You can easily prepare your favourite restaurant style Indian curries with this easy homemade Indian curry sauce recipe. This Indian simmer sauce is a smooth sauce prepared with onion, garlic, tomatoes, Indian spices and coconut milk.
My home-style Indian base curry sauce is the secret to British Indian restaurant style curries at home. It is easy to make within a couple of minutes and can save you time on weeknights.
I also like too prepare other authentic curry sauce bases such as balti sauce, Makhani Sauce and tandoori sauce marinade.
For ease you can also pre-prepare Indian curry paste for when recipes need an onion tomato bhuna masala.
Ingredients for a Basic Indian Curry Sauce Base
Note that fresh ingredients will give you the best results.
Onion - white, brown or red onions works fine.
Garlic - I have used fresh cloves of garlic.
Green chillies - fresh is best. Adjust the amount based on your spice tolerance.
Ginger - fresh ginger is best, choose the ginger roots without strings.
Oil - any mild flavoured or flavourless oil works fine.
Tomatoes - fresh ripe tomatoes or tomato puree works
Cumin seeds
Spice powders - red chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala. Alternatively, use a ready-made or homemade curry powder.
Coriander stems adds so much flavours to the sauce.
Kasoori methi - dry fenugreek leaves adds the Indian restaurants style flavour to your sauce.
Salt and sugar - sugar balances out the tartness from the tomatoes and brings the flavours together.
Coconut milk (optional)
How to use Indian curry sauce in recipes
Make a large batch of this basic curry sauce and keep it handy for busy days. You may need extra spice powders, oil, seasoning, cream, nut paste or particular spice blend depending what dish you are making.
Use it as a base sauce for this Indian vegetable curry or choose your own medley of vegetables such as carrots, cauliflowers, red pepper, green beans and peas. Serve with hot wholewheat roti.
You could also pan fry some tofu or paneer in oil before pouring over this sauce. Throw some frozen green peas, simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes, finish with chopped fresh coriander then serve.
Saute boiled or steamed baby potatoes in butter or oil, add Indian curry sauce and simmer for 5-6 minutes for a quick Aloo Butter Masala.
It also works with beans and lentils - you can simmer tinned chickpeas to make a cheats chana masala or chickpea tikka masala. These curries goes so well with aromatic jeera rice or takeaway style pilau rice
Storage
Store Indian curry sauce in an airtight container an keep in the fridge for up to 1 week.
You can also freeze it in batches for 3 months in containers or zip lock freezer bags. Thaw the sauce before adding it to the recipe.
As always if you make this recipe, be sure to leave me a comment, rate this recipe and tag me on Instagram @jcookingodyssey or #jcookingodyssey. I love seeing all your photos of my recipe recreations!
Don’t forget to follow me on social media using the buttons below – I can't wait to see you all there!
📖 Recipe
Indian Curry Sauce Base
Equipment
- 1 pan
- 1 Blender
Ingredients
- 4 cup onion roughly chopped
- ¼ cup garlic cloves
- ¼ cup ginger roughly chopped
- ¼ cup green chillies roughly chopped
- ½ cup oil
- 2 tablespoon cumin seeds
- 1 cup tomatoes roughly chopped
- 4 tablespoon chilli powder
- 1 tablespoon turmeric powder
- 2 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 3 tablespoon kasoori methi
- 3 tablespoon coriander stem
- 2 tablespoon salt
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup water
Optional
- ½ cup coconut milk
Instructions
- Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds and once they crackle, add onion, garlic, ginger and chilli.
- Sauté for 8-10 minutes on medium heat until light pink. Add tomatoes cook again until tomato is cooked through.
- Add coriander stems, kasoori methi and spice powders. Mix well.
- Cook again for 2 minutes, add some hot water, sugar and salt. Allow to boil, and cook further 3-5 minutes turn off the heat.
- Let it cool and blend until you achieve a thick but pourable sauce. If using coconut milk, add and mix well.
- Use directly in your recipe or store it for later.
Video
Nutrition
PLEASE NOTE: Nutritional values are estimated by a computer and may vary based on ingredients and portion sizes. For personalised dietary advice, please consult a qualified healthcare professional.
Share on Facebook Pin This Recipe
Hayley Dhanecha says
This Indian curry sauce base is one of those kitchen staples that turns out so good and incredibly tasty every time. It’s rich, aromatic and makes it so easy to build quick curries with whatever veggies or protein you have on hand. I love keeping a batch ready—it instantly turns everyday meals into something comforting and full of flavour.