Under €2

Coriander leaves are called dhania or hara dhania in Hindi and kothimbir or kothamalli in other Indian languages, known in German as Koriander. The delicate green leaves have a bright, fresh, slightly citrusy flavour and are used raw rather than cooked for long.

They are used as a finishing garnish over dals, curries and chaat, blended into green chutney, and mixed into salads and raitas.

How to use

• Wash well in a bowl of water to remove grit, as it grows close to the soil.
• Chop just before use, including the tender stems, which carry a lot of flavour.
• Wrap loosely in a damp cloth or paper and store in the fridge; use within 3 to 5 days.

Green chilli, called hari mirch in Hindi and mostly known in German simply as gruene Chili, is the unripe form of the chilli pepper: slim, glossy, and firm, with heat that varies noticeably from mild to sharp even within the same batch.

It is used throughout Indian cooking as a base ingredient, slit or chopped into curries, dals and chutneys, or fried whole with salt as a side. It also flavours pickles and tempering (tadka) for dals.

How to use

• Wash and trim the stem before slitting, chopping, or using whole.
• Remove the seeds and inner white membrane for a milder result.
• Store in the fridge in a paper bag or open container; it keeps for around a week.

Drumstick is the long, ridged green pod of the moringa tree, known as murungakkai in Tamil, munagakaya in Telugu, and sahjan or saijan in Hindi; it has no widely used German name. The pod is fibrous and inedible on the outside, with soft pulp and small seeds inside that are scooped out and eaten while the tough outer fibre is discarded.

It is best known as an essential ingredient in sambar, and is also cooked into a moringa curry or added to avial and other mixed vegetable dishes.

How to use

• Trim the ends and cut into finger-length pieces before cooking.
• Simmer until soft, then eat by scraping the pulp out with your teeth, discarding the fibrous shell.
• Keep in the fridge and use within a few days, as it dries out and toughens over time.

Mint is called pudina in Hindi, sold in German as Minze. The small, bright green leaves have a strong, cooling, sharp flavour and are almost always used fresh rather than cooked for long.

It is blended into mint chutney served with samosas and snacks, added to raita, and used in drinks such as mint-flavoured lassi or lemonade.

How to use

• Pick the leaves off the tougher stems before chopping or blending.
• Add towards the end of cooking, or use raw, since heat dulls its flavour quickly.
• Store wrapped in a damp cloth in the fridge and use within a few days, as it wilts quickly.

TRS Mustard Seeds Brown are the small reddish-brown seeds used across South and West Indian cooking. Raw they taste of almost nothing; the flavour only appears once they hit hot oil and pop, turning nutty and gently pungent.

Best for

• Tempering for dal, sambar and rasam
• Poriyal, thoran and other South Indian vegetable dishes
• Pickles, and Bengali fish curries

How to cook it

Heat the oil until it shimmers, add the seeds, and cover the pan — they jump. Once the popping slows, add curry leaves, dried chilli or urad dal and pour the lot over the dish. If the seeds sit in lukewarm oil without popping, the tempering will taste raw; if they blacken, start again.

Pack and storage

100 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Cinnamon (Dalchini) is whole cinnamon bark in quills — warm, woody and sweetly aromatic, and firmer and stronger in flavour than the soft rolled Ceylon type. It is one of the whole spices that goes into the oil at the start of a biryani or a korma.

Best for

• Biryani, pulao and korma
• Garam masala and whole-spice blends
• Masala chai, and slow-cooked meat curries

How to cook it

Break off a two or three centimetre piece and fry it in hot ghee with bay leaf, cardamom and cloves for a few seconds until it swells and smells sweet. Remove before serving. For chai, a small piece simmered with the tea and milk is enough; the bark is hard, so grind it in a spice mill rather than a pestle.

Pack and storage

50 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Coriander / Dhania Powder is ground coriander seed — mild, citrusy and faintly sweet. It is used in larger quantity than most ground spices because it does the thickening as well as the flavouring in a gravy.

Best for

• Curry and korma bases, paired with cumin powder
• Chana masala, rajma and vegetable curries
• Marinades, and homemade masala blends

Using it

Add it after the onions have browned and fry for under a minute before the tomatoes or water go in. Two parts coriander to one part cumin is the usual balance in a north Indian gravy. If a curry tastes too sharp, another spoonful of coriander powder rounds it out better than sugar.

Pack and storage

100 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Haldi / Turmeric Powder is ground turmeric root, deep yellow and slightly bitter with an earthy, musky aroma. It goes into almost every Indian savoury dish, usually in small quantity, as much for colour as for taste.

Best for

• Dals, sambar and everyday vegetable curries
• Marinating fish and chicken before frying
• Rice dishes, pickles and spice pastes

Using it

A quarter to half a teaspoon is enough for a family-sized dal — too much turns the dish bitter and muddy. Add it early, with the onions or straight into the cooking dal, so it has time to lose its raw taste. It stains cloth and plastic readily, so wipe spills straight away.

Pack and storage

100 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Rice Flour is finely milled white rice — soft, powdery and pure white, with no gluten in it at all. It behaves nothing like wheat flour: it gives crispness rather than stretch, which is why it turns up in fried batters and thin dosas.

Best for

• Rava dosa, neer dosa and appam
• Kozhukattai, modak and idiyappam
• Crisping up pakora batter, and thickening sweets

How to cook it

For steamed doughs, add boiling water to the flour rather than the other way round, stir with a spoon, then knead once it is cool enough to handle. For batters, keep them thin and pourable — rice flour thickens as it stands, so check again just before cooking. A spoonful added to a pakora batter is the simplest way to make it crisper.

Pack and storage

500 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Haldiram's Navrattan Mix is a many-part namkeen — fine sev, fried lentils, peanuts, crisp flakes and raisins in a masala that balances salt against a touch of sweetness. The variety of pieces is the point: every handful comes out a little different.

Best with

• Chai and evening snacking
• Snack bowls for guests
• Mixing into homemade bhel

Pack and storage

200 g pack. Keep in a cool, dry place and seal the pack after opening.

Red onion is called lal pyaz in Hindi and pyaaz in Urdu, and is sold in Germany as rote Zwiebel. It has a thin purple-red skin over white flesh streaked with purple rings, and a sharper, more pungent bite than yellow onion when raw, mellowing into a sweeter flavour once cooked.

In Indian kitchens it goes into the base masala for curries and dals, into salads (kachumber) and raitas where it is eaten raw, and into biryani where thin slices are deep-fried into crisp birista. It also works well in German dishes such as Zwiebelkuchen or simply sliced into a salad.

How to use

• Peel off the papery outer skin before cutting.
• For raw use, slice thinly and rinse briefly in cold water to soften the sharpness.
• Store in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place, not in the fridge; whole onions keep for several weeks.

TRS Methi Fenugreek Seeds are small, hard, amber-coloured seeds with a distinct bitterness and a maple-like aroma. A few seeds are all a dish needs — they are a background note, not a main spice.

Best for

• Sambar powder and South Indian tempering
• Mango and lime pickles
• Fish curries, and sprouting

How to cook it

Add them to hot oil at the very start of a tempering, but only for a second or two — they burn quickly and the bitterness becomes unpleasant once they darken past golden. Use a quarter teaspoon for a family dish. For idli and dosa batter, soak a teaspoon alongside the rice; it helps the batter ferment and softens the texture.

Pack and storage

100 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

These are beefsteak tomatoes, called Fleischtomaten in German and tamatar in Hindi. They are large, firm, and meaty with fewer seeds than smaller tomato varieties, and a balanced sweet-tart flavour.

In Indian cooking they form the base of most curry gravies, go into tomato chutney, and are used raw in salads. In German cooking they are common sliced in salads or on bread.

How to use

• Wash before use; a brief dip in boiling water makes the skin easy to peel if a smooth gravy is wanted.
• For a curry base, chop and cook down with onion and spices until soft and the oil separates.
• Store at room temperature for a couple of days for full flavour, or in the fridge for up to a week.

Haldiram's Boondi Masala is tiny gram flour droplets fried into crisp golden pearls and coated in a warm, salty spice mix. The boondi is light enough to shatter between your teeth, so it works as much as a topping as it does a snack in its own right.

Best with

• Tea-time snacking
• Scattering over curd rice, dal or raita
• Adding crunch to chaat

Pack and storage

200 g pack. Keep in a cool, dry place and reseal after opening so the pearls stay crisp.

Townbus Garlic Mixture is a South Indian snack mix carrying a strong roasted garlic flavour, with fried lentils, peanuts and crisp rice crackers through it. The garlic is the point rather than a background note, so it is a mixture for people who already know they like garlic. It is savoury and moderately hot.

Best with

• Tea or coffee in the evening
• A snack bowl for a gathering
• Plain curd rice, which balances the garlic
• Something to nibble alongside a drink

Pack and storage

170g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Keep it in a well-sealed jar and away from other snacks, since the garlic aroma travels and will find its way into anything stored open beside it.

Haldiram Boondi Masala is made of tiny gram flour pearls fried crisp and tossed in a warm, salty masala. The little spheres stay light and shatter easily, which is what makes them so good scattered over food as well as eaten on their own.

Best with

• Chai in the afternoon
• Sprinkling over curd rice, dal or chaat
• Snack bowls for guests

Pack and storage

200 g pack. Store in a cool, dry place and reseal after opening so the boondi stays crisp.

TRS Chilli Powder is ground dried red chilli and nothing else — no salt, no blended spices. It is there for heat rather than colour, which is what separates it from the Kashmiri grade.

Best for

• Curries, gravies and masala bases
• Marinades for meat and fish
• Pickles, chutneys and dry rubs

Using it

Add it to hot oil alongside the other ground spices for a few seconds only — it scorches fast and turns bitter if left. Start with less than you think you need; more can always be stirred in later. For a dish that looks red but eats gently, use Kashmiri chilli powder for most of the quantity and a pinch of this for the bite.

Pack and storage

100 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Annam Plain Papadam (6") is the larger, unseasoned papad, the size meant to be broken and shared rather than eaten whole. Plain means no cumin, pepper or garlic, so it sits quietly next to strongly spiced food instead of competing with it. The wider disc puffs dramatically when fried and is easier to snap into pieces for a table. Deep fry it for a few seconds in hot oil, pressing it flat with a slotted spoon, or roast it over a low flame or in a dry pan, turning constantly so it colours evenly. Either way it is done the moment it turns pale and curls, and it crisps further as it cools.

Best with

• Rice meals with sambar, rasam or dal
• Curries, served as a crunchy side to break and dip
• Topping with chopped onion, tomato and chutney as masala papad

Pack and storage

200g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Haldiram's Chana Dal namkeen is split Bengal gram fried until crisp and seasoned with salt and a light dusting of spice. Each piece keeps a firm, nutty bite rather than shattering like sev, so it is a slower, more substantial snack.

Best with

• Serving with drinks
• Chai in the afternoon
• Mixing into homemade namkeen blends and chaat

Pack and storage

200 g pack. Store in a cool, dry place and reseal tightly after opening.

Annam Jeera Papadam is papad with whole cumin seed worked into the dough, so the roasted cumin comes forward the moment it hits heat. It is the most versatile of the flavoured papads, warm and savoury without being hot, which is why it suits a plain rice meal as readily as it suits drinks. The seeds also give the crisp surface a little texture. Roast it over a low flame or in a dry pan, turning constantly for twenty to thirty seconds a side, or deep fry it briefly in hot oil. Watch it closely either way, as cumin scorches faster than the papad around it and turns bitter.

Best with

• Curd rice, dal and everyday rice meals
• Masala papad topped with onion, tomato and lemon
• Drinks and chaat platters

Pack and storage

200g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Priya Gongura Pickle is the Andhra roselle-leaf pickle, made without garlic: gongura leaves cooked down in oil with chilli and mustard until they turn dark and jammy. The leaves carry their own sharp sourness, quite unlike tamarind or lime, and that sourness is the reason the pickle is eaten.

Best for

• Hot rice with a spoon of ghee
• A side with pappu, or dal, and rice
• Dosa, idli and ragi sangati

Serving

Mix a teaspoon into the first few mouthfuls of hot rice and eat it with something plain alongside; gongura is strong enough to carry a meal on its own. Use a dry spoon and smooth the surface afterwards so the oil covers the pickle again before the jar is closed. Keep the oil layer intact and it will hold well in the fridge once opened.

Pack and storage

300g jar. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Udhaiyam Chana Dal (split Bengal gram) is a versatile pulse with a slightly sweet, nutty flavour. Used in dal preparations, chutneys, snacks and South Indian tempering, it is a true kitchen essential.

• Split Bengal gram with nutty, sweet flavour
• Ideal for dal, chutney and South Indian tempering
  

Priya Garam Masala is a finishing blend built on warm spices such as cinnamon, clove, cardamom and black pepper, ground fine for stirring into a dish near the end of cooking. It is aromatic rather than hot, and a small quantity carries a long way.

Best for

• Chicken, mutton and paneer curries
• Dal, chana masala and rajma
• Pulao, biryani and vegetable stir-fries

Using it

Add half to one teaspoon in the last two or three minutes of cooking rather than at the start. Long simmering drives off the volatile aroma that makes the blend worth using, which is why it goes in late while a coriander or chilli powder goes in early. For a marinade, mix it with curd and salt and let the meat sit for an hour. If you want a little more depth, warm the measured spoonful in a dry pan for a few seconds before it goes into the pot.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.