Easy Indian Basic Curry Paste

Indian basic curry paste, the heart and soul of any Indian curry is really easy to make. And you can store it for a week in refrigerator or freeze it for months!

4.55 from 20 votes

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Course: Main Dish

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: basiccurrypaste, curry paste, currypastefromscratch, curryusingcurrypaste, easycurrypaste, indianbasiccurrypaste, indiancurry, indiancurrypaste, indiancurrypasterecipe, makecurrypaste, redcurryindian, whatiscurrypaste

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 25

Total Time: 30

Servings:

Calories: 29kcal

Author: Sophie

Cost: $6

Equipment

Instant pot

Ingredients

3 large red onions (cut into chunks)
6 larger garlic pods
2 inch ginger
4 green chilies
2 large tomatoes (pureed)
1 tablespoon chili powder (hot or extra-hot variety)
1.5 tablespoon cumin powder
0.5 tablespoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 tablespoon curry powder (optional)
2 tablespoon canola oil (more if you want)

Instructions

Prep the paste

In a food processor, take onions, garlic, ginger and green chilies.

Cook the paste

Heat a frying pan, add oil and allow it to warm.
Add onion, ginger garlic and green chili mixture and cook it for few minutes.
Once the onion starts to lose water, add salt. It allows the onion to cook faster by losing more water.
Brown the mixture well on low flame, and cook until the mixture starts to ooze oil and the mixture starts to leave the pan.
At this point, the mixture becomes semi-dry and leaves the pan easily.

Add spices

This is the time to add spices. Add all the spices and give a good stir, so the spices incorporate well in the mixture.
Now you have two choices. You can turn the heat off and keep this mixture as your base curry mixture or add tomatoes and cook it further.
Because some curry recipes don't include tomatoes, I prefer keeping half curry paste without tomatoes and half with it.
After keeping half of this mixture, I add chopped or puréed tomatoes, and allow it to cook until the mixture dries up and has a pasty consistency.
Once it reaches a thick and pasty consistency, the curry paste is ready.

Store

Allow it to cool down completely and store it in refrigerator for a week or two.

Instant Pot Method

Set the instant pot to the saute mode. Let it heat till the "Hot" sign appears on the IP display. Add oil and let it heat.
There is a little difference in this Instant pot method than the traditional curry paste making method mentioned above. Instead of adding onions first, we will add everything all at once.
Add onion, ginger and garlic mixure, followed by tomato puree, all spices and salt. Give a good mix and saute for about 2 minutes. (Till the mixture loses some moisture)
Now change the cooking method to pressure cook and set the time for 3 minutes.
Close the lid and seal the vent.
Once the cooking time is up, wait for the NPR.
After the natural pressure release, stir the mixture well.
Now press the saute button again and cook the mixture further till the mixture looks thick and paste-like consistency.
The curry paste is ready. Store it in an air-tight glass jar for two weeks or freeze it for a month.

Notes

Use mild curry powder if you are using hot or extra hot chili powder.
I don't add garam masala to this basic curry paste. Instead, I add it to a finished curry in the end.
Skip green chilies and hot chili powder if you want a mild curry paste.
For Thai style curry paste, use only the onion base curry paste and avoid adding cumin powder.

Some of the curry inspirations that you can try using the curry paste are:

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