There’s no beating a curry made from scratch, but when time and budget are tight, a splash of these simple ingredients can make a big difference.
Sarina Kamini
As a well-trained Kashmiri daughter-turned-cookbook author, my kitchen is usually a “from-scratch” sanctuary. But while researching curry meal kits for my own business, I discovered exactly why they often fall flat compared to the real thing – the convenience of the box usually comes at a culinary cost.
But it doesn’t have to stay that way. If you can spare 10 to 15 minutes at the stovetop, you can close the taste gap.
These are my top tips for ratcheting up the taste register and giving those packet meals a soul.
Start with fresh (whether it says to or not)
Time hit: two minutes
Fresh garlic, ginger, shallots or onion – or all four – tossed into the pan first give your curry box an instant boost for a few reasons. The most obvious is that these fresh aromatics add new flavour profiles to your dish right off the bat, and multiple ingredients create immediate interest.
Maybe less obvious is that the flavour of the ginger and garlic pastes sometimes included in a curry box are “flattened out” by processing: mincing, treating with stabilisers, and enclosing them in sachets quietens a lot of the natural jazz these aromatics add when used fresh.
Hit the pantry sauce shelf
Time hit: 30 seconds
Most sachet combos in any packet curry box will include a saucy addition. Sometimes it’s coconut milk-based. Often it’s soy-based. Try them on their own and you’ll discover that, no matter the lead ingredient, the sauce lacks dimension.
The coconut milk combo will be creamy. The soy melange will be salty. But anyone who knows the foods of Asia knows there’s a whole lot more to a dish than that.
Targeting your pantry sauce shelf is the quickest boost, here. A couple of dashes of fish sauce and sesame oil or mustard oil with your soy-based sachet will bring the pop. For the coconut base, lift and lower with equal parts olive oil and butter – this duo adds texture with grassy bitterness and rich sweetness.
Spice it up to the power of three
Time hit – two minutes
The beauty of a kit is that the spices are already there – but refreshing them with your own high-quality pantry staples is the ultimate kitchen hack.
To keep the flavours clean, stick to the basics. This isn’t the time for exotic aromatics like mace; you are supporting the dish, not reinventing it. Stick to the “big three”: turmeric for structure, chilli for a vibrant hit of heat, and ground cumin for earthy depth and texture.
To keep flavours clean, stick to the basics. This isn’t the time for exotic aromatics like mace; you are supporting the dish, not reinventing it.
This trio will work pretty well with any kit. The reason for the addition of three is mathematics – just as triangles are the strongest shape in engineering, a three-point spice base creates a “whole taste”, ensuring the dish tastes balanced and complete rather than uneven or lacking. Which is pretty important when it comes to making things delicious.
Brown it out
Take an extra step with produce. Time hit – 5 to 15 minutes.
This is the power hit for real taste change. What we’re talking about here is doing a little more with the produce in the box than simply chopping it and tossing it in.
You can’t beat the taste of time in the kitchen for creating more complex flavours.
Taking between 5 and 15 minutes to do a little more with your produce will bring huge results. For vegetables, this means sauteing them in oil or giving them a quick blast in the oven or air fryer before tossing them into your curry packet mix. Try it. It takes a little bit longer but adds a whole tier of flavour.
Whether you’re using chicken, lamb, or beef, take five to 15 minutes to brown the meat in your curry pot first. Remove the meat, but don’t wash the pot; those browned flecks are a flavour party waiting to happen. By starting your box curry in that same pot, you’re building a rich, savoury foundation that no packet can replicate on its own.
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