The 30-Minute Mowgli

Spice-packed, punchy, fresh Indian-inspired dishes to get on the table in 30 minutes or under. This is the food that Nisha Katona, TV chef and creator and face of the Mowgli Indian restaurants, cooks at home—super speedy, made with easily sourced ingredients, and delivering big, bold flavours.

This is the food that Nisha Katona cooks at home: punchy and delicious Mowgli-style recipes that take you from couch to curry in 30 minutes or less. As at Mowgli, the focus is on food that’s big in flavour but also light, healthy and made from accessible ingredients, often just using what’s already in your cupboard or fridge. When Nisha started sharing her ideas for a new cookery book encapsulating this approach on her Mowgli Instagram channel during the spring 2020 lockdown, she was thrilled by the hugely positive response.

For super usability, the chapters are themed around ingredients: “Poultry”, “Meat”, “Fish” and “Vegetables”, with a desserts chapter as well as one called “Ma, Look Away!”—for Nisha’s favourite pasta dishes. Try “Chicken Chive Koftas” or “Spicy Coleslaw Chicken Bowl,” “Speedy Lamb Curry” or “Tamarind Treacle-Glazed Pork,” “Ginger Garlic Mussels” or “Popcorn Prawns,” “Fridge Veg Curry” or “Rice Krispies Bel Puri,” “Keema Toasties” or “Million-dollar Green Dahl.” All the recipes are meals that range from light lunches to substantial dinners; all you need to do is accompany them with one of the simple sides suggested in the introduction, which could be rice, noodles, potatoes or a chapati wrap. This is the food that real people want: tasty and nutritious meals they can whip up without fuss while juggling work and childcare in an often chaotic working-from-home environment.