I was taught this recipe by a chef who worked under professional Indian chefs for some time.
From what he told me it’s a basic, traditional curry sauce. It’s also vegan, unless you choose to use butter.
It’s made with an onion base and is nice and easy, so let’s get to it!
Ingredients (serves 3-4)
- 1 large onion or 2/3 medium
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 tbsp garlic paste
- 1 tbsp ginger paste
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tbsp garam masala
- 1 tsp chilli power
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 5g curry leaves
- Salt and pepper
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Knife
- Chopping board
- Food processor or immersion blender
Prep (5 minutes)
- Dice the onion
- Mix all the drive spaces in a cup/jug and add a little water at a time a mix until you get a paste. Don’t worry if you add too much water and it’s a bit runny.
Cooking (25+ minutes)
- First heat some oil in the pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and curry leaves and cook for about 5 minutes stirring often, until the onions are soft.
- Add the garlic paste and ginger paste and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
- Add the tomato paste and cook for another 2-3 minutes, keep stirring.
- And the curry paste and cook for another five minutes.
- Add the tinned tomatoes and mix well, turn the heat down low and cook with a lid on for 10 minutes to an hour, the longer you cook it the more concentrated the sauce will become.
- Remove from the heat and blend the sauce in a food processor or with an immersion blender in the pot.
- If you’d like the sauce a bit thinner just add some water.
- Use as you would use any shop bought curry sauce, keep in the fridge for 3-5 days or freeze for later use. The longer it stays in the fridge the stronger flavour will develop.
A traditional curry sauce
This sauce can be use with any kind of meat, veg or fish or you could just use it as a sandwich filler.
Simply cook the desired meat/veg/fish in a pan then add the sauce and cook through.
The sauce itself is completely vegan unless you choose to use butter or cream to enrich the sauce.
When it comes to cost, this somewhat healthy curry sauce comes in at around 29p per portion!
Not bad for a freshly made sauce!
More recipes to come!


