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South Asian Recipes in US Cups and Ounces: A Practical Conversion Guide
The measurement problem
Recipes from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh often use grams, "one katori", "a fistful" or "ek chutki". American recipes use cups and teaspoons. British ones use a mix. If you cook from family recipes abroad, a small conversion guide saves a lot of frustration.
Treat everything below as a reliable starting point. Taste and adjust, as every desi cook does.
Spoons and volumes
| Metric | US |
|---|---|
| 5 ml | 1 teaspoon |
| 15 ml | 1 tablespoon |
| 240 ml | 1 cup |
| 1 litre | about 4 1/4 cups |
Common ingredients by weight
These vary by brand and how you pack the cup, so use them as a guide.
| Ingredient | 1 US cup is about |
|---|---|
| Basmati rice (dry) | 185 g (6.5 oz) |
| Red lentils (masoor) | 200 g (7 oz) |
| Chickpeas (dry) | 180 g (6.4 oz) |
| Plain flour / atta | 120-130 g (4.5 oz) |
| Sugar | 200 g (7 oz) |
| Yoghurt | 245 g (8.6 oz) |
| Ghee or oil | 215 g (7.5 oz) |
A useful tip: if a recipe says "1 cup rice" without saying which cup, it often means a standard rice cooker cup, which is about 180 ml, not 240 ml. Use the same cup for rice and water and the ratio will still work.
Desi measures
- 1 katori (small bowl): about 150 ml, or 2/3 cup.
- 1 glass: about 200-250 ml, so roughly 1 cup.
- 1 chutki (pinch): about 1/8 teaspoon.
- 1 inch of ginger: about 1 tablespoon grated.
- 1 medium onion: about 1 cup chopped (150 g).
- 1 tomato: about 1/2 cup chopped (100 g).
Oven and pan temperatures
| Celsius | Fahrenheit |
|---|---|
| 160 C | 320 F |
| 180 C | 350 F |
| 200 C | 390 F |
| 220 C | 430 F |
"Medium flame" on a gas hob is roughly medium on an electric stove. Electric and induction hobs hold heat longer, so lower the heat a little sooner than you would on gas.
Ingredients you cannot find
| If you need | Try |
|---|---|
| Fresh curry leaves | Skip, or use dried (weaker); a bay leaf adds a different but pleasant note |
| Paneer | Firm tofu in some dishes, or halloumi for frying |
| Kasuri methi | Fenugreek leaves from an Indian grocer; a pinch of celery leaf is a distant substitute |
| Green chillies | Serrano or jalapeno (jalapeno is milder, so use more) |
| Ghee | Clarified butter, or butter plus a splash of oil |
| Tamarind paste | Lemon or lime juice with a pinch of brown sugar |
| Garam masala | Equal parts cumin, coriander, cinnamon and a little clove, toasted and ground |
| Desi tomatoes | Roma tomatoes cook down closest |
Pressure cooker, Instant Pot and air fryer
- Most daal that takes 25 minutes in a stovetop pressure cooker takes 10-12 minutes at high pressure in an Instant Pot, plus natural release.
- Air fryer: good for seekh kebabs and chicken tikka pieces at about 200 C (390 F) for 10-14 minutes, turning halfway. It will not replace a proper curry.
A tip on scaling
Spices do not scale linearly. When you double a recipe, start with about 1.5x the spices and add more by taste at the end.
Converting a recipe in the app
Recipes like Chicken Pulao show both metric and US amounts with a servings scaler, so you can read a recipe in whichever system you prefer. The app is free and in beta. Join the beta if you would like to try it, and tell us which recipes or conversions you want added.
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