Restaurant Indian is celebration food. Ghar ka khana is Tuesday night. That one sentence is the whole of how Saakshi's Kitchen cooks, and it explains the menu better than any adjective would. This is what everyday Indian food means in practice - the rotation, the method, and how it turns up at your door.
Key takeaways
- Everyday food and occasion food are two different repertoires. We cook the everyday one.
- A home kitchen builds its masala per batch; it does not ladle from a standing gravy base.
- The week runs on a rotation - dal, rajma, chole, a sabzi, paneer - with roti or rice.
- Meals arrive frozen, so the decision about Wednesday's dinner was made last month.
- One FSA 5-star kitchen, FSA 5-star rated, same recipes every time.
What does "everyday Indian food" actually mean?
It means the dishes an Indian family cooks on ordinary days, portioned as a meal rather than a sharing platter. Nobody makes tikka masala at home on a Wednesday. What gets made is dal, a sabzi, and roti - a complete plate, cooked at a heat level everyone in the house can eat, with the same spices in the same steel dabba as last week.
The distinction matters commercially as well as culturally. If you order Indian food in Britain you are usually ordering a night out: a spread of sharing dishes, richer than anything anyone cooks for themselves. That is a fine thing to want. It is just not dinner on a normal Tuesday, which is the meal we set out to solve.
What does a week of home-cooked Indian dinners look like?
Close to this. Any Punjabi household will recognise the shape of it, even if the days move around.
| Night | Main | With |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Yellow Dal Tadka | Jeera rice |
| Tuesday | Bhindi or cabbage sabzi | Wholemeal chapatti |
| Wednesday | Matar Paneer | Chapatti |
| Thursday | Rajma Curry | Rice |
| Friday | Butter Chicken or Shahi Paneer | Rice or chapatti |
| Saturday | Amritsari Chole | Rice, and whoever turns up |
| Sunday | Baingan Ka Bharta or a biryani | Chapatti |
That rotation is the menu. See what is cooking this week.
How is it cooked?
The masala is built from scratch for every batch. Onion, tomato, ginger and garlic, bhuno'd down properly until the oil separates - then the ground spices, each at the point in the process where it behaves best, and a tadka or a scatter of crushed kasuri methi at the end.
We do not keep a standing gravy base and we do not finish everything with cream and butter for the sake of consistency. Spices are ground and blended in our own kitchen rather than one generic curry powder doing all the work. Small batches, one kitchen, the same hands - which is why the rajma tastes the same in March as it did in November.
The pantry is short enough to read out to your mum: haldi, jeera, dhania, rai, hing, ajwain, methi, garam masala, dal, atta, rice, ghee. The full ingredient list is on every product page.
How does it arrive, and how do you cook it?
Home-cooked in small batches in our FSA 5-star kitchen, then frozen. It arrives frozen and goes straight into your freezer. Cook or reheat straight from frozen until piping hot all the way through, following the pack instructions on each meal. Once something has defrosted, never refreeze it - eat it within 24 hours.
The practical payoff is a freezer that is already sorted. On the night when cooking is not going to happen, dinner is already in the house, and it is the dinner you would have cooked.
Is it spicy?
It is spiced, not hot. Heat in a home kitchen is set at the level the whole family eats at - children, grandparents, everyone. If you learned Indian food from a takeaway scale that runs from korma to vindaloo, expect something milder and more legible: you can taste the jeera and the dhania rather than working around the chilli.
Who is it for?
- Families who want a proper dinner on the table without the cook losing an evening to it.
- Students in a shared kitchen with one hob and no space for a spice cupboard.
- Elderly parents living alone, who cook less than they should and eat better when the food is familiar.
- New parents, who are being asked "khaana khaya?" by everyone and answering honestly.
79% of orders come from returning families, across more than 16,000 deliveries, with 4.6 stars from 800+ verified reviews. Our kitchen-cooked meats are halal, and there is a pure vegetarian menu for households that keep one.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between everyday Indian food and restaurant Indian food?
Everyday Indian food is the household rotation - dal, rajma, chole, seasonal sabzis - cooked mildly and portioned as a single meal. Restaurant Indian is a menu of richer sharing dishes built for an occasion, usually from a standing base gravy.
What is ghar ka khana?
Ghar ka khana means home food. It refers to the plain, everyday cooking a family does for itself, as opposed to restaurant or festival cooking.
How do Saakshi's Kitchen meals arrive?
Frozen. Keep them in the freezer, then cook or reheat straight from frozen until piping hot, following the pack instructions. Never refreeze a meal once it has defrosted.
Where does Saakshi's Kitchen deliver?
Across UK mainland. There are some areas we cannot reach, so check your postcode before ordering.
Where to go next
- This week's menu - the dishes currently in the kitchen.
- What is a tiffin service? - how the weekly plan works.
- Check your postcode - we deliver across UK mainland; some areas we cannot reach.
- Home cooking vs a curry house - the method difference, in detail.