Indian home cooking runs on a short list of everyday herbs and spices - the masala dabba - not one generic curry powder. This guide names the spices Saakshi's Kitchen actually cooks with, what each one tastes like, and where you'll meet it in our dishes.
Key takeaways
- Most Indian home cooking is built from seven or eight everyday spices: haldi, jeera, dhania, rai, hing, ajwain, methi and garam masala.
- Each spice has a job and a moment - some go into hot ghee at the start, some finish the dish in the tadka.
- Home food is spiced, not hot: the chilli sits back so the aromatics come forward.
- We grind and blend spices in our own kitchen - no single curry powder doing all the work.
- Everything is cooked in small batches in our FSA 5-star kitchen and delivered frozen.
What is a masala dabba?
A masala dabba is the round steel spice tin that lives within arm's reach of every Indian home stove. Seven small bowls, refilled for decades, holding the spices that do most of the work in ghar ka khana. Once you can name what's in the tin, you can read an Indian menu like an insider.
The spices in Saakshi's Kitchen, one by one
| Spice | Known at home as | What it tastes like | Where you'll taste it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turmeric | Haldi | Earthy and gently bitter; gives dal its yellow | Quietly present in almost every savoury dish |
| Cumin | Jeera | Warm and nutty once it hits hot ghee | Jeera rice, the tadka on dal |
| Coriander seed | Dhania | Citrusy and round - the body of most masalas | Chole, rajma |
| Mustard seed | Rai | Pops in hot oil and turns nutty-sharp | Tadkas and pickles |
| Asafoetida | Hing | A pinch turns deeply savoury, like slow-cooked onions | Dal, kadhi |
| Carom seed | Ajwain | A thyme-like bite | Paratha dough |
| Fenugreek | Methi | Bittersweet; kasuri methi is the crumbled finish | Rich tomato-based dishes |
| Garam masala | - | A warming blend of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and black pepper | Sprinkled at the end, never boiled to death |
Ginger and garlic are not in the tin - they are the wet base, cooked down with onion and tomato at the start of nearly everything. See which dishes are in the kitchen this week.
How a home kitchen actually uses spices
Order matters more than quantity. Whole spices go into hot ghee first, so the fat carries their flavour through the whole dish. Ground spices go in after the onion, tomato, ginger and garlic have been bhuno'd properly - cooked down until the masala darkens and the oil separates. And some spices arrive only at the very end, in the tadka: a small pan of hot ghee with jeera and hing, poured sizzling over the finished dal.
This is the method difference between home cooking and a restaurant line. We build the masala from scratch for every batch rather than working from a pre-made gravy base, and we grind and blend spices in our kitchen rather than reaching for one generic curry powder.
Spiced, not hot
The biggest misreading of Indian food is that spice means chilli. In ghar ka khana the chilli sits well back and the haldi, jeera and dhania come forward - the heat level a family actually cooks at, because everyone from the youngest to the oldest eats from the same pot. If you've been avoiding Indian food because you don't like burning, home cooking is the version you were never shown.
Taste them on a weeknight
Saakshi's Kitchen cooks these dishes in small batches in our FSA 5-star kitchen, then freezes them. Your order arrives frozen, goes straight into the freezer, and cooks or reheats straight from frozen until piping hot, following the pack instructions. Once a meal has defrosted, never refreeze it - eat it within 24 hours.
We deliver across UK mainland. Some areas we can't reach - check your postcode. 79% of orders come from returning families, and the families who grew up on these spices are the strictest judges there are.
Frequently asked questions
What spices are used in Indian home cooking?
A short everyday list: haldi (turmeric), jeera (cumin), dhania (coriander), rai (mustard seed), hing (asafoetida), ajwain, methi and garam masala, with a wet base of onion, tomato, ginger and garlic.
What is a tadka?
A finishing step: whole spices such as jeera and hing are sizzled in hot ghee for a few seconds and poured over the finished dish, most famously over dal.
Is Indian home cooking very spicy?
It is spiced rather than hot. The chilli sits back so the aromatic spices come through - the heat level a family cooks at when everyone eats from the same pot.
Does Saakshi's Kitchen use curry powder?
No. Spices are ground and blended in our kitchen and the masala is built from scratch for each batch - there is no generic powder and no standing gravy base.
Where to go next
- This week's menu - taste the dabba in action.
- What is a dabba? - the tin, the tiffin and the tradition.
- How our tiffin service works - a weekly plan of home-cooked meals.
- Check your postcode - where we deliver.
- What makes Indian comfort food comforting? - the dishes these spices belong to.