All recipes
52 published. Each one cooked and tested here.
Rava Paniyaram
Little browned semolina balls cooked in an appe pan — round, soft and exactly the size a three-year-old can pick up without help.
46 min · serves 4
Besan Chilla
A gram flour pancake with vegetables grated into the batter — no soaking, no fermenting, the first one on the plate in half an hour.
21 min · serves 4
Instant Wheat Dosa
Atta whisked into water with cumin and chilli and poured straight onto the pan — no soaking, no grinding, no waiting.
16 min · serves 4
Kadale Kalu Husali
Soaked black chana cooked till it still has bite, then tossed through a mustard-and-urad tempering with coconut and lemon.
8 hr 25 min · serves 4
Susla
North Karnataka's puffed rice breakfast, steamed soft with milk poured into the pan at the end rather than left crisp.
16 min · serves 4
Bhindi Fry Masala
A dry okra fry, cooked uncovered so the slime burns off before the masala goes anywhere near it.
41 min · serves 4
Instant Oats Dosa
A thin, lacy dosa from a pourable oats batter — no soaking, no grinding overnight, no fermentation, ready in half an hour.
26 min · serves 3
Pulihora
Andhra tamarind rice, where the pulusu is cooked down separately until thick and then folded through cooled rice so every grain stays separate.
1 hr 25 min · serves 4
Kinnathappam
Malabar steamed rice cake — raw rice ground smooth with coconut milk and cumin, steamed in a kinnam and cut into diamonds once cold.
6 hr 5 min · serves 4
Ghee Upma
The tiffin-room version — rava roasted in ghee rather than dry, cooked soft with a little milk, and finished with more ghee off the heat.
31 min · serves 4
Restaurant-Style Mushroom Masala
The dhaba version, where the mushrooms are seared dry before they ever meet the gravy — a cashew and tomato base finished with kasuri methi and cream.
1 hr 14 min · serves 4
Aam Panna
Raw mangoes cooked soft, pulped and spiced with roasted cumin and black salt, then diluted cold — sour first, sweet a long way behind.
1 hr 37 min · serves 4
Adai
The Tamil mixed-dal dosa — rice and three dals ground coarse, no fermenting, griddled thick with onion and curry leaves.
3 hr 32 min · serves 4
Adhirasam
Ground raw rice and jaggery syrup taken to the soft-ball stage, rested for days, then fried dark — the syrup is where it is won or lost.
9 hr 50 min · serves 6
Ajwain Jeera Neer
Carom and cumin crushed, steeped in boiled water and kept in a flask — plain warm sipping water for a day spent under a blanket.
17 min · serves 5
Akki Rotti
Rice flour dough patted out by hand on a greased sheet, then inverted onto the tawa — no rolling pin, and the water has to go in boiling hot.
21 min · serves 4
Allam Pachadi
The dark, sweet-sour ginger chutney that goes with pesarattu — cooked down in oil until it thickens and keeps for weeks in the fridge.
27 min · serves 8
Almond Sesame Date Milk
A dairy-free nut milk — soaked almonds and toasted til blended with dates and cardamom, then strained through muslin.
8 hr 26 min · serves 3
Aloo Biryani
Potatoes browned in ghee, marinated in spiced curd, then layered under parboiled rice and steamed shut so they finish soft inside a crisp skin.
1 hr 58 min · serves 4
Aloo Gobi
Potato and cauliflower cooked dry in a wide pan, left alone long enough to brown rather than steam.
26 min · serves 4
Aloo Masala for Dosa
The soft turmeric-yellow potato that goes inside a masala dosa — onion cooked down sweet, no browning, and mashed rough.
34 min · serves 4
Aloo Paratha
Potato-stuffed flatbread where the filling is kept dry and cool, which is the whole difference between stuffing and patching.
1 hr 57 min · serves 4
Aloo Tikki
Potato patties griddled on a tawa until the crust is deep gold, sharpened with amchur and finished with chaat masala and lemon.
54 min · serves 4
Amritsari Aloo Kulcha
The stuffed kulcha of Amritsar, potato inside and coriander pressed into the crust, cooked on an upturned tawa.
2 hr 53 min · serves 6
Baby Corn Pepper Fry
A dry South Indian fry where coarsely crushed black pepper goes in at the very end, so it stays hot and fragrant instead of cooking down to dust.
17 min · serves 4
Baingan Bharta
A whole brinjal charred directly on the flame until it collapses, then mashed into onion and tomato — smoke is the entire dish.
51 min · serves 4
Bajra Khichdi
Whole pearl millet pounded damp to loosen the husk, then pressure cooked soft with moong dal and finished with a good deal of ghee.
2 hr 37 min · serves 4
Bajra Raab
Bajra flour roasted in ghee and cooked out with jaggery into a thin, drinkable gruel, finished with dry ginger and cardamom.
15 min · serves 2
Banana Sheera
Semolina roasted in ghee and finished with mashed ripe banana — a small sweet box that needs one pan, one banana past its best, and about fifteen minutes.
35 min · serves 4
Barnyard Millet Idli
Samak in place of rice in an idli batter, ground with urad dal and fermented overnight — softer than a rice idli and quicker to sour.
12 hr 14 min · serves 4
Batani Usli
Green peas boiled just short of soft and tossed in a mustard-and-coconut tempering — about half an hour, most of it cooling.
16 min · serves 4
Batata Vada
The Mumbai potato vada — a mustard, hing and ginger-garlic potato filling in a thin besan coat, fried till the shell sets.
44 min · serves 4
Beans and Carrot Poriyal
French beans and carrot cooked in their own steam and finished with fresh coconut — a dry vegetable side in fifteen minutes.
20 min · serves 4
Beerakaya Pachadi
Ridge gourd cooked down with dals and red chilli until the water is gone, then ground coarse — a mild, everyday Andhra chutney.
21 min · serves 6
Besan Ladoo
Gram flour roasted slowly in ghee until it smells like toasted nuts, then sweetened off the heat and rolled while warm.
1 hr 18 min · serves 14
Bhatura
A soft maida dough rested with curd and leavening, rolled and fried so it balloons — the bread half of chole bhature.
2 hr 17 min · serves 4
Bisi Bele Bath
Rice, toor dal and vegetables cooked into one pot with a fresh-ground masala — thick, sour and meant to be eaten hot.
49 min · serves 6
Bombay Masala Toast
The street sandwich made at home: green chutney, potato masala and raw vegetables between buttered bread, pressed on a tawa until the edges go crisp.
33 min · serves 4
Bonda Soup
A besan bonda dropped into a thin peppery dal broth — the darshini order where half the point is eating it before the crust goes.
31 min · serves 4
Bread Chaat
Cubes of bread fried crisp in butter, then dressed at the table with cold whisked curd, onion, chaat masala and a heavy fall of sev.
22 min · serves 4
Bread Dahi Vada
Dahi vada with no dal to soak and nothing to fry — bread rounds dipped in milk, dressed with whisked curd and both chutneys.
59 min · serves 4
Bread Idli
Bread blitzed to crumbs and swelled in curd with rava, tempered, then steamed straight away into soft instant idlis with no fermenting at all.
45 min · serves 4
Bread Kofta Curry
Koftas bound with bread instead of flour, fried dark and dropped into a cashew-tomato gravy at the table so they stay whole.
1 hr 2 min · serves 4
Bread Pakora
Slices of bread stuffed with potato masala, dipped in a thick besan batter and deep-fried so the bread crisps instead of drinking oil.
30 min · serves 4
Bread Upma
Yesterday's bread cubed and turned through a mild tempering with onion and tomato — ten minutes start to finish, and nothing in it a small child has to negotiate.
22 min · serves 4
Chakkara Pongal
Rice and moong dal cooked soft, then folded into melted jaggery with ghee, cashews and raisins until it falls slowly off the spoon.
29 min · serves 6
Chilli Cheese Toast
Green chilli and capsicum stirred through grated cheese and piled on bread, then blasted with top heat until the surface blisters.
29 min · serves 4
Cream Cheese and Mushroom Dumplings in Chilli Oil
Rice paper dumplings filled with cream cheese and finely chopped button mushroom, sat in a chilli oil made with two chillies — one for colour, one for heat.
45 min · serves 4
Idiyappam
Kerala's steamed rice string hoppers — soft white threads pressed over grated coconut, eaten with a thin curry or sweetened milk.
28 min · serves 4
Idli Dosa Batter
One fermented batter for both — thick from the vessel for idli, a ladleful let down with water for dosa, ground at the ratio that sits between the two.
12 hr 45 min · serves 6
Kotte Kadubu
Idli batter steamed inside little boxes pinned from jackfruit leaves, which turn the whole thing faintly resinous and are most of the point.
1 hr 4 min · serves 4
Mushroom and Cream Cheese Toast
Mushrooms seared hard until they squeak, folded into cream cheese loosened with their own pan juices, piled on hot buttered toast.
38 min · serves 2
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