Before you start cooking Indian food, you need to stock up your kitchen! Here are some essentials...

Equipment

• Instant Pot: slow cooking, pressure cooking, sautéing, warming, great for lentils and rice
• Food processor: for grinding and crushing, especially dry foods
• Blender: for pureeing, liquefying
• Salad spinner: for drying herbs like cilantro and fenugreek leaves
• Steamer: for various vegetables and snacks
• Wide spatula: **for lifting and flipping thin flatbreads
• Potato smasher: for mashing hot solids
• Cooking pliers or tongs ("sansi"): for holding hot metal pots

Spices

Basic

• Sea salt
• Red chili powder ("lal marchu")
• Mustard seeds ("rai")
• Cumin seeds ("jeera")
• Coriander-cumin powder ("dhana jeeru")
• Turmeric powder ("haldar")