Chetna Makan: 5 Ingredient Indian
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What inspired Chetna to create the ‘5 Ingredient Indian’ cookbook?
Hello and welcome back to Cooking the Books with me, Jillie Smith, the podcast which takes us through four food moments from the books of our favourite food writers. It's about all of life through the prism of food. And at this point in most podcasts you'd find a sponsor read or random adverts before you get to your favourite show. You won't get that here, and that's because this podcast is sponsored by me. But I would love your help with that. I'm gonna tell you a little bit more about that later. First, we're off to lunch with Chetna Makan, the bake-off semi-finalist who's become one of our national treasures with her massive YouTube channel, Food with Chetna. Her latest book, Five Ingredient Indian, is yet another way how she makes Indian food simple enough to cook quick weekday suppers while keeping all the flavour.
As we tucked into a feast from her book, I asked her how on earth she can make such delicious food. five ingredients.
Well, that's obviously what the book is about. But I thought that um every time I've written a book there is a reason for it. I I don't wanna just make it another Indian book. And I've covered all sorts of subjects from healthy Indian to thirty minute to easy vegetarian. And then I thought what can I else can I do to make it easier? And a lot of times it's my um viewers who give me kind of indirect suggestions where they'll say, Oh, this has too many ingredients or I don't have so and so, can I skip this? Can I skip that? And it is all fine to skip things and I thought why not just skip it and give you recipes without any of those fluffier things but at the same time not make any compromises on the flavour because that's the most important.
I don't want them eating like grass and you know, things like that. So I just want it to taste amazing. Well
you're talking about your YouTube, you're huge on on YouTube and people really rely on you to make easy Indian food. You know, the basics, we've got lots of spices. Um, are you saying we use ch fewer spices? What how does that impact on the flavour? Because we've just had a whole tally of gorgeous uh curries and the beautiful prawn curry. I mean I can't believe that you didn't fully spice up that that prawn curry. I mean, you know, it was spicy enough. How did you pull back on say that particular one?
So for example, the dal that we ate, um, it actually the only spice I've used in it is cumin. Okay. And uh the rest fl of the flavor comes from dal, from spinach, from garlic. But the spice under the category of spice just was cumin. So that is what I am trying to explain. And I'm not saying for one single second that all Indian food can be cooked in five ingredients. I haven't cooked any biryani or something very elaborate in it because we can't cook it in five ingredients. But For everyday meals, that is what we need.
But actually without the dal's a very good example because the dal is traditionally in Ayurveda for example it's it's a a gut reset, isn't it? It's a very gentle dish, so actually just some warming cumin is just delightful. But that prawn curry
Yes. So for the prawn curry, very good example. I have added uh the book starts with five spice blends that I have shared and made it at home. Now these five uh spice blends, each blend, for example, there's a subjimasala. has got five spices in it. And I roast them and make a nice spice blend. And then I can use that spice blend in different things. So the
How does Chetna simplify Indian flavors with only five ingredients?
Prawns had that subji masala in it. So I've created five special blends, and every blend has a different note to it. So one is thanduri masala, which is like smoky and spicy, one is chart masala, which is sour and um kind of uh not sweet but sour and spicy. So every spice blend will add a different note to it, and that's how how you can achieve the rest of the recipes in the book.
So that's uh that Ottolengi did that with the flavour bombs, for example, and Or, you know, Jamie Oliver did it as well. I think in in you know, these kind of it's the the shortcut to great flavour. Now you have always been about making lovely food that traditionally has taken a long time, uh made by women, uh i in the old days who were not working and you have always been a busy, very driven working.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What inspired Chetna to create the ‘5 Ingredient Indian’ cookbook?
0:00–3:42
2
How does Chetna simplify Indian flavors with only five ingredients?
3:42–8:16
3
What role do the custom spice blends play in the five‑ingredient recipes?
8:16–11:26
4
Why does Chetna emphasize consistency and simplicity on YouTube?
11:26–13:55
5
How did Chetna transition from a TV career to a sustainable YouTube business?
13:55–17:04
6
What are the signature food moments featured in the book (fenugreek potatoes, Bombay mix, etc.)?
17:04–19:56
7
How does Chetna balance traditional Indian dishes with modern, quick‑cook meals?
19:56–22:52
8
What future projects or collaborations does Chetna have after the new book launch?
22:52–27:24