No heat curry

My daughter wants me to make a curry without the heat,I always use bought flavouring mix for ours, but she doesn't, like anything spicy!

Not all spices are hot though - it's the combination and the chilli factor that determines the heat of the curry

Can you make them without the chillie but still have the flavour

There are plenty of Indian dishes that are mild. Korma and Makhani (e.g. butter chicken) aren't traditionally hot dishes.

Here's a very nice Pakistani chicken curry, which ahas no chilli in it.Instead of chicken breast you can use chicken thighs or a whole chicken cut into eight.Just adjust the cooking time.

Mild Pakistani chicken curry with yoghurt

Serves four


2 large onions, cut in rings 

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 

3 cm piece fresh ginger, finely chopped 

5-6 tablespoons ghee or butter

800g boneless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch cubes 

250ml yoghurt 

1 tablespoon tomato paste 

1 tablespoon ground coriander 

1 teaspoon ground cumin 

1 teaspoon ground turmeric 

salt to taste


Heat the ghee in a large pan or wok, then add onions, garlic and ginger and fry until brown. Add chicken pieces, yoghurt, tomato purée, coriander, cumin, turmeric and salt. Stir well and let cook over medium heat until all the liquid has evaporated (this should take about 20 minutes).

Add 2 cups of water, stir well, bring to boil and let simmer until the meat is tender (another 30-40 minutes or so). Add more water if it evaporates too quickly. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve immediately with rice and a green vegetable.

DIY, curry pastes and powders are just a combination of ingredients. The heat part comes from chilli. Use all the other spices and skip the chilli.

Just use onion, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander and tumeric as your flavour base and forgo the cayenne or chilli :)

You could try making Portuguese Chicken Curry, which is a dish from Macau.

Thanks for all your help I,ll give it ago like you said no chillies

I do this with the addition of black mustard seeds and maybe some cardamom seeds.My Indian friend showed me how she made her curries as, like us, they don't like them hot either so she never uses chillies.