Mistakes Everyone Makes When Cooking Indian Food

Indian food encompasses a range of food types, ingredients, cooking styles, and dishes. So, if you're trying to make it at home with just a little bit of knowledge, it's natural that it can seem overwhelming. There are plenty of common mistakes that many people make when cooking Indian food, as well as misconceptions about the cuisine.

We're serious about cooking, so we want to help you make the best Indian food you can by avoiding these frequent missteps. From using curry powder in place of traditional spice blends to making substitutions that end up ruining your dish, there are a lot of potential mistakes to make.

We spoke to five experts in Indian cooking, including chefs and food bloggers, to give us insider information on Indian cooking. After interviewing them, we used their advice to distill the 14 major mistakes that people make when cooking Indian food. Learn how to avoid these problems, and you'll soon be making the best Indian food of your life.

For many people in the United States, Indian food begins and ends with the types of dishes that you can get from your local Indian restaurant. While these might be delicious, there's so much more to Indian food than this.

Shweta Garg of the food blog Masala and Chai explains that there's a saying that "In India, food changes every 100km." She goes on to say that North Indian food is the most popular in the West, "we're talking Mango Lassi, Butter Chicken, Chana Masala, etc. They tend to be dishes that are creamier and therefore less spicy." But, there's a huge amount of regional variation, which is often down to the types of food available in the region. "In Kerala, you'll see a lot of bananas, plantains, and coconut in some of their dishes because it's a more tropical climate," she says. Meanwhile, "in Kolkata and Goa, you'll see more fish since it's near water."

Chef Sujan Sarkar of restaurants, such as Baar Baar in Los Angeles and Indienne, explained regional variations in more detail. "We don't have the space to do every regional cuisine justice, but for starters, in Western India," Sarkar states, "we have Rajasthan, which is famous for royal Rajputana cuisine, then we have Gujarat, which is completely a vegetarian cuisine sweet and sour, then you have coastal Western Ghat cuisine known as Konkani, which travels from Mumbai to Goa and is heavy on seafood, coconut, and souring agents."

If you've been put off cooking Indian food because you think it's all spicy, then you've fallen victim to a common misconception. It's a mistake not to try more Indian cooking because of the perceived spice level. This misapprehension doesn't come from nowhere, however. Some Indian dishes are spicy. But there are also a huge number of dishes that are extremely mild or don't use hot spices at all.

"Indian cuisine is not simply about heat and spice," Sarkar remarks. "Yes, chili peppers and other fiery ingredients are certainly used in many dishes, but they are not the be-all and end-all of Indian cooking." Some of this is down to confusion between the use of spices and a dish being spicy in terms of heat. "Some people are really scared of spices and rarely recognize that the use of spices does not mean the dish is spicy," says Garg. She notes that, for example, "green cardamom does not lend heat to a dish." Many spices used in Indian cuisine are flavorful but not at all hot.

You'll also find some variation according to who cooks the dish. Chef Deepak Saxena of Desi PDX, Masala Lab, and Chaat Wallah says, "I like to call the food I serve flavorful, but I don't actually use a lot of chilies to keep it more approachable." So, there's always the option to dial down the spice in a dish that's usually spicy by using fewer chilies.

You're following a recipe that calls for coriander, but you don't have any. You search through your spice rack and think maybe cumin will do instead. Well, that's a mistake. Someone who's extremely experienced with Indian cooking might feel comfortable making substitutions, but if you do it with little knowledge, you're likely to end up with a dud of a finished dish on your hands.

Although it's fairly common for Indian recipes to contain multiple spices, they all play a role. So, if you miss one out or replace it with something different, the recipe just won't turn out the same. If you're lucky, you'll still end up with something that tastes good, but it won't taste the way it was supposed to.

Joshi has noticed a common mistake people make when cooking Indian food is "assuming all spice blends are the same or substituting one for another without understanding their distinct flavors." To avoid this mistake, she says you should "familiarize yourself with different spice blends and use them according to the recipe. Garam masala is not the same as curry powder, for example."

It's a mistake to let yourself be put off cooking Indian food because you assume that it's difficult to make. Like any cuisine, some dishes are trickier and more time-consuming to make than others. But there are still plenty of easy recipes that you can whip up in a flash.

"There are some complex Indian dishes — korma, for example — that require a multitude of steps and ingredients, but once you have an understanding of the basic processes, you can throw together a pretty simple curry with just a few ingredients in like 30 minutes," Saxena says.

Sometimes, this worry is about unfamiliar ingredients and processes. But, generally, these concerns are unfounded. "I think many people may be intimidated by long ingredient lists, but a significant portion of those ingredients are likely to be spices," Joshi remarks. So, read through a recipe thoroughly rather than scanning the ingredient list and assuming it's going to be complicated. You might be surprised about how simple some Indian dishes are to make.

You'll have more success cooking Indian food if you do enough prep work ahead of time and ideally have all your ingredients measured out and ready to use. "Cooking Indian food does require you to have your mise en place game be strong as it's fairly prep heavy," notes Saxena. For those who don't know, mise en place is the concept of having all your ingredients gathered, prepped, and — ideally — measured before cooking begins.

Joshi also advocates for preparing and measuring ingredients before you begin cooking. "This way, while you are cooking and using techniques you are not used to — like making a tadka (tempering of spices in oil) — you don't need to keep stepping away and possibly burn your spices," she explains. Basically, if you're prepared in advance, you're less likely to make any errors, and you're more likely to end up with a delicious meal.

You might know a bit about traditional Indian food, but what about modern Indian cuisine? It's reductive to assume that dishes in India aren't moving with the times and people aren't experimenting with new ingredients and techniques. "Modern Indian cuisine tends to incorporate new and sometimes surprising ingredients, such as asparagus, artichoke, avocados, caviar, truffles, chocolate, etc.," says Sarkar. He adds that "it often involves new ways to cook food, such as molecular gastronomy, sous-vide, and dehydration."

Garg says that she's noticed two main types of modern Indian cuisine. One relates to food bloggers such as herself who are "leaning into our identity as Indo-Westerners and combining traditional Indian flavors with our love for certain dishes" — paneer tacos, for instance. The other is Indian food from high-end restaurants. "Both of them lean into creatively celebrating the flavors of regional classic and traditional dishes," she notes. If you're interested in modern Indian cooking, checking out some of the many food blogs dedicated to it is a great place to start. Plus, some cookbooks focus on modern Indian recipes.

Once you've built up your store of spices, you need to learn how to use them. "The biggest mistake that people make when cooking Indian food is not understanding the spices, specifically when and how to use them," says Chadha. You should spend some time familiarizing yourself with what each spice tastes like and what it brings to the party. For instance, amchur powder is made from unripe mangos and adds sourness or tanginess to a dish. Chadha explains that it's also important to "understand when to add the spices at the right time to derive the best flavor from them."

Once you really get the hang of spices, you can even try to make your own blends. "Every cook also has their own ratios they use for their blends, so you end up with a whole spectrum of flavors," Saxena notes. This can make dishes your own, but it isn't for the inexperienced.