Cooking Tips: How To Make Your Indian Gravies Thick And Creamy Without Cream

For anyone who is new to an Indian kitchen, making the perfect Indian curry could be one of the hardest tasks. While one can still perfect the art of making rotis and rice, a curry with perfect consistency, texture and flavour is a task that needs persistence. A lot of it! Imagine a curry which after a lot of time spent in kitchen toiling around, turn out to be watery thin! There’s no turning back from there. After all, making Indian gravy is no less than an art. Most of which are thick and creamy, ultimately accentuating the overall flavour. Can you pair your roti with a thin gravy? It will be of runny texture which would scoop out all the flavour from your bite. The joy of dipping your bread into thick and indulgent curry is unmatched.

Be it vegetarian paneer pasanda or the rich butter chicken, many of our most favourite Indian curries are creamy and thick. And most restaurants and home chefs uses the dame old trick to achieve that- addition of heavy packaged cream or a mix of cornstarch and refined flour. But what we miss here is these ingredients are quite fattening. What we also not realise is that there are healthier alternatives to make your curry thick and rich! 

If you too are skeptical of using fattening store-bought packaged heavy cream to make your curry thick, we’ve got you three of the best alternatives to achieve the same. 

1. Cashews 

This is one of the oldest tricks to thicken a curry, way before when packaged creams were even introduced, post which everyone simply forgot about this trick! It might be time-consuming but is one of the best natural ways. All you need to do is blitz some cashews with a little bit of water or milk and add to your curry for a rich, nutty and creamy texture and flavour.  

2. Mushrooms

Did you know this is one of the best ways to make vegan cream for your creamy pasta too? Simply saute dried or fresh mushrooms and blend with some milk into a fine thick paste, and you’ll have a nice creamy flavour to your curries. Mushrooms have a naturally creamy flavour that is sure to entice you! 

3. Semolina Flour/ Whole Wheat Flour

If you are someone who uses cornstarch as thickening agent, swapping it with semolina flour or whole wheat flour can be a healthier alternative.