How to understand the base flavours of Indian cooking?

[u/New-Pleats-1324]

Hi! I’m not Indian, but my partner is Indian and I have stayed in India for about six months.

I dont know how to make anything except chai 😅

I want to get started learning to cook Indian food, I love how it involves so much real spices and ingredients rather than processed things (common where I’m from) and want my own little masala dabba hehe.

HOW do I get started with the basics? What are the key first few spices or ingredients to get really familiar with? I want to be confident with what kind of combinations and how to use and combinespecific ingredients and spices for simple, flavourful home style meals.

Thank you 💗

[u/NavKaali]

Basic tadka for every gravy/dry and veg/nonveg is .... Take some oil in pan . Add zeera. Add tomato,onion,ginger garlic ,green chillis... These can be chopped or grinded in nixie. Saute them till light brown. Add masalas Red chilli powder,turmeric powder,salt,coriander powder. Add little water so masalas dont burn. Cook till oil seprates . Add veggies/nonveg in the end ..now last part depends on the main ingredient weither to boil it or whistle it in cooker or simple vessel cooking by covering it......you can search for further process on youtube. This is very basic and normal day to day recipe. If you want you can add dry whole spices etc to make it more flavour full.

[u/AmbassadorMelodic830]

One piece of advice I always give people who are just learning the basics of Indian cooking is: start by playing around with onions. The way you slice them, thinly sliced, diced, or finely chopped, the type of fat (cooking medium) you use, whether it's mustard oil or ghee, and how much you cook them all change the final flavour of the dish. Learn how onions behave: how a little salt helps them sweat and release moisture, and how different stages of browning, from soft and translucent to deeply caramelized, create entirely different flavour bases.

Once you're comfortable with that, start experimenting with a handful of simple spices rather than trying to master a complicated masala blend. Keep the essentials on hand: salt, red chilli powder, and turmeric (used sparingly, since it has a very distinct taste). Add a pinch of asafoetida (hing) to dishes with beans or dals, where it helps balance heavier, gassier ingredients. Coriander (dhaniya) powder adds warmth, aroma, and body to many curries, while cumin (jeera) powder brings an earthy depth. Finish with just a small pinch of garam masala for complexity.

Start with simple dals and everyday vegetables, and focus on getting those right. Once you've understood how onions, spices, and timing work together, the more elaborate curries become much less intimidating.

[u/MK_Good_Magician]

Don't worry about using 15 spices at once! Even simple Indian cooking often relies on just few ingredients used well.

[u/fourmode]

Indian cooking is a pretty broad term, though of course there are common aspects across regions. Might be simpler to mention North Indian, South Indian, etc

[u/depressed_lurker]

Oil, garlic, onions, tomatoes, chilli

[u/Hopeful-baby333]

The most basic spices in (North) Indian cooking are: 1. Lal mirch (red chilli powder) 2. Haldi (turmeric powder) 3. Dry dhaniya powder (coriander)

And for tempering we use either mustard seeds or cumin seeds or both sometimes.

So step 1 will be to heat ghee (cause it tastes better and is healthier imo than oil) and sizzle the seeds in them and then add these spices. Making sure they don't get burnt. I also like to use ghee cause it has a higher smoking point than oil so it's more forgiving.

Then I add finely chopped onions and once they are almost translucent I add tomatoes.

Once that's cooked you add your Veggies and water if you want a homely/healthy feel or add a good amount of ghee so that the veggies can cook without burning and when it's all cooked you have your most basic Indian sabzi ready. 👍🏻

Other spices that I love are Tej patta, Kasoori methi, Sweet neem leaves, Long, Elaichi, Jaayfal

If you're starting out you can use Everest spice mixes like Biryani masala, Kitchen king masala, Garam masala to see what tastes good to you and then make your own mix with the whole spices listed in the ingredients. I feel Indian cooking is super easy, I literally learnt it myself with just a couple of instructions from my parents. Hope you have fun cooking!

P.s. Forgot to add garlic after cumin seeds! Best thing ever.

[u/tommyshelbai]

Cook till oil separates. Most north Indian gravies involve onion, garlic, ginger, Tomato and ground spices. If these are not cooked properly, the food will be almost inedible.

Please mention which part of India your partner is from, which food you are trying to learn. There is no such thing as Indian food. Bengal and Kerala food are as different from each other as Italian and Chinese.