The Five Base Gravies of Punjabi Cooking: Red, Green, White, Brown and Kadhai

Open a Punjabi restaurant menu and the list looks endless. Behind it, though, is a smaller system. Most dishes are built from a handful of base gravies prepared in advance, then finished with different vegetables, paneer, spices and cream. Learn the bases and you can cook dozens of dishes without relearning everything each time. Here are the five most commonly taught: red, green, white, brown and kadhai.

Why restaurants use base gravies

Restaurant kitchens cannot cook a full gravy from scratch for every order. Instead they prepare large batches of a base, then combine it with the main ingredient and finishing touches when an order arrives. At home, the same idea saves time: make a base once, refrigerate or freeze it in portions, and finish a dish quickly on a busy evening. Recipes and proportions vary between kitchens, so treat the descriptions below as the common outline, not a single fixed formula. Each base also has a distinct flavour, which is why the same paneer tastes completely different in each.

1. Red gravy

The red gravy is tomato-led. Onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and whole spices are cooked down and blended, then cooked again until the raw tomato smell is gone and the oil begins to separate. Kashmiri chilli gives colour without too much heat. It tastes tangy and rounded, and it is the most versatile base.

• Typical dishes: paneer butter masala style gravies, paneer angaara, matar paneer, and tomato-based vegetable curries.

2. Green gravy

The green gravy is built on blanched spinach, often with coriander and green chillies. Blanching briefly and cooling in cold water keeps the colour bright, and overcooking turns it dull olive. It tastes fresh and earthy.

• Typical dishes: palak paneer, palak-based vegetable curries, and hara masala dishes.

3. White gravy

The white gravy is mild, creamy and pale. Onions are boiled or gently cooked without browning, then blended with cashews or melon seeds and sometimes a little curd or cream. The key is to avoid colouring the onions, so that the base stays white. It tastes delicate and slightly sweet, with whole spice and green cardamom.

• Typical dishes: navratan korma, paneer pasanda style gravies, shahi paneer in some versions, and malai-based vegetable dishes.

4. Brown gravy

The brown gravy gets its depth from onions fried properly to a deep golden brown, then blended with whole spices, ginger, garlic and sometimes a little tomato. The browning, done patiently, gives sweetness and savoury depth. Burnt onions, however, turn the gravy bitter.

• Typical dishes: kofta curries, shahi-style gravies, rich vegetable preparations and dum-style dishes such as dum aloo.

5. Kadhai gravy

Kadhai gravy is chunkier and spice-forward. It combines tomatoes and onions with coarsely crushed coriander seeds and dried red chilli, often with capsicum cooked in. The coarse masala is what gives the dish its character, so crushing the whole spices fresh makes a clear difference. It tastes bold and slightly smoky.

• Typical dishes: kadhai paneer, veg lahori kadhai and kadhai vegetable curries.

What the five have in common

• A well-cooked base: whether tomato or onion, the raw taste has to cook out before anything else is added.
• Whole spices tempered in hot oil or ghee at the start.
• Ginger and garlic added at the right stage, not burnt.
• Blending to the right texture: silky for white and red, a little coarse for kadhai.
• Careful heat control, since onions and spices scorch easily and the bitterness cannot be fixed afterwards.
• Finishing with salt, kasuri methi, a pinch of garam masala, and cream or butter where the dish calls for it.

Using bases in everyday dishes

Once you have a base, combine it with paneer, mixed vegetables or even boiled potatoes, adjust the salt and spice, and finish. The base is only the foundation. Not everything Punjabi comes from these five: pindi chole has its own tea-and-spice method, and dal makhani is a slow-cooked lentil dish. Try pindi chole to see how a different style uses its own masala. If you have wondered what separates it from an everyday dal, our post on dal makhani vs dal fry explains.

Learn the gravies hands-on in Nadiad

These gravies are easy to read about and surprisingly tricky to get right: onion colour, tomato cooking time and blending texture all depend on seeing and tasting. In the Punjabi Cooking Class at Purna's Kitchen in Nadiad, Chef Purna Shah teaches the five base gravies first, then the dishes made from them, in a hands-on vegetarian format. For a taste of the style first, see more on our recipes page.