Indian cuisine—whatever region it comes from—is eternally exciting, flavorful, nutritious, and delicious. First-time cooks might be intimidated by the prospect of cooking Indian food, but they shouldn’t be. Attempting a few basic recipes and techniques is the first step on the road to preparing larger and more elaborate meals. Nevertheless, whether you’re whipping up a batch of mutter paneer or tackling a challenge like galouti kebab, here are the most essential items to get from an Indian grocery store.

Spices

Like any kind of cuisine, the heart and soul of Indian food lies in its spices. While there’s obviously some crossover between Western and Eastern cookery, whenever you buy spices for Indian meals, get them at an Indian store. It can make all the difference in taste and authenticity. That said, no Indian kitchen would go without cumin, coriander, tumeric, mustard seed, curry powder, and chile powder. Some recipes might call for special spices, but these six are your cornerstone.

Flours

Traditionally, most Indian food is eaten with bread, so plan to learn some basic bread recipes if you haven’t already. Soft, puffy, delicious naan is the best known, but other breads include paratha, kulcha, parantha, bhatoora, and poori. To bake these, you’ll need to stock up on various flours. Pack your pantry with whole wheat flour, maida all-purpose flour, rice flour, semolina, corn flour, and gram flour. See which recipes are best accompanied by which bread and try them all eventually!

Rice

Rice goes with just about everything. The most common type to use is basmati, which doesn’t stick together even after cooking. Basmati is a long-grain rice with a lovely flowery scent and nutty taste. Despite basmati’s popularity, there are many other types of rice in India—more than 6,000 per some accounts, in short, medium, and long grain forms. You should have plenty of basmati in stock and on hand. As you explore and experiment with other recipes, consider picking up different types of rice, like kolam, ambermohar, gobindobhog, and a host of others.

Beans, and Lentils

Stocking up on these staples makes good sense financially as well as gastronomically. All these recur in several Indian recipes, either as part of the course or as an accompanying dish, so you’ll rely on them quite a bit. Buy a large sack of each and store them in the pantry. You’ll find many different types of beans and legumes at the store, but it’s good to have a supply of lentils, kidney beans, and chickpeas on hand.

Ghee

Ghee is one of the essential items to get from an Indian grocery store. Ghee is a clarified butter, frequently used in sweeter dishes. It’s also useful for sautéing vegetables and making breads, sweets, and more. Ghee is also found in rice dishes such as biryani. It is usually made with milk, but there are vegan alternatives as well. 

Naturally, this is just the beginning. There are assorted oils, flours, pickles (achaar), chutneys, sweeteners (jaggery), and other ingredients that can come in handy when cooking your favorite Indian dishes. But for now, use the above list to ensure your first trip to our online Indian supermarket is a success!