosewater to add, but everything else I did by the book. Next time I might make it with boneless chicken thighs/breasts just because that would make it easier to serve/eat, or just bone-in chicken thighs and a bit quicker to prepare than having to joint a whole chicken.

• Rice with all the greens

  • Ro_ on January 05, 2023

    I couldn't get sugar snap peas so had to omit them, which was a shame because I think they would have added a nice sweet crunch to the dish. As it was, it was nice but not amazing. I went very light on the cumin seeds as I had them in the dish I was serving this with, but in hindsight I should have put in the full amount.

• Mushroom & red onion rice

  • Ro_ on April 14, 2020

    Really delicious rice side dish. Very tasty, can be mostly prepped in advance then thrown together at the last minute. Will make again.

• Tomato, garlic & chilli chutney

  • Ro_ on February 06, 2023

    Spicy and delicious! This had the perfect amount of kick, I thought it might be too much with all the dried blitzed chillies, but no it was perfect. I made this to serve with Indian spiced fishcakes which were a smidge bland, so this complimented them perfectly.

• Ginger & tamarind chutney

  • Ro_ on April 06, 2023

    I had to add some more water to get this to a consistency where it would blend, and even so it wasnt that smooth. I really liked the flavours, sweeter than I expected (I used muscovado sugar instead of jaggery) but really hot, and I used one less chilli than stated. If I made again, I'd add more water during cooking, and one less chilli.

• Mango & mint chutney

  • Ro_ on January 20, 2021

    The first time I made this as a dressing for one of the other recipes in the book, I cheated and used mango chutney and mint sauce. The second time I made with an actual mango and herbs, and followed the recipe - but didn't like it as much! It came out a bit sludgy and meh. To be fair this could be because I couldn't get a green/unripe mango as instructed and just used a normal ripe mango?