Basic Indian Tomato Gravy
Serves 4 Time 20 minutes Difficulty 2/5 Ingredients 10 Steps 4
This traditional Indian tomato gravy can be used as a base for all sorts of vegetables, boiled eggs, cubed paneer or chicken. This is often referred to as a "curry". It is usually eaten with plain white rice or rice mixtures.
Ingredients
- 5 tomatoes, diced large
- 1 onion, diced small
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- ½ teaspoon ginger paste
- 5 cloves garlic, pounded
- 1 teaspoon chile powder
- ½ teaspoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin powder
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- Salt to taste
Steps
- Fry onions in hot ghee until they start to brown.
- Add ginger and garlic. Stir. Add powdered spices. Blend well.
- Add tomatoes and salt to taste.
- Turn flame to medium. Cover 10 min. Add any mixture of vegetables, boiled eggs, fried fish, chicken or lamb/goat.
Notes from the original
- If adding cooked vegetables, keep the pot on the flame until they are uniformly heated; for uncooked vegetables, cook as long as necessary.
- With chicken/lamb/goat, add the marinated poultry/meat after frying the ginger garlic paste and adding the dry spice powders. Sear the poultry/meat on high heat, turning the pieces continuously for about 10–15 minutes until the juices get sealed inside. Add the tomatoes after this step. Continue cooking as per above recipe. Alternatively, you have the option of frying /roasting/grilling the marinated poultry/meat separately, before adding to the curry, then letting it simmer for at least 20 minutes.
- You can add a little cayenne and cumin and leave out the chili powder (though "chili powder" in Indian recipes is cayenne/powdered chilis)
- Depending on the freshness of your spices, you may want to add extra spices in the same ratio to achieve a stronger flavour.
- Generally, in Indian cuisine, for lamb or goat (known locally as 'mutton'), you can use all the above ingredients to make the gravy (curry). Some recipes use curd/yogurt, while some use tomatoes for the balancing tart flavour. With chicken, lamb and goat, marination is preferred. Also, various spice powders and spices (sabut garam masala) are added depending on the recipe. For example, cloves and cinnamon can be added to the hot oil, to give an excellent flavour.
- For a vegan version of this recipe, substitute the ghee with coconut oil or other vegetable oil.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Basic Indian Tomato Gravy” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2026-04-12, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Tomato Chutney.jpg by Shashimangu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.