‘Genuinely authentic’: supermarket curry kits, tasted and rated

Takeaways are so eye-wateringly expensive these days, they’re often even more costly than eating out. Delivery companies charge restaurants obscenely high rates, destroying profit margins, and add even more charges and cost to the consumer. Yes, they’re convenient (itself part of the problem), but I’d rather cook dinner myself and save my cash to eat out once in a while.

One way I stopped ordering so many takeaways – post-pandemic, during which I ordered far too many – was to tell myself that it’s quicker and cheaper to cook something simple, rather than order in. Sometimes, however, we all want something we haven’t cooked ourselves, right? And that’s where curry kits come in. They’re very quick to make up with the simple addition of a few veggies, a can of beans and/or some prawns or chicken from the freezer. OK, there’s still a little washing-up, but that’s a small price to pay.

I set out to test tikka masala curry kits, but there weren’t enough on the market, so I ended up working my way through a range of kits instead, including balti and butter chicken. I tried to keep things consistent by making only chicken curries, though of course all these kits can be adapted to be vegetarian or to include seafood or other meat, and I made each one strictly according to the manufacturer’s instructions, without adding any of my own optional extras. Yes, part of the fun of a curry kit is that you can bung in a few ingredients of your own choosing, but some of these kits called for the inclusion of more than two additional ingredients (often expensive ones such as cream), or for odd quantities such as half a pepper (why not just add the whole pepper?). I marked products down a point when these requirements felt excessive.

None of the products list any details about the quality or origin of the ingredients, and few brands share sustainability credentials; also, I could not find any organic products in this range. But the overall quality was exceptional, minimally processed and great value – just about every product was restaurant quality, from takeaway to the best on the high street.

The best curry kits

Best overall:
The Spice Tailor balti curry kit

★★★★★

Three packets (dried spices, including whole dried chilli; curry base; and balti sauce) combine to produce a thick, glossy, brown curry with notable depth and flavour, with cumin, fenugreek and bay standing out. Impressive quality and taste. Simple, minimally processed and vegetarian-friendly, and good value for a genuinely authentic balti experience.

Best bargain:
Kohinoor tikka sauce

★★★☆☆

A single pouch of a bright orange, mildly spiced sauce with notes of coconut, fenugreek and coriander. A simple ingredients list and the most economical in the test group by a long way. Incredible value.

And the rest …

Bom Bahia by Asda butter chicken curry kit

★★★★☆

Three packets – whole dried spices, spice paste and butter chicken sauce – create a generous, richly sauced, deep orange curry with standout notes of fenugreek, cardamom and cassia bark. Well balanced, full of flavour and great value for the quality. My runner-up for best bargain.

Patak’s Punjabi-style tikka masala curry kit

★★★★☆

Three packets (dried spices, spice paste and tikka sauce) that make a rich, dark orange-brown gravy full of warm, sweet spices, including coriander, cumin and tamarind. Labelled medium, but actually quite mild. Delicious, though. Suggested extra ingredients (chicken, butternut squash and peas) offer a refreshing twist.

The Spice Tailor tikka masala Indian curry sauce kit

★★★★☆

Three packets – whole spices (including black cardamom, cassia bark and dried chilli), curry base and balti sauce – produce a rich, bright, burnt-umber tikka masala. Mild, sweet and clove-y, with notes of bay, cardamom and black cardamom. Glossy, creamy gravy. Simple and rich with cream and cashews.

Holy Cow! Delhi tikka masala curry sauce

★★★★☆

A mild, thick and glossy orange-brown gravy full of flavour and gentle, warm spices, including cumin, turmeric and coriander. Holy Cow! sponsors free school meals in India (more than 523,000 so far) and partners with the organisation RePurpose to remove plastic from our oceans. Simple, vegan and minimally processed. Thickened naturally with chickpea flour, tastes fresh. Solid value.

M&S tikka masala curry kit

★★★★☆

Three packets (tikka spice mix, spiced ghee base and tikka sauce) combine to make a generous, bright orange and full-flavoured curry that’s labelled medium, but is more sweet and mild. Standout notes include black onion seeds, nutmeg and dried mango, which adds a welcome but subtle tang. Simple, minimally processed and vegetarian-friendly.

Tesco Finest balti curry kit

★★★★☆

Three packets again – this time spice mix, balti sauce and mango chutney – merge into a vividly red and plentiful curry speckled with nigella seeds. The flavour is mild to medium, and pleasantly tomatoey. Instructions suggest adding chicken, pepper and spinach. A delicious, modern-style curry.

Sharwood’s balti curry kit

★★★☆☆

Two sauce packs, one a spice paste and one a rich balti sauce, that cook into a very thick, medium-spiced, deep burgundy gravy with fragrant notes of ginger, cumin and bay. Vegetarian and great value.

Bang! curry tikka

★★☆☆☆

Unlike the others here, this is a packet of spices and dried onions, rather than a ready-made sauce. Soak the onions before frying (though mine didn’t fully rehydrate in the allotted time), then add the spice mix and water; yoghurt, cream or tinned tomatoes are essential to create a saucy curry. A hot, intense and authentically spiced gravy with a deep red-brown colour.

For more, read the 13 kitchen gadgets top chefs can’t live without