We Indians love and live to eat. We travel far away from home, spending much money to have our favourite dish.
So, why not make them at home at your convenience? Here are the Best 10 Indian cuisine books that will fill your life with new recipes and give your taste buds a feast.
1- Indian cookbook by Emma Yang
2- The Indian Slow Cooker by Nora K. Asaad
3- The Chutney Life by Palak Patel
4- Simple, Authentic Indian Cuisine by Lakshmi Thakur
5- Chetna’s Indian Feasts by Chetna Makan
6- Tandoori Home Cooking by Maunika Gowardhan
7- Indian Vegetarian Cooking Book by Erin Chante
8- Indian Flavor Everyday by Maya Kaimal
9- Plant-based India
10- An Invitation to Indian Cooking- Madhur Jaffrey
Indian cookbook by Emma Yang- (1/10-Indian Cookbook 2024)
Emma Young is an author, mom, and great writer in the cooking niche. This Indian Cuisine cookbook mentions about 70 delicious Indian dishes with their origin, directions, and ingredients.
The best part of this book is that it also mentions the alternatives. For example, suppose you’re a vegetarian, vegan, or lactose intolerant, instead of chicken, pork, or lamb. In that case, you may use soya, cottage cheese, or tofu, which makes every dish in the book suitable for everyone.
Every dish spotlights specific ingredients that are the main taste enhancers, chef’s tips, possible variations in the recipe, and last but not least, a health note with calorie intake, which makes the book your final spot if you want to know anything about a specific dish.
The Content of the book goes as follows:
- Introduction to Indian Food
- The World of Indian Breakfast Recipes
- The World of Indian Lunch Recipes
- The World of Indian Dinner Recipes
- The World of Indian Dessert Recipes
- Authentic Indian Recipes Eaten Only by Indian People
Every section has at least 15-20 sub-sections.
The Indian Slow Cooker by Nora K. Asaad- (2/10-Indian Cookbook 2024)
Anything and everything you can think of can be slowly cooked, and the recipe is in The Indian Slow Cooker.
Under a particular dish, the preparation time needed, the cooking time, serving size, ingredients, and nutritional value are mentioned, giving all the information one should know regarding who is planning to prepare that dish.
The Content of the book goes as follows:
1-The benefits of slow cooking
2-How slow cooking has transformed Indian traditional meals
3-The essentials you would require in your kitchen to start this journey of slow cooking
4- The basics of slow cooking
5- The do and don’t of slow cooking
The book has bi-furcated the dishes on the grounds of:
- Vegetarian
- Meaty marvels
- Seafood specials
- Rice and breads
- Chutneys and sauces
- Deserts
- Fusion flavours
- Holiday Feasts
The Chutney Life by Palak Patel- (3/10-Indian Cookbook 2024)
Famous chef Palak Patel’s debut book, “The Chutney Life,” became a bestselling book shortly after its launch.
This cookbook starts with giving you a heads up of the following to get started with the book:
1- Spices
2- Grains
3- Legumes
4- Lentils
5- Type of chilies
6- Essential tools and equipment
It also adds a small description to everything to help you understand how each item would add value to your dish and enhance the taste.
Every dish includes an introduction, followed by the ingredients, the preparation process, and how to do things differently if the dish has to be served right away vs. if it has to be stored. The chef then gives pro tips and shows an image of how the dish would look after it is prepared.
Simple Authentic Indian Cuisine by Lakshmi Thakur- (4/10-Indian Cookbook 2024)
The book by Lakshmi Thakur is straightforward. When I saw the table of contents, it felt like you were in a restaurant. Probably whatever you could think of, everything from appetizers to snacks to main courses (Vegetarian/Non-Vegetarian), side dishes, and regional dishes was there.
I haven’t reviewed a book that has also segregated Content based on regional food. Here’s a sneak peak:
- Appetizers and Starters
- Snacks and Street Food
- Main Courses Vegetarian
- Main Course Non-Vegetarian
- Side Dishes
- Punjabi Specialities
- South Indian Specialities
- Bengali Specialities
- Gujrati Specialities
- Rajasthani Specialities
- Desserts
Almost every dish is covered in a single page, including the cooking process, things required before cooking, prep time, cooking time, and servings.
This book is excellent for someone who wants to jump directly into the dish rather than learn and gather extra information.
Chetna's Indian Feasts by Chetna Makan- (5/10-Indian Cookbook 2024)
Chetna Makan is well known for her YouTube channel and 8 cookery books covering topics ranging from Baking to Healthy food to street food.
Today, we will discuss one of her masterpieces: Chetna’s Indian Feasts.
The book’s content was unique as it has been designed for every occasion. Following is the book’s content:
- Friday Night Takeaway
- Chaat
- Feasts for two
- Fast Feasts
- Barbecue
- Picnic
- Festive feasts
- Sunday brunch
It becomes easy to pick dishes to prepare rather than thinking over and over about what to prepare and what not to. When you go to the page for that particular occasion, it has a small index showing all the dishes under that specific category/occasion.
If we discuss a particular dish, all the necessary things, like the ingredients, procedure, portion size, and image, are mentioned in detail.
Tandoori Home Cooking by Maunika Gowardhan- (6/10-Indian Cookbook 2024)
Indian author and chef Maunika, born and raised in India, now lives in the UK. She has written four remarkable books, the first published in 2015.
Tandoori Home Cooking has a secret to make more than 70 Tandoori dishes. The book has a straightforward content:
- Chicken
- Lamb
- Fish and Seafood
- Vegetarian
- Breads
- Condiments
- Sides and Salads
- Deserts
Indian Vegetarian Cooking Book by Erin Chante- (7/10-Indian Cookbook 2024)
This book is created especially for beginners in cooking and Indian vegetarian dishes. The content of the cookbooks goes as follows:
- Soups
- Appetizers and Snacks
- Main Dishes
- Potato Dishes
- Naan
- Dosas
- Deserts
- Rice Dishes
Every dish has very small, crisp, and precise details, starting with servings, cooking time, ingredients, and instructions, followed by a few images of the dish.
Most dishes include special tips from the author to take care of and make it a special meal for your special ones.
The book has simple recipes for dishes you would have daily; even a beginner can make them without any problem.
PS: You may consider other books from the list if you’re not a beginner.
Indian Flavor Everyday by Maya Kaimal- (8/10-Indian Cookbook 2024)
Chef, Author and Entrepreneur Maya Kaimal has written many books, and her latest book is Indian Flavor Everyday.
Her previous book, Curried Favors: Family Recipes, won the Julia Child Best First Book award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
The content of the books goes as follows:
- Salads
- Snacks
- Vegetables
- Soups
- Dals and Chickpeas
- Meat and Seafood
- Rice, Noodles and Breads
- Sweet Bites
- Basics
Before all the recipes start, the book has dedicated a few pages to Indian Flavors, the stock you would require to make the dishes mentioned in the book, tools, and tips/techniques to enhance the taste of the dishes.
If you still need all the ingredients, the book has your back by providing alternative ingredients towards the start of the book.
Plant-based India by Sheil Shukla- (9/10-Indian Cookbook 2024)
An American Board-Certified internal medicine specialist, author, and recipe developer exploring plant-based nutrition as preventative clinical medicine has created his book Plant-Based India.
The book has been awarded as the NYT Best Cookbook of 2022. The book has more than 100+ vegan recipes, and the following is the content:
- Starters and Lighter Meals
- Snacks and Sides (Farsan)
- Soups and Salads
- Vegetable Dishes (Shak)
- Gravy Dishes
- Dal- Legume Stews
- Rice Dishes (Bhat)
- Indian Flatbreads(Rotli)
- Deserts (Mithai)
- Drinks (Pinu)
- Chutney and Other Condiments
- Spice Blends- Masala
As the book starts, the author tells his journey and how his interest and curiosity developed more for Indian vegan and Gujarati food. Later, in 2015, even Sheil turned vegan and further explained why we should eat vegan/plant-based foods and how they work within our bodies.
As the book begins, a page is dedicated to the Indian pantry, where you can see all the required spices and condiments to make those dishes.
An Invitation to Indian Cooking- Madhur Jaffrey- (10/10-Indian Cookbook 2024)
Madhur Jaffrey is a British-American actress, television personality, and writer. She started her career as a writer in 1973 when she published her first book, An Invitation to Indian Cookery.
The book starts by explaining flavours and spices used while making dishes and their essence to the dishes. It also has a page that mentions the tools and utensils required so that you are ready beforehand.
It also has a few sample menus, each combining an appetizer, drinks, main course, and dessert, which was pretty unique and different from the rest of the books I read.
The content of the book goes as follows:
- Soups and Appetizers
- Meat
- Chicken, Other Birds, and Eggs
- Fish and Shellfish
- Summer Cooking and Barbecued foods
- Vegetable
- Rice
- Dals
- Chutney, Pickles, and other relishes
- Breads
- Desserts
- Paan
Every dish has details like the serving size, ingredients, procedure, and tips for garnishing the dish.
Conclusion
If you want to get started with cooking or learn new recipes and fusion, these 10 cookery books will help you get there quickly. Stay tuned for the Top 10 Healthy Cookbooks.
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