What to cook when you don't want to go grocery shopping

The original 'fridge has nothing' dinner. Rice + dal + whatever vegetable + ghee. Kid-friendly, sick-day-friendly, and infinitely flexible.

1. Wash ½ cup rice + ½ cup moong dal. Drain.
2. Pressure cook in 4 cups water + ½ tsp turmeric + 1 tsp salt for 4 whistles.
3. Heat 2 tbsp ghee, splutter 1 tsp cumin + a pinch of hing.
4. Pour over the cooked khichdi. Stir.
5. Top with more ghee. Serve with curd, papad, or pickle.

If there's atta and one potato, you have dinner. Stuff, roll, fry. No vegetable shopping needed.

1. Boil 3 potatoes till soft. Cool, mash. Add ½ tsp red chilli, ½ tsp garam masala, ½ tsp ajwain, salt, ½ tsp amchur if you have it.
2. Make 8 balls of atta dough (2 cups atta + water + pinch of salt).
3. Roll a ball flat, place 1 tbsp aloo filling, seal, roll out gently.
4. Cook on a hot tawa with ghee, both sides golden.
5. Serve with curd, butter, or pickle. Stack between paper towels to keep soft.

If you have pasta and tinned tomatoes (or any tomato — even a sad one in the fridge), you have a real dinner.

1. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil. Sauté 4 sliced garlic cloves till fragrant — don't let them brown.
2. Add 2 chopped tomatoes (or 1 tin), 1 tsp dried oregano, ½ tsp red chilli flakes, salt, a pinch of sugar. Cook 8 min till saucy.
3. Boil pasta in salted water (add 1 minute less than packet says).
4. Drain, reserving ½ cup pasta water. Toss the pasta in the sauce, add water as needed for silkiness.
5. Top with grated cheese (any) and chopped basil/parsley if available. Eat immediately.

If there are eggs in the fridge, dinner is solved. Two eggs, an onion, a slice of bread. Done in 10 min.

1. Whisk 3 eggs with ½ tsp red chilli, salt, pepper, 1 finely chopped green chilli, ¼ tsp turmeric.
2. Add ½ chopped onion, 2 tbsp chopped coriander/mint, a chopped tomato if you have one.
3. Heat butter in a pan. Pour in the egg mix. Cover and cook on low for 4 min.
4. Flip carefully. Cook 1 more min.
5. Serve with toast, ketchup, and chai.

Cold leftover rice + curd + a simple tadka. Five minutes from fridge to table. Cooling, comforting, the South Indian fallback.

1. Mash 1.5 cups cooked rice with the back of a spoon till slightly broken.
2. Mix in 1 cup curd + ½ cup milk + salt. The mixture should be loose — it'll thicken in the fridge.
3. Tadka: heat 2 tsp oil. Add ½ tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp urad dal, 1 dried red chilli, curry leaves, a pinch of hing, 1 tsp grated ginger.
4. Pour the tadka over the rice. Stir.
5. Top with grated carrot, pomegranate seeds, or chopped coriander if you have. Eat with pickle.

If there's bread, butter, and ANY vegetable, you have dinner. The Mumbai street version layers cucumber, tomato, onion, potato, and chutney — but use whatever's in the fridge.

1. Butter 4 slices of bread on one side.
2. Layer: thin slices of cucumber, tomato, onion, boiled potato. Sprinkle salt, pepper, chaat masala.
3. Drizzle green chutney if you have any (or just ketchup + a pinch of mint).
4. Top with another buttered slice. Press down.
5. Toast in a sandwich press, or pan-fry till golden on both sides.

The truth: when you really don't want to cook, this is what's happening. Make it slightly less depressing by adding fridge things.

1. Boil 1.5 cups water. Add the Maggi block + tastemaker.
2. Add ½ chopped onion + any leftover veg + 2 tbsp peas if you have.
3. Cook 2 min. Crack an egg in. Stir to break up. Cook another 2 min.
4. Top with chopped coriander and a squeeze of lemon.
5. Eat in the bowl you cooked it in. Nobody's watching.