What's in an Indian Tiffin? Dal, Sabzi, Roti and Rice

An Indian tiffin is a stacked steel box - a dabba - that carries one complete meal: a sabzi, a dal, and roti or rice. Not a snack, not a side, and not a sharing platter. One person's dinner, in tiers that lock together.

Key takeaways

• A tiffin is a portioned complete meal, traditionally carried in a stacked steel dabba.
• The contents follow the weekly rotation of a home kitchen, not a restaurant menu.
• Mumbai's dabbawalas built an entire delivery network around it.
• A UK tiffin box from Saakshi's Kitchen arrives frozen and is cooked straight from frozen.

What is a tiffin, and what is a dabba?

"Tiffin" is the meal. "Dabba" is the container it travels in - usually three or four steel tiers held together by a clip-on handle. The word tiffin is an anglicised leftover from colonial India, where it meant a light midday meal; the food itself is much older and entirely ordinary.

What goes into a tiffin box?

The proportions matter as much as the contents. A tiffin is built as one plate - which is why it feels like a meal rather than a selection of dishes ordered in threes.

What is the weekly rotation behind it?

Home kitchens do not run menus, they run rotations: dal on one night, rajma the next, chole at the weekend, kadhi when someone asks, and whichever sabzi is in season alongside. It repeats, and the repetition is the comfort. Restaurant Indian is celebration food; this is Tuesday night.

What was the Mumbai dabbawala system?

Mumbai's dabbawalas collect home-cooked lunches from thousands of households each morning and deliver them to offices across the city, then return the empty dabbas the same afternoon. It is one of the most studied delivery systems in the world - and it exists because Indian families would rather eat their own food at their desk than buy something else.

A UK tiffin service solves the same problem from the other end: the home cooking still happens in a kitchen, but the delivery runs weekly and the meals travel frozen instead of hot.

How does a frozen tiffin box work?

Saakshi's Kitchen cooks Punjabi family recipes in small batches in an FSA 5-star kitchen. The masala is built from scratch every batch and the dal is finished with a real tadka - no standing gravy base, no cream-and-butter finish. The meals are then frozen and delivered across UK mainland.

When your box arrives, move it straight to the freezer. Cook or reheat each meal from frozen, following the pack instructions until piping hot, and do not refreeze once defrosted. Nothing has to be eaten on a schedule, which is the practical advantage a daily dabba never had.

Is a tiffin a full meal or a light lunch?

A full meal. It is portioned as one person's plate - sabzi, dal, roti or rice - rather than as a dish to share between three people with a stack of naans. If you are used to ordering Indian food for a table, the portioning is the first thing that feels different.

Frequently asked questions

What is an Indian tiffin?

An Indian tiffin is one complete portioned meal - a sabzi, a dal, and roti or rice - traditionally carried in a stacked steel box called a dabba.

What is the difference between a tiffin and a dabba?

The tiffin is the meal; the dabba is the stacked steel container it is carried in.

Is a tiffin enough food for one person?

Yes. A tiffin is portioned as one person's plate rather than as a sharing dish, which is the main difference from ordering a restaurant curry for the table.

How do Saakshi's Kitchen tiffin meals arrive?

Frozen, delivered across UK mainland. Keep them frozen, cook or reheat straight from frozen until piping hot, and do not refreeze once defrosted.

Order home-cooked Indian food from Saakshi's Kitchen

• Browse this week's meals - the dishes we are cooking right now.
• How the tiffin service works - box sizes, delivery and what arrives.
• Check delivery for your postcode - we deliver across UK mainland, and there are some areas we cannot reach.

More reading: how the tiffin service works and why ghar ka khana tastes like home.