Indian vs Nigerian food & cuisine

India

SEASONINGS

Indian cuisine has a sophisticated flavor-building logic, built on 4,000 years of philosophy.  Spices serve as medicine, art, and spiritual practice together. Indian seasonings dance between bold and subtle, hot and cooling, earthy and tangy, always striving for balance, saatvik. Ayurveda recognizes six fundamental tastes that must be balanced in every meal: sweet (madhura), sour (amla), salty (lavana), pungent (katu), bitter (tikta), and astringent (kashaya). This balance is achieved with thali, a concept where one meal consists of multiple small dishes designed to complement each other’s flavors.

The combination of bitter, astringent, and pungent tastes – alongside sweet, sour, and salty – is a key reason why Indian food stands out globally and tastes so distinct.

Unlike Western cuisine’s complementary approach, Indian cooking deliberately contrasts flavors through spice combinations that create harmony through opposition. Take, for example, mango pickle, aam ka achaar. This pickle combines the intense sourness and astringency of raw mango with fiery chili powder, pungent mustard oil, and salt. The flavors oppose and intensify each other, yet after time spent melding, they balance and complement in the finished pickle.

Indian seasoning works in layers to introduce taste at every stage of the dish. You don’t just throw in cumin and call it a day. First to go is the tadka tempering, flavouring the oil with mustard seeds, cardamom pods, or fennel seeds. This technique creates a ‘continuous presence’ of multiple flavors throughout the cooking process. Later, mid-cooking spice additions develop complexity. Finishing touches provide brightness to dishes. You might add turmeric early to cook off its bitterness, but garam masala goes in last – aromatic and unboiled. Each step builds a scaffolding of flavor that lingers on the tongue in waves.

Masala simply means a spice mixture, which by no means is simple.  It’s an umbrella for any combination of spices that can either be wet or dry. No two kitchens have the same masala. Even salt is added at a specific stage to bind flavor. Garam Masala literally means ‘warm spice blend’.  This blend creates what’s called a ‘warming’ effect – not heat like chili peppers, but a sense of internal warmth. Core components of garam masala are cinnamon, green/black cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, black pepper, and cumin. Many recipes also include bay leaves, mace, coriander, star anise, and fennel seeds. Again, the variations are endless.

Masala dabba is a popular spice storage container used in local kitchens. It has a number of small cups, often seven, placed inside a round or square box, filled with:

ASAFOEDITA. Provides umami depth – its pungent raw smell transforms into musky complexity when heated in oil.
TURMERIC POWDER. Golden color, anti-inflammatory benefits, peppery-woody taste.
CUMIN SEEDS.  Nutty, earthy warmth, essential for tempering and ground spice blends.
BLACK MUSTARD SEEDS. Characteristic popping sound and nutty flavor.
CHILI POWDER. Color and mild heat.
CORIANDER. Citrusy, earthy notes.
GARAM MASALA completes the essential seven.

Beyond the masala dabba, whole spices provide complexity impossible to achieve with ground varieties. Green cardamom offers sweet, eucalyptus notes, black cardamom’s fire-drying creates intense smokiness; cinnamon bark, cloves, and black peppercorns form the foundation of most garam masala blends.

SAUCES

In Indian cooking, curry refers to a dish with a sauce or gravy. Curry is not a curry because it contains a particular blend of spices known as curry powder. This spice blend is not even originally Indian – it originated with British soldiers attempting to recreate Indian dishes. Foundational sauces and chutneys of Indian cuisine are:

ONION-TOMATO MASALA – onion, tomato, ginger, garlic, spices – foundation for many Northern gravies.
COCONUT-BASED CURRY – coconut milk or paste with spices, South Indian, and coastal dishes.
YOGURT-BASED SAUCE – for marinades (e.g., tandoori), gravies, and as a side dish (raita), it adds tang, richness, and helps calm the heat in spicy dishes.
TAMARIND SAUCE – tamarind, jaggery (or sugar), spices, a tangy-sweet-sour chutney for street food snacks.
GREEN CHUTNEY –  cilantro, mint, green chili, lemon or lime, spices – fresh, spicy, herbaceous.
SPICED GHEE TARKA – hot, spiced ghee poured over dals and sabzis, infused with asafoetida, cumin, garlic, chili.

Nigeria

SEASONINGS

Nigerian food is bold, complex, and with distinctive tastes dominating – there’s no chance you’d describe it as subtle. Heat and spice are foundational: scotch bonnet peppers deliver heat, bell peppers add sweetness and body, and dried ground pepper blends create complexity.

Aromatic intensity comes from onions, garlic, and ginger – all used generously.  Deep, savory undertones are created with fermented ingredients: locust beans (iru), fermented fish, dried fish, and crayfish.

Smokiness and earthiness elements are common; they’re achieved with additions of smoked fish or meat, and also charring or grilling. Palm oil contributes a distinctive nutty, slightly sweet flavor that’s fundamental to authentic Nigerian taste. It’s not just a cooking medium but a flavor component that defines many dishes.

Sourness and acidity come from tomatoes (fresh and concentrated paste), tamarind, and fermented foods. Salt is used liberally. Local  herbs provide the unique aromatics:

BITTER LEAVES – indigenous vegetables, living up to its name with a pronounced bitter taste. The leaves are dark green and of a slightly rough texture. Despite the initial bitterness, they become more palatable when cooked and add complexity to dishes.. Beyond flavor, bitter leaf is valued for its medicinal properties, digestive aid and blood sugar regulation.

UTAZI LEAVES have a distinctive, bitter-sweet taste that develops sweet undertones. They’re valued in southeastern Nigerian cuisine, particularly among the Igbo people. The leaves have an ability to cleanse the palate and are sometimes chewed fresh as a natural mouth freshener.

AFRICAN BASIL, also known as scent leaf, is a herb with a strong, distinctive fragrance that’s more intense than Mediterranean basil. The leaves are broader and more robust,the  aroma is minty and peppery, and slightly medicinal notes. Scent leaf is used both fresh and dried.

UZIZA LEAVES – come from the same plant that produces uziza seeds (also called Guinea pepper). Heart-shaped leaves have a unique peppery, bitter flavor. Uziza leaves add both heat and a complex herbal flavor that’s difficult to replicate with other ingredients.