Many have come from my travels all over India and the people I have met along the way, from home cooks to street stall vendors, temple cooks to chefs in top restaurants.

Fresh India - Penguin Books UK

This vibrant and delicious Coriander Chutney Chicken from Meera’s Made in Indiacookbook is quick and simple to make.Walk the streets of Ahmedabad or Rajkot and you’ll come across simple but heavenly potato curries cooked with garlic, mustard seeds, and tomatoes. Not to mention fire-smoked aubergines, chicken livers in cumin butter masala and beetroot and feta samosas. Others have come from my experiments in the kitchen, taking classic Indian techniques and flavors and imagining something new.

Meera Sodha’s irresistible curry recipes - The Happy Foodie Meera Sodha’s irresistible curry recipes - The Happy Foodie

It’s amazing how quickly Made in India, and now Fresh India, have come to replace any need or want for a takeaway.This comforting recipe for savoy cabbage curry with black kale and potato from Meera Sodha's celebrated Fresh India cookbook makes a wonderfully simple vegetarian main dish, perfect for a flavour-packed midweek meal. These family recipes and the stories that came with them were the inspiration for my first cookbook, Made in India, which was published by Figtree, Penguin in July 2014. Meera Sodha shares her love for eggs with quite a romantic opening, citing an ancient Hindu text, "the cracking of an egg marked the start of the universe. Bee Wilson listed it as one of her four books she is currently using and it reminded me how much I love the recipes, so I’ve taken it off the shelf.