5 Recipe Mixes You Need To Add To Your Pantry
As much as we all like to support our local restaurants, especially during the pandemic, let’s face it: takeout is expensive. And yet, between work, school, and other responsibilities, North Americans have grown to rely on it…a lot.
Since the pandemic began, 65 percent of Americans say they’ve been ordering more takeout — from March to July 2020, they ordered an average of 2.4 times per week. Takeout is just as popular in Canada where 54 percent of Canadians report eating out at least once or more weekly.
Thankfully there is a more affordable option that doesn’t sacrifice taste, convenience or variety: National recipe mixes.
National’s recipe mixes have been specially developed by experts and use the finest ingredients in exactly the right measure, making it easy to cook delicious meals with ease. While these spice mixes allow you to cook outstanding cuisine at home, they cost a fraction of a takeout meal.
Ready to stock up your pantry with some delicious time and money-saving recipe mixes? Start with these five mouth-watering options.
Achar gosht (aka pickle meat) is a curry dish that combines the flavours of pickles and meat. It’s tender, it’s tangy, it’s tart and it’s terrifically tasty. Meat is marinated in yogurt and National achar gosht mix and then cooked slowly in oil with tomatoes and green chillies.
Nihari is about as versatile as it gets. This spicy meat stew is often eaten for breakfast and used as a home remedy to help relieve fevers, runny noses and the common cold. Meat is slow-cooked with National Delhi Nihari spice mix and bones — the marrow is later added back to the gravy that develops. The dish’s texture, spiciness, and tenderness make it a favorite among Indians and Pakistanis.
- Vegetable Bombay Biryani
A warming vegetarian rice dish packed with layers of flavour. Vegetables are fried in National Vegetable Bombay Biryani mix and then cooked in layers of fluffy rice and vibrant vegetables. A great option for the vegetable lovers out there!
Chicken tikka, one of the most popular dishes in India and Pakistan, is surprisingly easy to make with the help of National’s Chicken Tikka Recipe Mix. First marinate your boneless, skinless chicken with ginger and garlic paste, lemon juice and the chicken tikka masala mix, then arrange the chicken on skewers and grill on low charcoal or gas or bake in an oven. Final step? Enjoy the smokey, spicy and succulent meat.
This tangy and nutty kabab is like a distant cousin of the hamburger: the ground beef is mixed with chapli kabab masala mix, onion, garlic, ginger, green chili, tomato and egg, flattened into burger-like pucks and shallow fried in a hot pan until golden brown. But forget the buns and pickle wedges. Chapli kabab is best served with chutney and salad.
If the idea of trying new food excites you but seeking out exotic ingredients and measuring a ton of spices gives you a headache, these premixed spice mixes could be for you: they truly take the guesswork and difficulty out of finding the right proportions and ingredients and nailing complex flavours.