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About Ashley

Hi, I’m Ashley!

I’m the writer and recipe maker here at My Heart Beets. Thanks for reading my blog!

These two little boys are my taste testers. These picky eaters help me decide which recipes are “blog-worthy.” I think you’ll love everything you make from my site, but if you don’t, you’ll have to take it up with them.

My story… I was born in the US to Indian immigrants. I grew up in a Punjabi family eating delicious North Indian Food and I was completely unaware of how varied Indian cuisine was until I started dating Rob. He introduced me to South Indian Cuisine, specifically Keralite food.

Soon after marriage, I felt the desire to learn our family’s recipes. The problem was that when I’d call to ask for measurements, my mom would tell me she cooks “andaz naal” which basically means she eyeballs everything. Anyone with Indian parents knows they don’t measure ingredients (ever) and so trying to recreate their recipes is tough.

My solution to this was… to pester my parents. 😂 Whenever I’d visit home, I’d follow them around the kitchen, taking notes and asking questions. I would sometimes “help” them as they cooked, measuring their ingredients before they threw them into the pot. I started paying close attention to ratios as well as how things were supposed to taste. I used this information, gathered over several years, to test and develop many of the recipes that I share here on my blog and in my books.

I continue to learn a lot about cooking from my mom, but it’s my dad who helps me perfect my recipes.

I’m convinced my dad is a supertaster (he has a powerful sense of smell, too) – he can try a dish once, tell you precisely what’s in it, and most importantly, tell you what to add to make it even better. I have my dad taste test a lot of my recipes, especially my traditional Punjabi Recipes. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to test certain recipes before getting my dad’s approval (Gajar Halwa, Chana Masala, Rajma – the last one he approved, and then a year later, he changed his mind and told me to try and “make it one level better.” Sometimes I think he likes to keep me on my toes 😂 ).

There’s one more thing I’d really like you to know about me, and that is my “why.” The reason I share my recipes here is because I want to help make Indian food accessible. If you’re Indian and are looking to feel more connected to your culture or to eat food reminiscent of the cooking that you grew up with, I hope to help. If you’re new to the cuisine, my hope is that you’ll embrace it, and introduce it to family and friends. I believe that food brings us closer, and I think when we’re all a bit closer, we’re all a bit happier.

I’m thrilled you’re here and excited for you to give my recipes a try. If you make a dish, please leave me a comment to let me know what you think!

If you’re new here and wondering where to start, give one of the recipes below a try. Also, be sure to check out my Onion Masala Series – it makes cooking Indian food a breeze!

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Comments

  1. Sameer Kapadia says

    Any tips on making kichadi with wild rice and moong dal? Not finding much…perhaps it is not a thing. Thoughts?

    Reply

  2. Paras Shah says

    Do you happen to have an Onion Masala recipe for chick peas? I am looking for a Channa Bathura type channa masala, but using the onion masala and the IP.

    Reply

    • Ashley - My Heart Beets says

      Hi Paras, I just made my chole recipe this way recently and am almost positive that I used a cup of onion masala. I’ll be sure to update the directions the next time I make chole. Also, give my chikar chole a try sometime – it’s awesome as well.

      Reply

  3. Steve Storck says

    Hello! I found your site at least a few years ago when I saw your Instant Pot Butter Chicken recipe, and my wife and I have enjoyed each of the recipes that we’ve tried from your site. So, thank you for doing this. I can feel pretty assured that any recipe that I try here will be great. I have been cooking Indian food of many times (and from many origins) as a non-Indian person since around 1995. One of my favorite recipes is Camilla Punjabi’s Elaichi Gosht. It is something like this:

    1kg lamb (or beef) cut into large chunks
    100ml full fat yogurt
    800ml lamb or beef stock or Vegetable Nage or Stock
    35 green cardamoms, peeled
    100ml oil
    2 tsps ground black pepper
    1 tsp tumeric powder
    1 tsp chilli powder
    2 tsps coriander powder
    3 medium tomatoes, finely chopped

    Grind cardamom in either a coffee grinder until it is super fine, and then combine with a little water to make a paste. Heat the oil in a large pot or and add cardamom paste and the pepper. Fry gently for 2-3 minutes, then add meat, tumeric, chilli and coriander. Fry for a *FULL 10 minutes*, stirring constantly Lower the heat, add yogurt, tomatoes and salt. Cook for a further 5 minutes Add the stock, and leave to simmer until cooked, usually an hour or so.

    That might not be 100% her recipe, but it’s the closest I can remember without looking it up. I was wondering if you might be able to come up with an instant pot version. I haven’t experimented with it yet. I was thinking of doing the spice frying with the saute mode, and then halving the liquid when closing it up and cooking. I think this one would be great with several different types of meat, including goat, beef, and pork, but I’d love to find some mutton to try this with. If you could add a modified version of this to your instant pot recipes, I’d be super grateful. Otherwise, I’ll experiment, and let you know when I get good results, if you’d like to hear it.

    Thanks again for doing what you do!

    Reply

  4. Yogangi Malhotra says

    Hi Ashley. I am very inspired by your cooking. I would love to invite you to our town to host a workshop / meet the author / book signing event. We are based in CT. Please reach out if this is possible. Not sure how else to contact you. Thank you so much.

    Reply

    • DAN says

      It’s worth it! You can wait until a Black Friday sale, but either way it’s not too expensive these days

      Reply

      • Hayley says

        Hi Ashley
        For the past years, I have been struggling to reach that authentic home-like Indian flavour in the Indian food I cook.
        I tried your Goan clam curry recipe last week and it was spot on for the first time ! 👏
        I am so inspired to try your recipes, next up is the golden Kerala egg curry. (Thanks for the tip on the difference in the northern and southern garam masalas. Never knew)
        Thank you for your effort and passion. Keep going 💐
        Hayley

        Reply

          • Hayley says

            Hi Ashley, I made it yesterday itself. I even made the meat masala and now have a jar full.🤗
            The egg curry was golden goodness on a plate and the flavor out of this world. My (Dutch) husband said my mother would be proud ! I promptly gave all credit to you 🤩
            It was perfect comfort food as we had a storm yesterday .

            Reply

            • Ashley - My Heart Beets says

              That’s awesome – I’m so glad you and your husband liked it! Thanks for coming back to let me know 🙂 If you’re looking for some good recipes that call for meat masala the Kerala ground beef curry is easy and tasty and the cutlets are also really good and freeze well (I actually now bake them vs frying and they taste just as good!).

              Reply

  6. Emma says

    I tried the lamb and mint curry, used jalapeno instead of your recommended serrano. I am glad I didn’t use serrano as it was hot enough with the jalapeno. I would make two suggestions: (1) give us a size for the onion and (2) the can of organic diced tomatoes, are they drained or with the juice. With the juice the recipe seemed a bit too watery. 14 oz can or the 28 oz ones?

    But it was delicious and I will try again.

    Reply

  7. Emma says

    I tried the lamb and mint curry, used jalapeno instead of your recommended serrano. I am glad I didn’t use serrano as it was hot enough with the jalapeno. I would make two suggestions: (1) give us a size for the onion and (2) the can of organic diced tomatoes, are they drained or with the juice. With the juice the recipe seemed a bit too watery.

    But it was declious and I will try again.

    Reply

  8. Jentjes says

    Love your recipes so much! They have taught me so much about cooking Indian food, and I have never had a fail with one of your recipes, they are consistently well written and lead to a great result! I also appreciate how easy and quick they are, meaning that your readers can whip up an authentic, tasty Indian dish in no time! Thank you so much!

    Reply

    • DAN says

      Just wanted to say, after following your recipes for many years now…

      Thank you so much! I’m (non-Indian) married to an Indian and I find almost all recipes (including those taught to me by my mother-in-law) too intimidating to make on a regular basis. I love following recipes, and your website is the only one I know of that has authentic dishes that are very easy to make. My South Indian in-laws even approve of the ones that I’ve been brave enough to serve them 😉

      I hope you go back to adding more recipes soon! I would love some more veggie-heavy dishes like the everyday ones my mom-in-law serves for lunch 🙂

      Reply

  9. Jon H says

    Hi Ashley love your Indian recipes. I have been making them for my family after traveling to India back in 2023. Do you by chance have a great chicken 65 recipe you can share?

    Reply

    • Ashley - My Heart Beets says

      Thanks Jon! You know, I never got around to putting a chicken 65 recipe on the blog. I’ve attempted it a few times but as someone who puts unreasonably high standards on myself I think that’s a recipe that has intimidated me for a while. I’ll have to work on that one day when I’m back to creating new recipes for the website. For now though, I do have a “healthier” Shrimp 65 if you want to give that a try: https://myheartbeets.com/shrimp-65/

      Reply

      • Suneel says

        Hi, I’ve made a few of your recipes and love them- our palletes align closely. I don’t know if you have ever been to Philly, but if you happen to stop by there’s a place called little sicily pizza 2. It sounds deceptively like an Italian spot, but they actually have indian foods and that’s what I drive multiple hours for. More notably they have a masala chicken cheese steak and a veg club and masala fries all of which are incredible especially when pared together. Ive tried to recreate the chicken cheese steak but failed, I figured I’d reccomend here incase after you try it in inspires you to recreate! It’s more of a spicy savory palette, and it seems to lean heavier on jeera and coriander. It gives that warm throat feeling with the balance of spices, my mouth is watering thinking about it haha. In any case, thanks for the amazing recipes on the blog! I’ll be a dedicated reader in the background 🙂

        Reply

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