If you have ever Swiggy Instamarted a pressure cooker, you are in the right place. I cannot in good conscience put myself on a pedestal and pretend that I have never ordered kitchen items from quick commerce, but it turns out I do not need labelled and decorated fruit picks- or my favourite impulse buy – a strawberry and leaf sauce holder. The thing is, an empty kitchen is the devil’s workshop and candy for quick commerce because they know you will panic buy a rice cooker at 2 am. After all, some guy on YouTube swears that’s the only way to cook rice.
As someone who has set up countless kitchens due to my very nomadic lifestyle across Pune, Mumbai, and now Bangalore, there are certain essentials that I turn to every time. Since I am somewhat of a home cook (if I can be so humble myself), a kitchen setup is the best thing you can do if you are looking to cook more at home. From mealprep to hosting your first dinner party, this is the ultimate kitchen setup for all moods and levels. (And yes, you can Blinkit most of the stuff)
The Non-Negotiables
One good knife. Not a set of eleven that came in a block. You should have just one solid chef's knife that you treat with basic respect, which means not putting it in the dishwasher and not using it to open packaging. A Victorinox does the job beautifully and will not make your wallet cry. This knife will chop onions, break down chicken, and make you feel like you have your life together, even when you don't. This is where you can choose to invest your money, and for god’s sake, please do not leave this to the convenience of quick commerce. IKEA has really good starter chef knives- so please make that trip!
A pressure cooker. Yes, this is the Instamart moment. I will not apologise. Dal in a regular pot is a 45-minute situationship. Dal in a pressure cooker is a 10-minute success story. Get a 3-litre Hawkins for a solo setup. Graduate to a 5-litre when Sunday meal prep becomes your whole personality. But if you are an intermediate-level cook, go ahead and get that large pressure cooker.
A kadai and a tawa. The tawa is for your rotis, your dosas, and your 11 pm cheese toast when dinner somehow did not happen. The kadai is for literally everything else. Sabzi; noodles, the deeply ambitious one-pot pasta phase you will go through, and the subsequent very humble dal phase that follows. Prestige or Vinod, nothing fancy. Okay, now, before you come at me with pitchforks regarding the great Teflon debate, once you can make a round roti that’s soft, pliable, and most of all, edible – we can graduate okay?
The second tier
Once the basics are handled, this stage is where cooking stops feeling like a chore and starts feeling like something you might actually enjoy talking about at parties.
A hand blender. Chutneys, marinades, soups, and, if you are going through a smoothie era, that too. You will find the hand blender compact, cheap, and infinitely more useful than the countertop blender that you buy, use twice, and then store under the sink forever.
A chopping board. Preferably not the glass ones that make a noise that spiritually harms everyone in the room. A basic wooden or plastic board that is big enough to actually work on. You are not a surgeon. Give yourself some surface area.
Mixing bowls, glass tiffins and a strainer. Unglamorous but essential. You will use these every single day and never once think about them, which is exactly what good kitchen basics should do. And the tiffins and storage glass bowls are your meal prep besties!
The masala shelf- where the flavours are invented
Here is the thing about spices. You do not need forty of them. You need the right ones, stored properly, used consistently. Turmeric, cumin seeds, coriander powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, mustard seeds, and hing. That is it. That is the entire foundation of Indian home cooking. With these seven things and a basic tadka, you can make dal, sabzi, eggs, rice, and at least three things that will genuinely impress people. Your basic chicken curry and dal-sabzi are covered.
Beyond the dabba, keep jeera powder, amchur, and chaat masala within arm's reach. Amchur on roasted vegetables is a cheat code. Chaat masala on scrambled eggs sounds wrong and tastes completely correct (and also chilli oil. Damn chilli oil on a sunny side up, I should not be hungry when I am writing).
If you cook any cuisine beyond Indian, add dried oregano, red chilli flakes, and soy sauce to your shelf. That covers pasta, stir fries, and every vaguely Asian noodle situation your weeknights will throw at you.
Pantry essentials
A stocked pantry is the difference between cooking dinner and just surviving until Zomato arrives. These are the things that should always be in your kitchen, no exceptions:
Rice and atta: Sona Masoori or basmati, depending on your mood and your mother's regional preferences. Atta for rotis, parathas, or the extremely therapeutic act of kneading dough when you are stressed.
Dal varieties: Toor dal and Masoor dal. Toor for the classic comfort dal. Masoor cooks quickly, requires no soaking, and is genuinely forgiving on days when you have only 20 minutes and low bandwidth.
Onions, garlic, and ginger: The holy trinity. If you have these three things and your masala dabba, you can technically make something edible out of almost anything else in your kitchen. Keep them stocked always. Do NOT buy the peeled garlic available on quick commerce sites- they are rotten, really bad for you, and worst of all- stinks up your entire fridge.
Tomatoes and potatoes: Tomatoes go with everything. Potatoes are the ultimate emergency ingredient. Aloo sabzi, aloo paratha, and aloo in the dal make it more filling when you want. Potatoes have never let anyone down yet.
Mustard oil or refined oil, and ghee: Cook in oil, finish with ghee. That is the formula. A small jar of good ghee in your kitchen will make everything taste like it was made with slightly more effort than it actually was. I recommend wood-pressed/cold-pressed varieties, because they are a little better for you. But if you are just starting out, any brand of oil will do, but as you start understanding the process, understanding your labels is very important.
Canned or tetra pack tomatoes, coconut milk, and rajma or chickpeas: The lazy cook's emergency kit. One can of coconut milk and some chickpeas, and you have a meal that sounds intentional even if it was assembled in fifteen minutes of quiet desperation.
Your body is a temple/church/mosque/synagogue, but protein is universal
Whether you are tracking macros or just trying not to feel hollow by 4 pm, the good news is that eating high protein at home is significantly cheaper than whatever you are spending on that supplement subscription.
The budget vegetarian lineup is honestly unbeatable. Eggs first (and yes, eggs are vegetarian), a dozen costs under ₹100, and that is twelve meals sorted. Moong dal and masoor dal are next, cheap, fast to cook, and wildly underrated. Sprouted moong with lemon and chaat masala costs about ₹20 to make at home, and influencers are selling the same thing in jars for ₹350. Soya chunks, priced at ₹30 for a packet, contain more protein per 100 grams than chicken. Curd from your local dairy doubles as a marinade, a side, and a full meal with rice and pickle on your lowest-effort days. Peanuts and homemade peanut butter round it out for snacking. If you can afford it, invest in Greek yoghurt because it is the best form of quick protein that is great for the gut!
For non-veg eaters, your budget stretches even further. Eggs still top the list. Chicken thighs from your local butcher are cheaper than breast cuts, harder to ruin, and marinate beautifully on Sunday and last well till Wednesday. Eggs in a keema, a simple chicken curry, or just boiled and thrown into fried rice, cover most of your weekly protein without thinking too hard. If you are near a coastal city, fish is an incredibly affordable and underused protein source that cooks in under 15 minutes.
Phew, so that sounds like a lot of work? Use this article as the list, and because I know you, you will be ordering most of them through quick commerce. But if you HAVE the time, go to your local market, and actually feel the vegetables and masalas that you are buying. I trust you becoming a bazaar savant with a tote bag is the ultimate evolution of adulthood. Understanding and respecting where your food comes from is half the battle won in setting up your kitchen. For the rest, there’s always 10-minute delivery!