How to Make a Curry: Spices, Bases and Easy Curry Ideas
I’ve got plenty of curry recipes on Just Average Jen that you can simply follow, but what if you don’t actually want a recipe?
Perhaps you’ve got half a cauliflower, a tin of chickpeas and some spinach that needs using. Maybe you’ve got chicken in the fridge but don’t fancy any of the recipes you’ve found. Or you’ve looked in the spice cupboard and discovered approximately 17 little jars but haven’t got the foggiest idea which ones should go together.
This guide is for those occasions.
I’m not going to pretend there’s one magic formula for making every curry because there isn’t. The word curry covers an enormous range of dishes from different countries, regions and cooking traditions, and a Thai curry isn’t simply an Indian curry with coconut milk thrown into it.
What I can do, though, is help you understand some of the ingredients you commonly see in the curries I cook at home, how to build flavour and how to turn whatever you’ve got into a tasty dinner without relying on a jar of sauce.
If you’d rather just choose a tested recipe and follow it, head over to my curry recipes collection instead.
Start by deciding what sort of curry you actually want
Before rummaging through the spice cupboard, think about what you’re trying to make.
Do you want something tomato-based and quite rich? Something creamy? Something mild enough that everyone will eat it? Something spicy? A coconut-based curry? Or are you really craving the sort of curry sauce you’d have from a Chinese takeaway or chip shop?
This sounds ridiculously obvious, but it makes choosing ingredients much easier.
If I want something warming and tomato-based, I’ll probably head towards onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes and dried spices.
If I’m thinking about something like my Malaysian chicken curry, coconut milk and different aromatics come into play.
And if what I really want is katsu curry, that’s another thing entirely.
Start with the end result rather than grabbing six random spices and hoping for the best.
How to build a simple curry base
For many of the Indian-style curries I make, onions are a good place to start.
Cooking them properly makes a difference. If a recipe tells you to soften onions, give them time to actually soften rather than waving them around the pan for 90 seconds and declaring them done because you’re hungry.
Garlic and ginger are also common in many of my curry recipes.
From there, the liquid part of the sauce might come from chopped tomatoes, passata, stock, coconut milk, yoghurt or a combination of ingredients depending on what you’re making.
There isn’t one compulsory curry base.
My chicken jalfrezi, for example, shouldn’t have exactly the same sauce as my chicken tikka masala, because they’re supposed to taste different.
That’s also why I’m wary of recipes that suggest making one enormous batch of generic “curry base” and using it for absolutely everything. It can be convenient, but sometimes you want the ingredients and cooking method to suit the actual dish.
Which spices do you need to make curry?
This is probably the question I get asked most when people want to start making curries without using jars of sauce.
The slightly annoying answer is: it depends on the curry.
You certainly don’t need to rush out and buy every spice on the supermarket shelf.
Cumin
Cumin has a warm, earthy flavour and appears in lots of the curry recipes I make.
You’ll find it sold as both whole cumin seeds and ground cumin. They aren’t always used in exactly the same way, so check which one your recipe calls for.
Coriander
Ground coriander is another spice you’ll see frequently in curry recipes.
Don’t confuse it with fresh coriander leaves. They’re from the same plant but do very different jobs in a recipe.
Turmeric
Turmeric gives dishes that familiar yellow colour but it also adds flavour, so don’t treat it simply as food colouring.
It is also incredibly talented at turning wooden spoons, worktops and occasionally clothing yellow. Ask me how I know.
Garam masala
Garam masala is a spice blend rather than one individual spice.
Exactly what’s in it varies between blends, which is worth remembering if you make a recipe twice with different brands and wonder why it doesn’t taste quite the same.
It is often added later in cooking than some of the individual spices, although again this depends on the recipe.
Chilli
Fresh chilli, dried chilli flakes and chilli powder can all add heat, but they’re not interchangeable spoon for spoon.
If you’re unsure how spicy everyone wants dinner, I’d generally err on the side of caution. You can add more heat to your own portion much more easily than you can rescue dinner after making it painfully hot.
Cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and other spices
Once you start making more curries you’ll come across ingredients such as cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, fenugreek and mustard seeds.
You don’t need to buy all of these before you’ve made your first curry.
Buy spices because you’re actually going to use them. Otherwise you’ll eventually end up with a cupboard full of jars that expired during a previous government.
What about curry powder?
Curry powder is another blend of spices and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using it.
Different curry powders can taste quite different, and you’ll usually find mild, medium and hot versions in UK supermarkets.
It’s particularly handy for simple meals where you don’t want to measure five individual spices.
Using individual spices gives you more control over the finished flavour, but dinner doesn’t earn extra points because you opened six jars instead of one.
I use both approaches depending on what I’m cooking.
Should you cook spices before adding liquid?
Often, yes.
Cooking dried spices briefly with the onions and other ingredients can help bring out their flavours before you add lots of liquid.
There is, however, an important distinction between cooking spices and burning them.
Ground spices can catch surprisingly quickly in a dry, hot pan. If everything looks as though it’s beginning to stick, add the next wet ingredient rather than stubbornly continuing because the recipe said two minutes.
Cooking is allowed to involve common sense!
How do you make curry hotter?
If you’ve made your curry and it’s too mild for you, you have several options.
You can add more fresh chilli, chilli powder or chilli flakes, depending on what suits the dish.
What I wouldn’t do is assume that adding huge amounts of every other spice will make it hotter. Cumin isn’t there primarily to provide chilli heat, for example.
If you’re cooking for people who like different spice levels, making the main curry moderately spiced and adding extra chilli to individual portions is often much easier.
That saves making two dinners because one person thinks black pepper is spicy while someone else apparently wants their tongue to hurt.
How do you make curry milder?
Prevention is much easier than cure here.
Start with less chilli if you’re uncertain, particularly if you’re using a chilli powder or paste you haven’t bought before.
If you’ve already gone too far, what works depends on the curry. Increasing the other sauce ingredients can dilute the heat, while yoghurt or coconut milk may work in dishes where those ingredients make sense.
Don’t automatically pour cream or coconut milk into every curry in an attempt to rescue it, though. You might reduce the heat and completely change what you were trying to make.
How can I make a curry thicker?
First, give it time.
Sometimes a sauce simply needs to simmer uncovered for a little longer so excess water can evaporate.
You can also use ingredients that are already part of the dish to create thickness. Tomatoes can reduce, onions can cook down and lentils can naturally thicken some curries.
For a slow cooker curry, excess liquid can be more noticeable because very little evaporates while the lid is on. My guide to adapting recipes for a slow cooker explains this in more detail.
Try not to keep adding liquid automatically just because the ingredients aren’t completely submerged. Curry isn’t soup unless you’re actually making curry soup!
How can I make curry creamier?
This depends enormously on the curry you’re making.
Yoghurt, cream and coconut milk can all create creaminess, but they produce completely different flavours.
If you’re using yoghurt, adding it carefully and avoiding very aggressive boiling can help reduce the chance of it splitting.
Coconut milk is brilliant in recipes designed around coconut, but adding it to absolutely everything isn’t a universal curry hack.
Look at the flavours you’re already using and choose something that belongs with them.
What can I put in a homemade curry?
This is where curry becomes brilliant for using what you’ve already got.
Chicken
Chicken works in all sorts of curries, but don’t treat every chicken curry as interchangeable.
My mild chicken curry, chicken jalfrezi, chicken and mushroom curry, Sri Lankan chicken curry and Malaysian chicken curry all use chicken but give you very different dinners.
Beef and lamb
Beef mince is great in keema curry, while lamb works beautifully in something richer such as my lamb rogan josh.
These tend to give you a completely different result from chicken, so they’re worth trying if you’ve fallen into the habit of automatically buying chicken breast whenever curry is on the meal plan.
Chickpeas and pulses
As a vegetarian, chickpeas are one of my favourite easy curry ingredients.
They don’t need pretending to be meat and they’re inexpensive, filling and easy to keep in the cupboard.
My chickpea curry and cauliflower and chickpea curry are good places to start if you haven’t made many vegetarian curries before.
Vegetables
Almost any vegetable can potentially appear in a curry, but that doesn’t mean throwing the entire vegetable drawer into one pan will necessarily give you the best result.
Think about texture and cooking times.
Potatoes and carrots need considerably longer than spinach, for example. Spinach can usually go in towards the end, whereas root vegetables need time to become tender.
My vegetable curry is useful if you want a recipe to follow before you start experimenting.
Making curry with leftovers
Curry can be useful for using ingredients up, but I’d still aim for a coherent meal rather than treating the saucepan as a food-waste bin.
A leftover cooked vegetable may only need warming through, whereas a raw vegetable needs time to cook.
If you’re adding previously cooked meat, be sensible about how it has been stored and reheated rather than repeatedly cooling and reheating leftovers.
Sometimes the best way to use three unrelated leftovers isn’t to put all three in a curry!
Can I make curry without meat?
Absolutely, and I say that as someone who’s been vegetarian since I was 10.
You don’t need to replace chicken with fake chicken in every recipe.
Chickpeas, lentils, beans, cauliflower, potatoes, peas, spinach and other vegetables can all be the main part of a curry rather than being treated as things you add because you feel obliged to include vegetables.
I do use Quorn and other meat substitutes sometimes, particularly when I’m adapting something Stuart or Ben is having, but I also really like curries that were vegetarian from the outset.
Have a look through my vegetarian curry recipes in my main curry collection if you need some ideas.
Can you make curry in a slow cooker?
Yes, but don’t simply take a hob recipe, add loads of extra water and leave it for eight hours.
Slow cookers retain moisture, so sauces can end up much thinner than expected.
Different ingredients also need different treatment. Dairy may be better added towards the end, while delicate vegetables don’t necessarily want hours of cooking.
I’ve written a full guide to making chicken curry in a slow cooker, and my slow cooker chicken tikka masala, keema curry and mushy pea curry are useful if you’d rather start with recipes I’ve actually made that way.
Thai-style curries
Thai curries are a good example of why there isn’t one universal guide to curry.
Many Thai curry recipes use a curry paste containing ingredients such as chillies, lemongrass and other aromatics rather than being built around the same dried spice combinations you might use in some Indian dishes.
Coconut milk is also common in many Thai curries.
If you’re using a bought curry paste, check the ingredients if you’re vegetarian or vegan because some contain fish or shrimp products.
Rather than trying to turn this article into a guide to Thai cuisine – which it isn’t – I’d recommend following a good Thai recipe until you’re familiar with the ingredients and method.
Japanese-style curry
Japanese curry is different again and is often thickened with a curry roux.
If you’ve eaten katsu curry in the UK, that’s probably one of the Japanese curry dishes you’re most familiar with.
My chicken katsu curry is an easy place to start if that’s the sort of curry you’re craving.
Malaysian curry
Malaysian food reflects a mixture of culinary influences, so reducing “Malaysian curry” to one standard recipe wouldn’t make much sense either.
My Malaysian chicken and red pepper curry uses coconut milk and spices and can also be made with Quorn, which is how I adapt it for myself.
If you want that particular dinner, I’d follow the recipe rather than trying to recreate it from a generic curry formula.
What should I serve with homemade curry?
Rice is the obvious choice and probably what I serve most often, but it certainly isn’t the only one.
Depending on what you’re making, you might fancy naan, roti, chapatis, poppadoms, onion bhajis, salad, yoghurt, chutney or a vegetable side.
I’ve got a whole collection of rice recipes, plus recipes for air fryer onion bhajis, aloo gobi and vegetable biryani if you’re planning more of a fakeaway spread.
Sometimes I make several dishes and put everything in the middle of the table. This works particularly well in our house because I’m vegetarian and Stuart and Ben aren’t – everyone can take the bits they actually want without me plating three slightly different dinners.
How should you store spices?
If you’ve gradually accumulated a spice cupboard, don’t put the jars right next to the hob just because it looks convenient.
Heat, light, air and moisture aren’t particularly helpful for keeping dried herbs and spices at their best.
Keep them properly closed in a cool, dry cupboard and have an occasional clear-out.
I don’t automatically throw a spice away at midnight on its best-before date, but if you open a jar and can barely smell anything, that’s a fairly good clue that it isn’t going to contribute much to dinner either.
And label anything you’ve decanted into identical little jars.
Future you does not need the excitement of trying to work out whether that anonymous brown powder is cumin, cinnamon or something entirely different.
Start with a recipe, then experiment
If you’ve never made curry from scratch before, I wouldn’t actually recommend improvising your first one.
Choose a recipe you like the sound of and make it.
While you’re cooking, notice what each ingredient is doing. Taste the sauce before and after certain ingredients are added. See how the texture changes as it cooks.
After you’ve made a few different curries, improvising becomes much easier because you’re no longer randomly combining ingredients – you’ve got an idea of the result you’re heading towards.
My easy curry recipes collection is the best place to choose one.
And if your experimental curry is absolutely lovely, write down what you put in it.
There is nothing more annoying than creating the best dinner you’ve made in months and realising you haven’t got a clue how to make it again.
