National Curry Week: 8 best curry kits to help you make restaurant-quality dishes at home

Best: Overall

For anyone looking to recreate a British Indian curry house experience, this is where we’d direct you. With varieties such as “jalfrezi heatwave”, “lady naga” and “karma korma” to choose from, the kits contain three or four sachets of spice mixes, stocks, dried chillies or coconut and usually around four very easy steps to create a restaurant-quality meal for four. All the varieties are vegan friendly and though most kits suggest chicken as the main protein, further suggestions are available online.

We thought the “jalfrezi heatwave”, which we made with lamb and a handful of other fresh ingredients, was terrific and really had that authentic je ne sais quois, which is often lacking from homemade curries. Though the spice blends mean you’re not entirely sure of measurements to recreate dishes alone – it’s not just whacking in a paste and frying – there is enough participation in the cooking process to make you proud of your achievement. Most of the dishes take around 25 minutes and can be purchased separately outside of the subscription model if you like, though we’d highly recommend the pick’n’mix option and hosting a big curry night for all your friends.

Best: Sri Lankan curry kit

Hari Hari is a range of 10 Sri Lankan curry kits designed to help you create authentic curries based around one main ingredient; choose from courgette, pork, chicken, or prawn curries and add the handful of fresh extras (usually onion, ginger and coconut milk) to make healthy, aromatic dishes for around four people a time. Most packs contain three sachets of whole or ground spices imported from Sri Lanka and hand blended by Hari Hari creator Illana Smith, who is half Sri Lankan and grew up there. We thought the chicken curry was absolutely delicious with crowd-pleasing rich and warming spices tempered with the characteristic Sri Lankan coconut flavours and paired brilliantly with the green bean curry kit which provided a fresh and vibrant contrast. Sri Lankan curries are typically complex, so these spice kits offer a welcome introduction to cooking the cuisine; the adventurous could branch out to the hopper mixes available too.

Best: Subscription box

These were one of the first kits on the scene and they’re still going very strong. The brand’s MO is that you sign up for a monthly letterbox delivery of freshly ground and measured spices along with a recipe card and shopping list of the fresh ingredients required to create around four complementary dishes. Choose from themes like “world kitchen explorer”, “Indian restaurant favourites” and the one we’d recommend, “Friday night curry discoverer” which brings curries far and wide to your door – past examples include Japanese kuro curry with soy eggs and pickles, and Goan xacuti with pilau.

We made a heady, clove scented Zanzibari chicken biryani with date chutney, coconut dhal and chilli salt fruit which went down brilliantly on a Friday night with friends. Novice cooks may find juggling cooking three or four dishes at the same time daunting, but the recipes are simple and as long as you have a modest range of kitchen equipment (we needed a blender, for example) then you will be serving up exotic feast after feast in no time at all. Packaging is compostable and you can keep the cards and repurchase spice blends or buy your own to make your favourites again.

Best: For a quick weeknight dinner

This range is prevalent in supermarkets and for good reason; offering a wide selection of Indian curries using pastes, marinades, spices for sprinkling and sometimes an accompanying chutni (Indian spelling) ready in as little as 10 minutes. We tried six kits in the range and were hugely impressed by the tasty daals which can be whipped up in five minutes thanks to the pre-cooked lentils, but the favourite we settled on was the fiery Goan curry with a distinctive tomatoey-vinegar base which required only one fresh ingredient purchase – we plumped for haddock – and had on the table in no time at all.

Each kit has suggestions for a main ingredient such as chicken, prawns or vegetables (these kits are good for vegetarians) and inside there are variations on the recipe, encouraging you to add spinach, whole chillies or a crispy onion garnish should you have extra time. For a fast weeknight dinner these are a godsend and the end results certainly taste authentic on a level with many of the other dishes we made, but because you’re using a paste and not doing much in the way of cooking or learning about how to use specific spices these may not be for keener cooks.

Best: For vegetarians

Indian chef and blogger Hari Ghotra has created a range of 12 popular curry house favourites – think bhuna, makhani, korma – in kit form comprising a number of mini spice bags ready to be ground, soaked or fried according to her instructions. Most recipes need a spice grinder/pestle and mortar and about half a dozen fresh ingredients to create the dish – a protein, then perhaps onion, ginger, yoghurt etc – and are a tad more time consuming than some of the other kits in this list, but they are very much worth it. We tried a few in the range, but were blown away by the success of our chicken tikka masala, which easily rivalled most curry houses’ and outclassed previous time-consuming attempts at cooking the dish from scratch.

The depth of flavour and that hard-to-achieve smoky flavour combined with the classically rich and creamy masala was remarkable and we’ll be purchasing this particular in bulk and avidly cooking our way through the rest of the range too. Another good one for vegetarians, as Hari suggests paneer, aubergine and other non-meat ingredients as the star of the show. Each kit also includes a QR code to watch Hari cooking the dish along with you.

Best: For curry lovers

For the fully-invested curry lover, look to Scotia Spice for an education in how to use individual spices. This kit contains six recipes with essential spices and dried ingredients like lentils, but most valuably a guide to tasting individual spices and far more tips and techniques than others on the market, unsurprising when you consider this kit is born out of cookery school owner Yasmin McDonagh’s determination to bring the Punjabi food of her childhood to the masses.

The recipes are easy to follow and mouth-wateringly delicious; we thought the chicken curry was exceptional (it’s also great for kids if you are light-handed with the chilli) and loved the way Yasmin talks you through each step with handy hints. This kit would allow you to cook the dishes you loved again and again, and Yasmin has you measuring out the individual spices yourself so it’s more hands-on than other pre-prepared version. Don’t buy this expecting to recreate curry house dishes, this is proper Punjabi home cooking and we’re sold.

Best: Low calorie curry kit

Back in 1994 Spicentice founder Ketan Varu’s mum used to send him recipes and spices as a student in the UK to remind him of home in India. The idea for Spicentice was born and now the meal kits span dishes from every continent including Greek souvlaki, jerk chicken and char siu ribs, but we’re here to talk about the curries today which vary from Thai, Malay, Indian and far Eastern. The packs contain a few sachets of spices or marinades, shopping list for fresh ingredients (we needed beef, onion, garlic, coconut milk, ginger, limes and a few storecupboard bits) and four or five easy steps to follow. We thought the Malaysian rendang was really tasty with minimal prep aside from blending and frying, and we really enjoyed the family favourite “Methi chicken” pack too. Spicentice market themselves as being largely low calorie, should you care, too. We’d happily purchase again and work our way through some of the more unusual kits and rubs.

Best: Value

Frankly many of the supermarket-own or mass market kits have been mediocre, but this one stood out to us. For £3.50 and requiring only two further ingredients purchases (beef or duck and a potato), this kit feels like great value and the flavour was far better then a. we’d expected and b. than some of the specialist Thai kits we’d tried. The box contains a standard massaman paste, a packet of whole spices, some handy creamed coconut milk and cashews for sprinkling. There are only three cooking steps and the whole thing is done and dusted after 25 minutes: just add rice for a brilliant commitment-free weeknight dinner, though you might like to throw in some greenery for balance. Again, not one for anyone looking for lessons in how to create a curry from scratch.