Cooking Indian foods – Could we use a few more spices?

13 bottles of spices…and the end one is Garam Masala, which is a blend of several more spices on its own….yikes!)

I would say I’m fairly minimalistic when it comes to spices. I use more than salt and pepper, but I like to stick with a few key ones in a dish, each one packing a punch or bringing an important taste.

When it comes to cooking Indian cuisine, though, the recipes seem to be so spice-heavy that it’s hard not to use a ton.

A couple years ago, I decided to have an Indian night where I introduced the style to the girls. I made fresh naan, rice, and 3 different main dishes.

I like going this route with new styles of dishes (especially for picky eaters) so there’s a higher chance of every person finding at least one variety they really like (or are at least able to eat, hehe). On the flip side, I could’ve only fixed one dish, had 2/3rds of the family dislike it and hungry, and thinking “ew, Indian food, I had that once and didn’t like it.” No thanks.

Seeing as how these pictures are from 2+ years ago, I actually don’t remember what exactly I fixed, much less which recipes I used. It appears to be an Indian daal  made with green lentils on the left and an aloo gobi featuring cauliflower and chickpeas on the right. Third dish? No idea what it was and I wasn’t taking pictures for the site at the time, so I didn’t make sure to have shots of everything, oops.

All I do know is that not all the spices got put up after dinner and I think I was still finding stray bottles days later. :P And yes, everyone found something they liked (even if it was mostly the naan flat bread that hit the spot, hehe).