Search for food from India in Britain and you mostly find the restaurant canon: tikka masala, korma, madras. This article is about the other Indian food - the everyday cooking an Indian household actually runs - and how Saakshi's Kitchen cooks it in one FSA 5-star kitchen and delivers it frozen across UK mainland.
Key takeaways
- Indian home cooking is a different repertoire from the British curry-house menu, made by a different method.
- The flavour comes from an everyday pantry - haldi, jeera, dhania, hing, ajwain, methi - not from a secret sauce.
- At Saakshi's Kitchen the masala is built from scratch for every batch; there is no standing gravy base.
- Meals arrive frozen, so the food is there on the night you need it, not the night you planned for.
The pantry: staples an Indian kitchen lives on
There is no secret ingredient. The flavour of Indian home cooking comes from the same cupboard every Indian household cooks from: haldi (turmeric), jeera (cumin), dhania (coriander), rai (mustard seed), hing (asafoetida), ajwain (carom seed), methi (fenugreek) and a garam masala blended in our own kitchen, rather than one generic curry powder doing all the work. Add dal, atta, rice and ghee and you have an ingredient list you could read out to your mum. We publish the full ingredient list on every product page, so you can do exactly that before you order.
These spices have been cooked with in Indian kitchens for generations, and the reason is simple: they are what make dal taste like dal. We use them the way a home cook uses them - ground, blended and added in the right order for each dish.
The method: masala built from scratch, every batch
Almost every curry house in Britain works from a standing base gravy - one master sauce made in the morning, with individual dishes differentiated at the pass. It is a well-documented method, and it is very good at what it is for: speed and consistency on a busy restaurant service.
A home kitchen does not have one. At Saakshi's Kitchen the masala is built from scratch for each pot - onion, tomato, ginger and garlic, bhuno'd properly until the oil separates - and dal is finished the way it is finished at home, with a real tadka poured over at the end. We do not finish everything with cream and butter for consistency. Small batches, one kitchen, the same hands.
The repertoire: everyday food, not occasion food
Restaurant Indian is celebration food. Ghar ka khana is Tuesday night. The rotation our kitchen runs is the one a Punjabi household actually runs: dal tadka, rajma, Amritsari chole, kadhi, whatever sabzi is in season - each portioned as a complete meal with roti or rice, not as a sharing platter.
It is also spiced, not hot. The chilli sits back at the heat level a family actually cooks at, which is usually milder than a restaurant curry. That is what makes it food you can eat on an ordinary weeknight rather than only on a night out.
Dietary needs, stated plainly
There is a full vegetarian rotation - our Pure Veg boxes are built from it - and our kitchen-cooked meats are halal. For anything else, read the full ingredient list on each product page: we would rather show you exactly what is in a dish than make a blanket promise about what is not.
From our FSA 5-star kitchen to your freezer
Everything is cooked in our FSA 5-star kitchen, then frozen. Your box arrives frozen and goes straight into the freezer; you cook or reheat straight from frozen until piping hot, following the pack instructions. Once a meal has defrosted, never refreeze it - eat it within 24 hours. A stocked freezer is the practical heart of the whole idea: dinner is already sorted before the week starts.
We deliver across UK mainland. Some areas we can't reach - check your postcode before you order.
Why families come back
Saakshi's Kitchen has 4.6 stars from 800+ verified reviews and has made 16,000+ deliveries. 79% of orders come from returning families - most of them families who grew up on this food and would notice straight away if it were wrong.
Where to start
- This week's menu - the dishes cooking right now.
- What is a tiffin service? - how a weekly Indian meal plan works.
- Build your own box - pick the dishes your house actually eats.
- Check your postcode - where we deliver.
- Indian tiffin delivery in London - our busiest delivery area.