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Life-changing, indeed! I made it today with chicken, chickpeas and sweet potatoes and it was so, so good! I’m a happy gal knowing I have leftover paste for more deliciousness.
Rebeca
Okay, guys – here it is!
Our newest life-changing sauce: 30 minute masala sauce.
Except that first picture isn’t the actual sauce. It’s just the paste, and the paste would be really intense to eat since it’s loaded with onions and garlic and turmeric and cumin and cayenne and garlic and lemon juice and cilantro and basically every possible flavor item in your kitchen and more.
So no, we’re not eating the masala paste. But we ARE going to use the paste to MAKE THE SAUCE, and that’s what this lush, creamy, life changing 30 minute masala sauce is all about. A flavor paste as the base, simmered with pureed tomatoes and coconut milk to stretch it into a lush masala sauce.
And with some Vegetarian Meatballs or Chicken Tikka Masala? GAHHHH
Every time we venture into new recipe territory (Indian food, Thai food, Vietnamese food) I feel the need to reiterate that I am not trying to claim authority or authenticity here. To learn recipes that I don’t know much about, I often watch YouTube videos, and Vijaya Selvaraju and Lalit Kumar Kitchen are some of my favorites for Chicken Tikka Masala.
The extent of my experience with masala is eating it via takeout alongside massive piles of naan and that Indian-restaurant-quality basmati rice that is magically so much better than the stuff I make at home. And speaking of the restaurant basmati rice sorcery: how do they do it? Is it cooked in butter? A special type of broth? Unicorn tears? What must I know?
My goal with making this sauce (other than eating tons and tons of masala forever) was to have something that would land at that perfect intersection between fun food to eat / easy ingredients to buy / ready to eat in 30-ish minutes. I also wanted to put the sauce as its own recipe because sometimes it’s just easier to build meals around sauces, right? You maybe already have some chicken in the fridge, and she already has some broccoli, and that guy is going to try mushrooms and paneer (ummm I’m going to that guy’s house).
It’s just a super flexible masala sauce recipe.
This masala sauce recipe is life-changingly delicious without requiring you to take trips to multiple grocery stores, and it is going to be ready in a flash and a half, plus you’ll be gifted with what I would consider to be one of the best possible self-gifts that could ever exist: a whole jar full of that masala paste so you can whip up masala sauce anytime that hangry craving shows up.
(This picture above shows the sauce without the tomatoes because I forgot the tomatoes that one time but it was still reeeeally good so I kept the picture. The End.)
Pictured above with vegetarian meatballs! Find the recipe here!
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Life-Changing 30 Minute Masala Sauce
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 3-or-so cups masala sauce + 1 1/2 cups remaining masala paste for future use! 1x
Description
30 Minute Masala Sauce! made with onions, garlic, turmeric, cumin, chili powder, lemon juice, cilantro, tomatoes, and coconut milk. Perfect sauce for veggie or chicken tikka masala! Vegetarian / Vegan
Ingredients
For the Masala Paste:
- 2 onions (I used one yellow, one purple)
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, crushed
- 3 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 cup almonds
- a small pile of cilantro stems
- juice of one lemon
For the Masala Sauce:
- 1 1/2 cups tomato puree + 1/2 cup water or broth
- 1 14–ounce can coconut milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (taste and adjust)
Instructions
- Masala Paste: Pulse all the ingredients for the Masala Paste in a food processor until smooth.
- Masala Sauce: Heat a drizzle of oil in a skillet. Add 1/4 cup masala paste to the skillet (not all of it! reserve the rest for future use – yay you!) and with a little bit of oil and stir around in the pan until fragrant (3-5 minutes). If you’re making this with chicken or another protein, this is a good time to add your protein to the pan. Add the tomato puree and water and simmer until t’s a rusty-deep-red color – about 5-10 minutes. Add the coconut milk; simmer for 10 minutes or so until thick and creamy. Longer simmer = thicker and better flavor.
Notes
Store the paste in a jar in the fridge for about a week or store in the freezer for, well, for probably forever. This sauce is great for making homemade chicken tikka masala, but it also goes with just about anything ever – kind of like a curry. We made this with butternut squash, chicken, and the meatless-meatballs that are pictured. Served over rice… mmmhmmmm. SO GOOD.
If you’re looking for a smoother masala sauce, like this Chicken Tikka Masala, just omit the almonds from the paste. If you prefer a chunkier paste, keep the almonds in.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Sauce
- Cuisine: Indian
Keywords: masala sauce, masala paste, indian masala sauce
Nutrition is for one batch of prepared sauce divided up in 4 servings (which ends up being about 3/4 cup of sauce – what? I like my sauces).
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of luscious coconut milk recipes. Check it out!
This masala sauce looks absolutely delicious and packed with authentic spice flavors! I especially love how ingredients like cumin, turmeric, cloves, and chili come together so beautifully. Quality spices really make a difference in Indian cooking. For those looking for organic food suppliers in India offering certified organic spices and food ingredients, you can also explore Ganpati Scientifics: https://www.indianfarmorganics.com/
Insanely delicious and the closest thing to my favorite Indian restaurant. I make it with shrimp and prefer to put the shrimp in at the very end so they don’t get rubbery from overcooking. I love that this recipe makes enough masala paste to keep in the freezer for super easy dinners
Delicious! I want to try marinating the meat in it too!
Love this Curry paste and having it in the freezer ready for me. Thanks
OMG! This is TOTALLY Life Changing Masala sauce – the title does not lie. So easy and quick and unbelievably tasty. Thank you so much for adding this to my life!
Good morning,
I LOVE this but confused by volume
This makes 3 cups PASTE and yet you say only use 1/4 cup two times in the instructions
Help
Hi Dennis! You’ll use 1/4 cup of the paste to make the masala sauce, and have plenty of the paste leftover to use in the future. We like to freeze the leftover paste in 1/4 cup portions, so it’s ready to go. Thanks for the comment!
Masala sauce looks yummy. I will make it.
Can i forget about the cilantro stems?
Interested in low sugar recipes
No trans fats
Lovely masala recipe g fun to make – thank you!. HOWEVER – have you made a mistake on the tomato puree quantity? 1.5 cups is WAY too much, you really only need about 1.5 table spoons / 1oz of tomato puree!
Thanks anyway x
Absolutely delicious and restaurant-worthy. I love a particular Indian restaurant where my daughter attends college and this masala recipe is practically identical to theirs. I use half and half in place of coconut milk due to preference and add slightly more of the masala paste than called for but this recipe is absolutely fantastic
OMG, it’s literally 4:00 in the morning, and I have a pan of the masala sauce simmering with your amazing vegetarian meatballs. And although I’ve only tried a teaspoon of the sauce (and honestly like 3 or 4 meatballs), it feels like I’m at our favorite Indian restaurant and I’m so excited for my family to have this for supper tonight. Very, very glad I decided to try these recipes. Thank you so much.
Love hearing that! Thanks Angela!
Delicious! The tomato was too overpowering for me. Next time, I’ll add the tomato puree to taste!
– I didn’t find the lemon overpowering like some. I added two tablespoons of store-bought lemon juice.
– My garam masala already has cloves in it as well, but the extra cloves in the recipe didn’t ruin the sauce for me like it did for others.
– I used ~10 grams of sifted almonds that I put in the food processor. I saved the rest for baking and only used the powder to keep the sauce smooth. Next time, I might try using almond extract.
I say trial and error and customize the recipe to your taste :)!
For the second attempt on the Masala sauce, I did one can of coconut milk, 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth, and one 8oz can of tomato sauce. Using sauce instead of puree was a complete accident, but this time, the sauce didn’t mainly taste like tomatoes and the flavors balanced out perfectly! I love the convenience of being able to grab a paste out of the freezer and make this anytime! I’ve been recommending this recipe to all of my friends and family.
I eat this with
– brown or white rice
– spinach
– chickpeas
– sometimes I’ll add ground beef or ground turkey
This time, I put the sauce in the multicooker on saute, then I added everything except the rice and slow cooked on high. Yum!
terrific sauce
Hi im not clear on the instructions
so after making the paste, you use 1/4 cup of the paste at a time to make the sauce combine it with 1 1/2 cup puree (the thick tomato puree?,seems like a lot of puree for me, not just ground tomatoes right?) and the broth and the coco milk and salt, is that right?
Hi, Joanne! Yep! You’ll use 1/4 cup of the masala paste (you can freeze the leftover paste for later use), and mix it in a pan with 1 1/2 cup of tomato puree or tomato sauce as well as 1/2 cup of water or broth and 1 can of coconut milk. Add salt to taste. Hope this helps!
Just made this this afternoon and it turned out quite sour, my husband and I both independently used that word. Assuming it’s the tomatoes? Is there a particular brand of puréed tomatoes you’ve had luck with? I used the San Marzano Canned purée. Thanks!
Oh interesting! We haven’t had this happen before. DeLallo tomato puree is great! Otherwise, maybe too much lemon?
Is there something you would recommend substituting almonds with for nut allergies?
You could try sunflower seeds instead!
just add 2 spoons of miso and it is even better!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe it is exactly what I was looking for to make weeknight meals easy.
For the chili powder…I have the seasoning mix for chili beans but I also have ancho, Kashmiri, or New Mexican chile powders. Should I use the blend or the pure chile pepper powder?
We’d suggest the seasoning mix. Hope this helps!
Aloha. As a single person I am laughing how much this makes!! But I think I’ll share the base with friends. It’s simmering now and I’ve been tasting it along the way. I used cashews because that’s what I had. I added a little more than 1/4 of a cup of the masala as my batch was a bit too tomatoes in balance. In the end I felt it needed something and decided it was just a pinch of sugar! And that sealed the deal for me! Can’t wait to throw it in some green beans and cabbage tonight. Thanks for a delicious recipe….again!
Hello! I have been cooking this recipe for a couple of year and loved it. Usually I make a lot and freeze, but since it had finished I made a new batch today. I t looks to me as if the recipe has been changed, could that be? It didn’t taste the same and I wonder what (if anything) has been changed?
Thank you so much!
Super yummy and delicous masala recipe!
This was pretty good. I needed to use twice the amount of paste for more flavor, and will use crushed tomatoes instead of pureed so it’s a little thicker. I like that I have extra paste in the freezer!!
it was tasty… I cook Indian a lot and this had a nice vibe to it.
if you’re new to Indian cooking… careful with the “Chili powder” … Indian chili powders are all over the place from a heat standpoint. So if you did, say, Kashmiri Chili powder and also Cayenne it would be crazy hot.
As such, I did 1/4 TBS of Kashmiri Chile Powder, 3/4 TBS of regular paprika, then an extra Tsp of paprika (subbed for the cayenne)… the Kashmiri has a boatload of flavor –and heat– but the end sauce came out on the mild side with a small amount of tingle.
I did it with chicken, sweet potatoes, and chickpeas as well.
I added the veggies on the front end of the sauce and let them simmer. I did the chicken with a Tikka marinade, then seared both sides at a silly hot temperature… cubed them (inside pink) and let them finish for 5-10 minutes as the sauce finished.
I let the sauce go long b/c it was a bit thinner than I prefer.
Cheers
Was very surprised at how delicious this recipe turned out! The sauce tasted so authentic… I’ll never get takeaway again! I reduced it for about an hour until it was quite thick and creamy. I made it with the vegetarian ‘meatballs’ which were also amazing! 🙂
Turned out amazing!! Added chicken thighs to the sauce and it was so good.