A CURRY can be the perfect comfort food, but as the cost-of-living crisis bites, meals at Indian restaurants have soared by 50 per cent in price, as we revealed yesterday.
Supermarkets could save the day, however, with many selling much cheaper takeaways – and all taking just minutes to cook in the microwave.
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We asked double Michelin-star chef Atul Kochhar to mark them out of ten and tell us which is the best value when it comes to quality and quantity.
Asda: 2 takeaway mains for £6
8 onion bhajis for £1.30, pilau rice for £1.50
TOTAL £8.80
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ASDA doesn’t have a takeaway box but you can get two mains for £6 and buy the onion bhajis and pilau rice separately.
For the price, it’s all very decent.
The rice is nicely cooked, although there’s a lot of saffron or turmeric overpowering the rest of the flavour.
The onion bhajis are beautifully fried and the spicing is just right.
When it comes to the curries, Asda has mastered the sweetness of the korma, but the tikka lets it down.
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The flavour is neither here nor there. It’s just a very boring curry.
But Asda was still my joint favourite – and pips the others due to being much cheaper!
RATING: 6
M&S: Indian box for 2
pilau rice, korma, tikka, 2 naan, 4 onion bhajis, Bombay potatoes
TOTAL: £12.50
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THIS is the most expensive box, but the quality is the joint best.
And you get Bombay potatoes included, which tasted bang on.
The finish and flavour of the rice is very good, with a good amount of spice coming through.
Meanwhile, the naan has a good amount of colour and flavour, and the onion bhajis are nice, light and fluffy, with the onion flavour not being overtaken by spices.
The chicken korma is lovely and floral, but the tikka isn’t great.
There’s no authenticity in there, absolutely no flavours whatsoever, and it’s very weak and runny.
Such a shame as the rest of the box is great.
RATING: 6
Morrisons
Korma with pilau rice, £3.49, tikka with pilau rice, £3.49, 2 naan, £1.25, 6 onion bhajis, £2.39
TOTAL: 10.62
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MORRISONS also doesn’t do a takeaway box, which means you have to buy all the items separately.
It did not add up to the cheapest, but the naan was my favourite of them all.
I was very impressed – the baking is wonderful and the flavours really spot on.
On the flip side, however, the korma is very, very bad.
The tikka is a bit better, but I could taste the odd flavours that come through when you bulk cook – I call them the processing flavours.
Meanwhile, the onion bhajis are very flavourful, but quite gooey.
The rice is quite boring – pretty much just boiled rice with some yellow colouring.
RATING: 5
Waitrose
Indian bag for 2, pilau rice, korma, tikka, 2 naan, 4 onion bhajis, Bombay potatoes
TOTAL: £11.50
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WHILE on the pricier side, you get Bombay potatoes included.
Plus it has the best korma and tikka of all.
The korma has very good flavours and the tikka has good authentic flavours.
The smokiness I would look for comes through, and the chicken is nicely grilled in both as well.
The onion bhajis are also very decent in flavour.
The rice has been cooked decently but it’s lacking the wholesome flavour from the spices which a pilau needs.
Lastly, the way you break a naan tells you whether it’s been baked nicely, and the quality of the dough in these is quite poor.
No flavour either.
RATING: 6
Tesco: Indian box for 2
korma, tikka, 6 onion bhajis, pilau rice, 2 naan
TOTAL: £7.90
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ALTHOUGH Tesco’s Indian takeaway box is one of the best-value choices available from the supermarkets, the quality in the food really just wasn’t there.
Unfortunately, the korma and the tikka were by far the worst.
They were both horrible with no flavour whatsoever.
The onion bhajis were also pretty rubbish, they were more like onion cakes.
The rice and naan were slightly better, but quite mediocre.
The rice had a lot of strong cardamom in there, but was quite undercooked.
And the naan sticks to your palate quite a bit.
RATING: 4
Sainsbury’s Indian box for 2
korma, tikka, 8 onion bhajis, pilau rice, 2 naan
TOTAL: £8.75 (on offer at £6.25)
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WITH a generous eight onion bhajis in this box, Sainsbury’s Indian box is best value for money.
And it’s OK in terms of taste – but the naans are the best part.
They are a very decent quality and really good in flavour.
The rice, however, is quite boring, and the cooking quality is also quite poor.
The tikka is slightly better – the traditional flavours are there, but it’s too sweet for me.
There’s no authenticity in the korma, it’s got too much salt and desiccated coconut.
With the onion bhajis, the mixture and spicing is wrong and the frying is very bad.
RATING: 5
Lidl
Onion bhajis for £1.19, korma with rice for £2.79, tikka with rice for £2.79
TOTAL: £6.77
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LIDL doesn’t have a takeaway box, but I picked up some onion bhajis, a korma with rice and a tikka with rice.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any naan bread.
The onion bhajis were quite gooey and oily, while the flavours were neither here nor there.
There’s no flavour whatsoever in the rice, and the yellow colour is very bad.
The korma is also terrible, while the tikka definitely doesn’t have tikka masala flavour there.
One thing that’s never in tikka masala is clove, and there’s a very strong clove in there.
RATING: 3
Aldi
Tikka with rice for £2.49, korma with rice for £2.49, naan for 65p, 8 poppadoms for 95p
TOTAL: £6.58
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LIKE Lidl and Asda, Aldi doesn’t have a takeaway box, but it does sell some poppadoms, which I absolutely loved.
I would happily buy them and eat them at home.
Aldi’s naan is also pretty good.
It’s got a nice onion seed taste to it, although you can taste it’s been baked on a conveyor belt.
Meanwhile, the korma is half decent, with an OK sauce and nicely built chicken, but there’s not much flavour in the tikka,
The rice is OK, with some cardamom flavour coming through, but there’s too much turmeric.
RATING: 4
WINNERS
Rice winner: M&S
Naan winner: Morrisons
Onion bhaji winner: ASDA
Tikka winner: Waitrose
Korma winner: Waitrose
Overall winner: ASDA
