Indian Grocery List

Here’s a master shopping list for Indian ingredients. The items highlighted in bold type are the must-haves. The others are meant mostly for diehard Indian food enthusiasts who plan to cook lots of Indian food a lot of the time.
If you don’t live near an Indian grocery store, you can find a lot of the items from online vendors, including Amazon. I’ve linked to some of the ingredients on Amazon, and these are affiliate links, meaning if you click on them and buy something, I will get a very small percentage from the sale at no cost to you, which will help keep my blog going.

GRAINS:

Basmati Rice
Brown Basmati Rice
Cracked Wheat
Flattened Rice (Poha)
Puffed Rice (Kurmura)
Rava (Cream of Wheat, Sooji)
Whole-Wheat Durum Flour or Atta Flour (for chapatis, pooris and other Indian flatbreads)
Millet Flour
Besan or Chickpea Flour

LEGUMES:

Tuvar Dalor Toor Dal (pigeon peas)
Chana Dal
Urad Dal
Moong Dal
Masoor Dal
Rajma (red kidney beans)
Chickpeas or chole or garbanzo beans (chana)
Moth or matki beans (tiny little brown beans)
Whole Mung Beans
Black-eyed Peas or Chavli beans
Whole Masoor
Peanuts
Vaal Dal (field beans)

SPICES:

Red Chili Powder (not to be mistaken for the spice mixes that are added to a western-style chili — the Indian red chili powder is just red pepper powder)
Paprika (Kashmiri chili powder is a fine substitute)
Turmeric Powder
Black Mustard Seeds (rai)
Cumin Seeds (jeera)
Coriander Seeds
Fennel Seeds (saunf)
Carom Seeds (ajwain)
Onion Seeds (kalonji)
White Poppy Seeds  (khus khus)
Fenugreek Seeds (methi)
White Sesame Seeds (til)
Saffron
Cardamom pods (green) (hari elaichi)
Cardamom pods (black) (kali elaichi)
Cloves (laung)
Cinnamon bark (dalchini)
Nutmeg (jaiphal)
Mace (javitri)
Whole Black Peppercorns
Bay Leaves (tej patta)
Whole Dry Red Chillies
Asafoetida (hing) Not strictly a spice, but it gets clubbed in here because it’s used like one.

READYMADE POWDERED SPICES:

Garam Masala
Biryani Masala
Pav Bhaji Masala
Sambar Powder
Rasam Powder
Curry Powder (although more British than Indian in origin, this adds great flavor to lots of Indian foods. I’m a convert).

OILS:

Unflavored vegetable oil, like canola or peanut oil

Sesame oil
Coconut oil
Mustard oil

MISC.:

Jaggery (an unrefined Indian sugar that’s perfect for Indian sweets)
Tamarind, pulp or pods
Poppadums or papads (rice or lentil crackers that can be zapped in a microwave in an instant to provide a crackly, delicious accompaniment for meals)
Golden raisins
Cashews
Pistachios
Coconut milk
Alphonso Mango Pulp

Kasoori Methi (dry methi leaves)

FRESH AND FROZEN ITEMS:

Curry Leaves
Coriander Leaves
Mint Leaves
Shredded Coconut
Green Chillies