10 of my best Indian recipes + Indian Chicken with Pomegranate
Dahl-ling, if you’re looking for dinner in a tikk-a, hurry up and get some curry!
One of my favourite things to do is travel. I love wandering through towns, exploring the sites and getting to know the ins and outs of different ways of life.
While we currently can’t walk through the colourful streets of Delhi or be amongst the hustle and bustle of the markets in London’s Covent Garden, there’s no reason for us not to explore and experience other cultures. My favourite way to do that is, you guessed it, through my palette. At the moment, I’m loving exploring cultural delicacies in the kitchen at home.
If you’ve taken a stroll through the blog, one thing will be apparent – my love of Indian food. There’s something about it that feels extra special to me.
Some think of Indian food as oily samosas and a stealthy butter chicken; while my mind conjures up an image of the richest, tastiest and most nutritionally dense cuisines.
Spices are the foundation of Indian cuisine and give each dish a full-body sensorial experience unlike no other. Plus, these spices add some serious health benefits.
If spices are the foundation, vegetables and legumes are the bricks of Indian cuisine. Filled with fibre; their vegetable and legume-filled dishes are a warming hug for your insides and a good healthy dose of prebiotic fibre for gut health. Indian food is perfectly hearty, reasonably easy to make and dang right delicious.
Below are ten of the best Indian recipes you’ll find on the blog, now all in one convenient place. You’re welcome.
Chicken Biryani with Turmeric Cauliflower Rice
Of course, I have to start with the beloved dish, chicken biryani. Biryani is a traditional Indian meal that playfully combines Indian spices with proteins, vegetables and rice. While biryani should be consumed with approximately seven bowls of rice, I’ve opted for cauliflower rice for a lighter and fibre-fuelled alternative. Taste buds, here we come!
Maybe it’s the health blogger in me, but there’s nothing I love more than sitting down to a dish that makes me feel like I’m making the right decisions for my health. This dish is exactly that. It’s an exotic, yet simple vegetable dish that will leave you nourished and satisfied. This spectacular subji is based on the humble green bean, but is impressively dressed up with a list of medicinal and flavourful Ayurvedic ingredients like cumin, ginger, mustard seeds, shredded coconut for texture and the freshness of coriander leaves. In minutes your regular bean is transformed into an exotic, aromatic vegetarian dish that’ll really blow your hair back and widen your eyes.
This dish is a perfect example of cultures uniting to create something beautiful. Mulligatawny is a British soup with Indian origins, just like me! Lamb is one of my favourite meats to cook and goes well with a myriad of spices and tastes. I hope this vibrant and delicious recipe inspires you to take a journey in your kitchen with international aromas and delicacies.
One of the simplest and most magical dishes I’ve ever eaten is a vegetable thoran, a dry vegetable curry. Sounds weird, I know, but have I ever led you astray before? All you need to do is temper finely chopped or grated vegetables with mustard seeds and cook them with curry leaves, shallots or onions, freshly grated coconut and spices. You can add any veggies you like. Pre-warning: this dish requires some time and patience, so not for the speed-cutting hearted.
It wouldn’t be a jolly good list if I didn’t sneak a butter chicken in the mix. This. Is. The. Best. Butter. Chicken. You’ll. Ever. Eat. My butter chicken is a healthier version of one of my (and many others) favourite dishes and has an oh-so-creamy buttery taste. Dig in.
While I’ve started with dishes many of us know and love (and I’m sure some of your food delivery drivers know you love them too!), I’ve always loved going rogue. Bhaji is similar to your average fritter but is a bite-sized and well-loved spicy Indian street food. It can be served atop a meal but has come to be appreciated as a delicious snack or starter.
It’s about to get dahl-icious up in here (how many times can someone make that joke until it gets old. I’m asking for a friend). Dahl is perfect for the meat-free among us, combining anti-inflammatory turmeric, high-fibre lentils, antioxidant-rich garlic and digestive-relieving cumin. It’s a real powerhouse dish that gets better with age. Make this dahl for dinner and you’ll find your family fighting over the leftovers the next day.
I love a one-pot meal. Don't you just love not having to dust off every pot you've ever owned and cleaning up a gazillion dishes when you cook?. This Eggplant and Green Bean Curry is a different and lighter approach to your typical vegetarian curry. The homemade curry paste lifts the curry into a richly-layered, warming dish that has serious flavour.
If you haven’t realised by now, I kind of like curry. This exotic seafood curry contains seafood, bursting with omega-3 fatty acids which are essential for brain health and function. This meal is also a tri-doshic Ayurvedic powerhouse, helping to balance Vata, Pitta and Kapha, so it’s great for the whole family.
Maharajah Indian Stuffed Peppers
If you’re thinking stuff this, it’s all too difficult, stuff these capsicums/peppers instead! I’ve supercharged these stuffed capsicums/peppers and upped the heartiness with lamb mince, so they’re flavourful and filling.
If you want one more, taking the grand total to eleven, I have a new special dish just for you from my Ayurvedic cookbook Eat Right for Your Shape. This Indian Chicken with Pomegranate is the star of this show. I’ll admit, there’s a lot of ingredients that go into this chicken marinade, but some things are worth fighting for… mostly chicken; chicken is worth the fight. The chicken is juicy, the pomegranate sweet and your tummy super satisfied.
Enjoy these dishes, and remember, I’m sending you lots of love, health and curry!
Indian Chicken with Pomegranate
SERVES 4
- 1.5 kg (3 lb 5 oz) chicken
Optional:
- Baby spinach
- Pine nut
- Pomegranate
INDIAN INFUSED MARINADE
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 teaspoons finely grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 2 teaspoons Himalayan salt
- 1⁄2 teaspoon chilli powder
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons brown rice flour
- 1⁄2 onion, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves
- 1–2 tablespoons warm filtered water
- 1 tsp Love Your Gut powder (optional)
Method:
To make the marinade, combine all the ingredients with sufficient warm water to make a paste of spreading consistency.
Rub the marinade over the chicken, ensuring it is completely covered. Place in a roasting tin, cover with foil and marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour but preferably overnight.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F).
Remove the foil and roast the chicken for 60–75 minutes or until the juices run clear when the flesh is pierced with a skewer. If the chicken starts to brown too much during cooking, cover with fresh foil. Rest for 10–15 minutes before serving.
Serve warm with baby spinach, pine nut and pomegranate salad. The chicken will be very moist and tender and won’t be spicy-hot.
I'd love you to try one of my Indian recipes and let em know what you think in the comments section below.
You have made it so easy to access the recipes. All of the 10 recipes are really very amazing thank you so much for putting this up. Will try making all of these recipes one by one.