Onion-tomato masala from Dishoom: From Bombay with Love: Cookery Book and Highly Subjective Guide to Bombay with Map (page 354) by Shamil Thakrar and Kavi Thakrar and Naved Nasir

Where’s the full recipe - why can I only see the ingredients?

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

  • tacoquokka on June 01, 2026

    Making the masala usually takes me about two hours of stove time - but only because I don’t cook the onions as dark as the recipe states. It has been fine that way in the recipes I’ve tried it in (masala beans, rajma, paneer; this is also used in the chole bhature), and while it takes a lot of time to make, those recipes are really quick to make once this is done. I keep this portioned out in the freezer, and it has worked well.

  • Potawatomus on April 20, 2026

    This is delicious but so much work.

  • ShayLRoss on April 13, 2026

    Wow, this was a bit of a process! I am really looking forward to adding it into the other Dishoom dishes soon.

  • lholtzman on June 20, 2025

    1/2 batch of this recipe will allow you to make the masala beans, chole bhature, rajma, and mattar paneer from Dashoom. It’s really nice to have on hand because those recipes can be made in a pinch on a weeknight. The masala takes a while to, but the depth of flavor it adds to dishes makes it worth it.

  • Astrid5555 on January 13, 2023

    I could eat this by the spoonful. However this is a project that takes several hours to make. My onions took almost three hours to caramelize to the state described in the recipe which was probably my mistake since I probably did not turn the heat up enough. Leftovers freeze well.

  • bernalgirl on October 24, 2021

    This is quite a project but it’s deliciously deeply flavored and I can’t wait to use it in the various recipes in this book. I used the full amount of oil and cooked the onions for 90 minutes on medium, which meant I could do other things at the stove and stir less frequently. In total, this took ~2.5 hours to prepare. The index doesn’t tell you this but the masala is used in the following recipes: - Masala beans - Chole bhature - Rajma - Mattar paneer The recipe yields ~4 cups of masala

  • SheilaS on October 14, 2021

    This stuff takes a good while to cook but you will be rewarded every time you use it as it adds a wonderful long-cooked flavor to whatever you are making. I plan to keep this stuff on hand all the time. It's like the love child of caramelized onions and sun-dried tomatoes!

  • VineTomato on April 11, 2020

    Great base for other recipes in this book. I've frozen the left overs. It's even pretty good with pasta! Update 2021: I made this again as the base for the mattar paneer, looking back on my previous note I couldn't see anything particularly helpful! So here it is - used the full amount of oil required, the onions took around 55 minutes to brown, with near constant stirring. At first I was afraid of turning the up past medium - I did for the second half of the cooking time and then things started to move. Once I added the tomatos I left it on the stove for double the amount of time. Drained the oil off in the end through a fine sieve. It yielded just over 900g of onion-masala without the oil, almost double what the book says to expect. Not complaining, it makes it worth the effort!

  • JJ2018 on January 11, 2020

    This took me much longer than the book suggested for the onions to darken and I think that at first my medium heat wasn’t ferocious enough. This made more than the 450ml indicated but all the better for the freezer.

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