You’ve probably come across the term ‘masala’ on several occasions – perhaps mentioned in a book or a film, or in the name of a dish – but what exactly is a masala? Anyone familiar with Indian cuisine will likely know the answer, but let’s shed some light on the subject for those who are less familiar with it and keen to try new flavours. Let’s try to understand what it is and how many different types there are.

What is a masala?

The term ‘masala’ in Hindi literally means ‘spice mixture’ and is generally used to refer to the blend of herbs and spices used to add flavour and aroma to specific dishes from the culinary traditions of the Asian subcontinent.
India is a nation with a multifaceted culture, characterised by remarkable diversity, which is also reflected in its culinary traditions. The spice blends used in the country’s various regions differ in flavour and composition, varying according to the dish being cooked, and each has a specific name.
In today’s post, we’ll look at the main and best-known ones.
More generally, we can say that there are different types of masala: those prepared with ground spices, such as garam masala and ‘curry’ (we put this in quotation marks because curry, as we know it in the West, deserves a discussion of its own); masalas made from whole spices and herbs, such as the Indian five-spice mix; and paste-based masalas prepared with ‘wet ingredients’, such as water, tomatoes, fresh ginger, onion and garlic.

What are the main masalas?

We have deliberately used the term ‘main’, because in fact there are so many variations that it would be difficult even to determine exactly how many masalas exist.
We will therefore look at the best-known ones.


Tikka Masala

It is probably one of the best-known spice blends, made with cumin, coriander, paprika, turmeric, garlic, ginger and garam masala. It is used in both meat and vegetable dishes.

Garam Masala

We mentioned it above amongst the ingredients for tikka masala; it is one of the basic spice blends, among the best known and most widely used, and consists of cardamom seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cloves, pepper and cinnamon.

Tandoori Masala

As with tikka masala, its name will probably sound familiar to you; it is a spice mix made with coriander, pepper, turmeric and cumin.

Chaat Masala

A masala with a spicy and distinctive flavour, made with mango powder, kala namat salt, cumin, ajwain seeds, ginger, black pepper, mint and coriander. It is widely used in traditional Indian street food dishes.

We have listed only the basic ingredients here, but there may be various additional ingredients depending on the recipe you are preparing.

In our online shop, you can buy some of the masalas mentioned above in bulk, or the spices – whole, in grains or ground – to prepare them as and when required.

You may have noticed that chai masala, to which we have dedicated several in-depth posts on our blog, and curry, which we’ll come back to later, are missing from the list.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)