Quick Meals (for the Bachelor)

Fast, simple Indian recipes for one: short shopping lists, one pan or pressure cooker, most ready in under 30 minutes.

• Upma · Tamil Nadu. Classic South Indian rava upma: roasted semolina cooked soft and fluffy with mustard seeds, curry leaves, onion, ginger and green chilli, finished with ghee and a squeeze of lemon.
• Fried Maggi Noodles · Indian fusion. Street-style fried Maggi: the noodles boiled just short of done, then pan-fried with onion, capsicum and the masala tastemaker until crisp and toasty in spots.
• Besan Chilla · Rajasthan. Rajasthani gram-flour pancakes speckled with onion, tomato and chilli. Whisked in a bowl, cooked in a frying pan, and full of protein.
• Pressure Cooker Chicken Curry · Punjab. Home-style Punjabi chicken curry made start to finish in one pressure cooker: onion, tomato and ready-ground spices, done in three whistles.
• Moong Dal Khichdi · Gujarat. Gujarati one-pot comfort food: rice and yellow moong dal pressure-cooked soft with ginger and cumin and finished with ghee.
• Bombay Masala Toast · Maharashtra. Mumbai's street sandwich: spiced potato, green chutney, onion, tomato and cucumber between buttered bread, toasted crisp in a pan.
• Bread Upma · Karnataka. Karnataka's answer to stale bread: cubes tossed with a mustard and curry leaf tadka, onion, tomato and peanuts until they soak up the masala.
• Paneer Bhurji · Punjab. Crumbled paneer cooked Punjabi style with onion, tomato and a little garam masala. Twelve minutes to a high-protein dinner with roti.
• Egg Fried Rice · Indian fusion. Indo-Chinese street-cart fried rice: cold leftover rice tossed over high heat with egg, garlic, vegetables, soy sauce and plenty of pepper.
• Curd Rice · Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu's thayir sadam: soft rice mashed into cool curd with a crackling mustard and curry leaf tadka. The best use of leftover rice.
• One-Pot Tomato Rice · Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu's thakkali sadam: rice cooked in one pot with a tangy, spiced tomato masala. Lunchbox food that's good warm or cold.
• Masala Veg Noodles · Indian fusion. A packet of instant noodles turned into a proper meal with onion, tomato, peas and carrot and a little extra masala.
• Masala Omelette · Delhi. The Delhi dhaba breakfast: a thin omelette packed with onion, green chilli and coriander, with buttered toast on the side.
• Egg Bhurji · Maharashtra. Mumbai street-cart scrambled eggs cooked in butter with onion, tomato and green chilli, scooped up with soft pav.